Installed a 5.25" drive - now the fun begins \ VOGONS

Installed a 5.25" drive - now the fun begins

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First post, by Subjunctive

Posted on 2014-09-17, 17:37

Subjunctive Offline

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I've been turning an Aptiva 2168-M71 into an all-purpose DOS gaming machine. Since it had a spare bay, I decided I also wanted to use it for reading the odd 5.25" disk that I came across. So I picked up a Toshiba ND-0802GR and stuck it in:

I left the jumpers and settings for the other drives as they were. When I booted, it sent me to the BIOS since it detected a configuration change, where it reported that it found the 5.25" drive - and nothing else. No 3.5", no CD-ROM, no hard drive.

This is the first drive-level change I've made on this machine, and it's been so long since I dealt with the rules around this stuff. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Reply 1 of 6, by Subjunctive

Posted on 2014-09-17, 20:38

Subjunctive Offline

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Hahaha I'm a dumbass. When I hooked the 3.5" back up I accidentally plugged in the IDE cable instead of the floppy cable - so everything on that cable chain was undetectable. Problem solved!

Reply 2 of 6, by Blurredman

Posted on 2014-09-17, 21:06

Blurredman Offline

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I always like the disc spit out on certain 5.25" drives when lifting the lever. 😁

http://blurredmanswebsite.ddns.net/ 😊

Reply 3 of 6, by 2fort5r

Posted on 2014-09-17, 23:23

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I've never opened up one of these things, but apparently it's recommended to clean them inside occasionally since the heads get dirty over the years. (I assume it's like cleaning the head of a tape recorder)

Account retired. Now posting as Errius.

Reply 4 of 6, by tincup

Posted on 2014-09-18, 01:07

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have you tried to read any 5.25" floppies yet?

Reply 5 of 6, by Subjunctive

Posted on 2014-09-18, 01:43

Subjunctive Offline

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Yep, high and double density. The drive seems to work fine! Several of the disks I attempted to read were bad, though, and that didn't appear to be good for the drive - it actually refused a known good disk after trying a series of bad ones. A reboot "knocked" it back into place. Wonder if I need to adjust something...

Reply 6 of 6, by pewpewpew

Posted on 2014-09-18, 02:02

pewpewpew Offline

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The drive belt could be in pretty ugly condition by now. It may be slipping on the wheels.

Normally one would consider taking it off so you can give it and the wheels a scrub with isopropyl, but that might use up what life the belt has left. You might prefer to have the remaining hours/minutes spent reading floppies, even if it's a little sporadic.

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