I'm not a "YouTube Guy"... (So many folks just putting mindless video crap up there because "they can". I'll stick to using text and photos to describe what I find/see. Personally, I always prefer a well documented readable document then some goober on YouTube... Hopefully, my text will be similarly crafted carefully with thought and meaning. But I digress... )

They sound a lot like floppies. Maybe a tad louder and it does take the drives a couple of head seeks to determine they have a 21MB floptical mounted.

I popped the PLCC32 ROM chips off the drives to get a copy of their Firmware. It appears that all the "SGI" Flopticals use the same firmware (3.87 GF). However, the two "PC" Flopticals have different firmware (381A-002 and 385A-006). I added these files to my Floptical Archive along with the various Firmware versions I have for the Grassroots, Rancho, and Adaptec controllers.

If anyone wants to download the archive and have a look inside the microcode, just grab your favorite hex editor (as they are binary files). You can easily see the ROM signatures...

The latest Floptical Archive (updated) can be downloaded at: https://haute-solutions.com/downloads/Floptical.zip

I finished a bunch of tests. Only 1 drive out of 5 appears to work properly!

Here is some documentation of the tests which succeeded. I wanted to get at least one working test for each "Floptical Aware" controller that I have. This should be helpful for anyone who has some floptical equipment and would like to get a start on configuring the drive, controller, and O/S to work with the drive. The last big test is for the Floptical Drive to successfully Format a Floptical disk. While a few of my drives will read/write/format a 1.44MB floppy, only one will successfully format a floptical disk in any/all of the configurations listed below:

General Test Notes:

*** Each time a 21MB Floptical was inserted, it took a bit of time for
the drive to register the media change. There is no external indication
when the drive comes ready (like an LED flash) but listening for the
drive to spin down or waiting maybe 15 seconds seems to work. This can
result in a lot of "Abort, Retry, Fail" messages (which might seem to
falsely indicate a bad drive or media) if you are unaware of this!!!

Config 1:

System: Gateway 2000 Pentium

Floppy Controller: Disabled

Adapter: Rancho Technologies (RTBios V8.20)

Jumpers: J2/J4 (DCOOh - Factory), J11 (Term Pwr), J13 (Reserved)
BIOS ROM: Enabled

Unit: C (SGI)

Jumpers: E1 (ID 2), E4 (Parity)

O/S Success:

DOS 5.0: Yes
DOS 6.22: No (FMTFLOPT TSR Would Not Load)
DOS 7 (Win98se): No (FMTFLOPT TSR Would Not Load)

Config.sys:

Device=C:\RANCHO\FTASPI10.SYS
Device=C:\VALUSTOR\21DRVR.SYS

Autoexec.bat:

C:\RANCHO\FMTFLOPT.EXE (TSR - Would not load under DOS 6.22/DOS 7)

Enumerated as:

Drive A:

Utilities:

FORMAT: C:\DOS\FORMAT.COM (Requires FMTFLOPT TSR to Patch)

Notes:

- Grassroots Controller would work in this exact same configuration
(Same drivers, Config.sys and Autoexec.bat)

Config 2:

System: Gateway 2000 Pentium

Floppy Controller: Disabled

Adapter: Grassroots Floptical SCSI Controller (BIOS V3.50)

Jumpers: JP8/JP10 (CCOOh - Factory)
BIOS ROM: Enabled

Unit: C (SGI)

Jumpers: E1 (ID 2), E4 (Parity)

O/S Success:

DOS 5.0: Yes
DOS 6.22: Yes
DOS 7 (Win98se): Yes

Config.sys:

Device=C:\GRASSRTS\ASPIRAM.SYS
Device=C:\GRASSRTS\SCSIDRV.SYS (See Notes)

Autoexec.bat:

{N/A}

Enumerated as:

Drive A: / D: (simultaneously)

Utilities:

FORMAT: C:\GRASSRTS\QFMT.EXE

Notes:

- It seems if the Grassroots SCSIDRV.SYS was loaded, then the drive
would actually get TWO drive letters (A: and D:) and could be
accessed via either

Config 3:

System: Gateway 2000 Pentium

Floppy Controller: Disabled

Adapter: Adaptec 1522FS (BIOS 2.00f - 9500)

