First post, by flynth
I have a couple of retro builds with 3.5in fdds so I thought it was a good idea to get an unused usb fdd still in the box (not sealed). However it doesn't read any disk's including known good disks.
Usually repairing fdds is really simple (unless corroded horribly, or electronics is dead) so I cleaned the heads and lubricated the sliders and the head's screw drive, but it made no difference. I turned the drive screw shaft with pliers too as I once had a head stuck when it got too far. There is no change.
The fdd connected to a pc (Linux, buy I also tried on win10) spins the disk, the head goes all the way to the center of the disk, then moves to the outermost position (track 0) and it keeps spinning the disk failing to read it. It reports media not recognised error.
Also I tried using contacts cleaner on the flat ribbon between the usb controller and the drive itself.
So I wonder, is there some known failure mode with those drives? Is it perhaps fixable? Maybe there are "fake" usb drives? The usb controller board looks surprisingly simple for a fdd controller.
