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IBM USB Floppy Drive - Issues With Non-IBM PC / Laptop

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First post, by exs1s

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Hi Guys,

I bought an IBM external USB floppy drive on eBay. Plugged it into an IBM T30 and it works flawlessly. Then plugged it into my HP laptop. Nothing. Dead. Then tried plugging it into my Lenovo P320 desktop. Nothing. And by the way, I have another USB floppy drive which does work on all machines including the old T30.

I'm starting to think that the IBM USB floppy can detect when it's plugged into an IBM machine. But that just doesn't ring true. Why would IBM have created a USB floppy that only works on their old laptops. Anyway, the drive inside is made by Sony and the controller is what looks like a generic USB to floppy board.

Anyone have any experience with this?

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Reply 1 of 1, by jaZz_KCS

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I actually think it is the drive itself.
Inside all of these USB drives live old stock 1/3rd height superslim floppy drives.

When you remove the PCB that sits in the caddy behind the drive (the pcb that actually castrates them down to yes - support USB - but also only support 1,44 and 720 image types), then they work as genuine replacements in laptops from the 90s.

What I have come to notice with these IBM drives, is the fact that even if you remove the translator PCB, then they are still somewhat proprietary pinned. They would work in my old non-IBM laptops, but only half-way.

Floppies could be read, and written, but not sector 0. Which means that you can move files from the floppy and onto it, but simply cannot format or boot from the IBM floppy in a non-IBM machine. I think they changed the pinout with regards to access of sector 0.

Long story short, I have found these IBM floppy drives (either the old non-USB version without translator PCB in the caddy as well as well as the newer ones) to be proprietary in typical IBM fashion. I wouldn't be surprised if IBM simply used their old stock of (proprietary - at least with regards to sector 0 access) to sell the surplus as USB castrated version.

And I would also not be surpriesed if they made them even more proprietary, by programming the USB translator PCB to only accept IBM branded BIOSes.

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