Jumpers (From Default):

IRQ (J6/IC, J9/I0): 10 (Conflict w/MB on 11)
Floppy (J7/FE): Disabled (Conflict w/MB)
Floptical Support (J5/R-): Enabled

Unit: C (SGI)

Jumpers: E1 (ID 2), E4 (Parity)

O/S Success:

DOS 5.0: Yes
DOS 6.22: Yes
DOS 7 (Win98se): Yes

Config.sys:

Device=C:\ADAPTEC\ASPI2DOS.SYS

Autoexec.bat:

{N/A}

Enumerated as:

Drive A:

Utilities:

FORMAT: C:\ADAPTEC\VHDFMT.EXE

Notes:

Config 4:

System: Gateway 2000 Pentium

Floppy Controller: Disabled

Adapter: Adaptec 1542CF (MCODE 563D/BIOS C38D)

Jumpers: SW1-4:Off, SW5:On (Floppy Disabled), SW6-8:Off

Firmware/BIOS Setting (From Default)

IRQ: 10
BIOS Support for Floptical Drives: Enabled

Unit: C (SGI)

Jumpers: E4 (Parity) (*** See Notes)

O/S Success:

DOS 5.0: Yes
DOS 6.22: Yes
DOS 7 (Win98se): Yes

Config.sys:

Device=C:\ADAPTEC\ASPI4DOS.SYS

Autoexec.bat:

{N/A}

Enumerated as:

Drive A:

Utilities:

FORMAT: C:\ADAPTEC\VHDFMT.EXE

Notes:

- Device set to SCSI ID #0: With device set to SCSI ID #3, the
AHA-1542 BIOS was unhappy NOT to find ANY device at ID#0 and
would temporarily hang while booting. Normally, ID#0
and ID#1 are reserved for hard drives, but moving the
Floptical to ID#0 eliminated the long pause at boot time.

- BIOS MUST be enabled in order to support the VHDFMT utility.

evanevery wrote on 2022-04-24, 20:56:

I'm not a "YouTube Guy"... (So many folks just putting mindless video crap up there because "they can". I'll stick to using text and photos to describe what I find/see. Personally, I always prefer a well documented readable document then some goober on YouTube... Hopefully, my text will be similarly crafted carefully with thought and meaning. But I digress... )

They sound a lot like floppies. Maybe a tad louder and it does take the drives a couple of head seeks to determine they have a 21MB floptical mounted.

I kinda agree with you on this. Thanks 😀

evanevery wrote on 2022-04-24, 22:13:

I popped the PLCC32 ROM chips off the drives to get a copy of their Firmware. It appears that all the "SGI" Flopticals use the same firmware (3.87 GF). However, the two "PC" Flopticals have different firmware (381A-002 and 385A-006). I added these files to my Floptical Archive along with the various Firmware versions I have for the Grassroots, Rancho, and Adaptec controllers.

If anyone wants to download the archive and have a look inside the microcode, just grab your favorite hex editor (as they are binary files). You can easily see the ROM signatures...

The latest Floptical Archive (updated) can be downloaded at: https://haute-solutions.com/downloads/Floptical.zip

First posting ! Allow me to do a very brief introduction.

I worked at Insite for 5 years, mostly as the manager of the electronics - hardware, software, and firmware - as well as field support. I'm willing to answer questions about the things as best I remember or have documents for 😉

Why are y'all interested in these drives and technology?

Regarding the SGI drives: they were functionally the same as all other Insite drives. Well, all others with the motorized eject. I'd have to go into my archives to see what the differences are among the firmware versions but the SGI did not have any special firmware. 3.87GF is merely a "newer" version of 385 which was a newer version of 381.

As you probably know, the Insite drive use an infrared LED to illuminate the optical tracks with a quad optical sensor. The Iomega floptical drives and the LS-120 which was developed by the Iomega team used a laser and a holographic imaging system. The Insite approach would work with floptical diskettes that the Iomega optics could not. The reverse was not true: Insite worked with all diskettes Iomega could.

The Rancho Technology host adapter was used throughout Insite and our manufacturing partner, Panasonic, for development and for testing of every production drive.

