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First post, by SteyrPuch

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Hello guys,

I have an old Toshiba T2100 laptop, 486, monochrome display, which works quite well except for the FDD.

Sitting in the closet, unused, I also have a bunch of Toshiba 2/4000 series machines (a 2180CDT and a couple of 4060XCDTs) that I bought some time ago as spare parts source for my "active" 4060XCDT, 4080XCDT and Satellite Pro 4300.

Is it possible to replace the T2100's faulty FDD with a working one removed from a Satellite 4000 series machine or does any compatibility issue exist, e.g. different connectors and so on?

Thanks!

Reply 1 of 3, by Thermalwrong

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The T2100 should use an EME278 drive, it's fairly unique in its dimensions and the location of the flex connector. It's not easy to replace the belt on these and sadly most of these laptop drives now do need a new belt, even the newer ones like the Citizen W1D (too small for your laptop) or the Matsushita EME279.
The Satellite 4xxx and 2xxx series use much later floppy drives which are direct drive so they don't have belts to fail, but the dimensions will not work for the Satellite T2100 sadly. Much too small and I don't even know that the pinouts are the same.

The Matsushita EME279 you can find in lots of the external caddies for the Satellite 4xx series, it's a much better drive to work on and I've found that replacement belts are easier to fit. I've installed an EME279 drive in my Toshiba T2130CS where I couldn't get its original EME278 working, so took the EME279 out from a spare external floppy caddy. The position of the cable connector is different but there's just enough slack on the original cable to use it with this new drive.
Here's what the correctly sized Toshiba floppy looks like, I don't know its part number but it's the taller one, not the flat external type you'd see in the later dark grey colour.

toshiba-floppy-for-t2100.jpg
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I've attached a 3d printable belt which I've printed in TPU in vase mode, it's the latest one that I use to repair EME279 drives. Also the latest one for the EME278, it's a taller belt and the EME278's design means that 3d printed belts don't work as well because there's no groove for the belt to sit in so it can rub against the PCB when moving.

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Reply 2 of 3, by SteyrPuch

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Hello! Thank you for the tips!

Thermalwrong wrote on 2023-06-09, 00:15:

The Satellite 4xxx and 2xxx series use much later floppy drives [...] but the dimensions will not work for the Satellite T2100 sadly.

Sad to hear 🙁

Thermalwrong wrote on 2023-06-09, 00:15:

The Matsushita EME279 you can find in lots of the external caddies for the Satellite 4xx series

Ok, that's interesting, I've found a caddy that seems suitable (PA2611U, light grey colour with older type connector, not the newer one with USB cable) for a good price on a local website; I'll definitely give it a try.

I'll keep you updated 😀

Reply 3 of 3, by Thermalwrong

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Ah, that one might the flatter type I was referring to. The PA2611u type is thinner/flatter than the original Toshiba swappable bay type. The external bay type I'm referring to has a button on the end corner, rather than the 2x pinch buttons on the later type.

The connector on the PA2611u will fit the Toshiba Satellite laptops that have the external floppy connector but the T2100 doesn't have it. Worth keeping anyway if it was cheap, quite a few of those are direct drive instead of belt-drive.