Thanks for checking in! It's nice to hear from someone who was on the "inside"...

Personally, I'm interested in maintaining old technology (like these drives) as I work very deeply in Computer Forensics. (I founded one of the major companies in this field in the late 90's).

I had one of these drives a long time ago (well before even beginning to establish a forensics presence), so I was kind of curious in trying to see "what I had" on several of my old disks. "Nothing much" as it turns out... 😉

I have a pretty good archive of old hardware and find it fairly rewarding task to be able to keep things running. Unfortunately, most of these drives did not survive very well. Likely because folks tried to clean them with fibrous floppy cleaning discs - which then snagged and tore the heads up. I've pulled many a stray fiber out of the units I've purchased... (Anyone buying these drives should understand that the odds are what they are buying probably won't be functional - at least not in my experience...)

evanevery wrote on 2022-09-13, 14:38:

Thanks for checking in! It's nice to hear from someone who was on the "inside"... […]
Show full quote

Thanks for checking in! It's nice to hear from someone who was on the "inside"...

Personally, I'm interested in maintaining old technology (like these drives) as I work very deeply in Computer Forensics. (I founded one of the major companies in this field in the late 90's).

I had one of these drives a long time ago (well before even beginning to establish a forensics presence), so I was kind of curious in trying to see "what I had" on several of my old disks. "Nothing much" as it turns out... 😉

I have a pretty good archive of old hardware and find it fairly rewarding task to be able to keep things running. Unfortunately, most of these drives did not survive very well. Likely because folks tried to clean them with fibrous floppy cleaning discs - which then snagged and tore the heads up. I've pulled many a stray fiber out of the units I've purchased... (Anyone buying these drives should understand that the odds are what they are buying probably won't be functional - at least not in my experience...)

Computer Forensics seems like a field that could be quite intriguing. Lots of careful work, of course, but fun especially for those of us who enjoy the old stuff. My interest in old stuff resulting in me being the holder of a lot of Insite's first drives. You probably know the first drive Insite build was the I325. Not many were built and they did not have the "Variable Mode", only working with 20 MB diskettes. It was a learning drive for us and was significantly different that the ones you have, the I325VM: it was 1.6" high versus 1", required +12 and +5 vs. just +5, had optical tracks on the other side of the diskette, etc. They worked with the first 2 "beta" units being at (1) Office of the President (not the White House but a nearby location); (2) shared between the Pentagon and the CIA. I have on of those as well as the unit that was modified to be a "VM". It was downward compatible but used the 1.6" mechanism. We didn't have our custom integrated circuit yet so that VM was actually nearly 3.2" tall but it worked.

I suspect you are correct about people using those fibrous cleaning diskettes. Also the Insite drives needed to be shipped with the carriage retainer inserted to prevent the head carriage from moving in case of being dropped during shipment. Typically people tossed the retainer as soon as they arrived and didn't use anything when the drives were resold. Drives were damaged as a result.

Hi,
I found this article searching up info on a Floptical Drive I acquired and thought I might add on my experience to the thread for anyone else that stumbles upon it as it has helped me. I Have a version of the Insite I325VM that is in an enclosure produced by PLI as a Macintosh peripheral. PLI also distributed several models of Syquest 44/88 drives, and this one was included in that product line from what I can tell. I couldn't get it to read disks at first. Speedtools would recognize a disk, but wouldn't mount 1.44 or the single 21MB disk I have. The drive was specifically designed for a Mac to use I think as I also couldn't get it to work with any of the Insite dos drivers I have found (It would recognize the drive, but would not read anything and crashed dos). I found a PLI driver disk on the Macintosh Garden https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/pli-cartridge-tools that specifies that it's for the Syquest drives, but when I installed the extension on the disk the drive started working! I can read, write, and format Mac and PC 1.44 disks and was able to read and write to the 21MB. It was already Mac formatted. Unfortunately the disk is damaged as it was stuck in the drive when I received it. I had to disassemble the drive to grease all the bits to get it to eject and move the head freely. It has a nice scratch on the portion of the disk that the head was resting on. It will read and write the good parts of the disk though. This is my experience so far with the Flopticals. I'm hoping to get more media eventually because the obsession wont end with just this!