vlad557776 wrote on 2023-06-24, 13:16:

However, no matter what DIP switch configuration I try, plugging it into a known working 486 tower and configuring it as a 5.25in 1.2MB drive in the BIOS results in a "not ready" error by DOS 6.22 whenever trying to access a floppy.

A photo would help, in particular in this model the RDY jumper must be set properly. And the problem you have would indicate it's not.
Also, FYI avoid any Windows 9x OS or the floppies you try to preserve will be modified without you even knowing. DOS 6.22 is a safe OS.

Attached is a photo of the DIP switches. Might be a bit hard to see, sorry.

Is the RDY jumper set to the right position?

RDY looks fine (in DC position) but 2S should not be set unless the mobo properly suppports 3-mode drives. That's the blue jumper. Move it left (to HS position) or try removing completly. Also the jumper right above should be set to LD I think, but that shouldn't really matter much.

Yep ! According to https://www.bamsoftware.com/computers/floppies/index.html
DS1 [o o] o DS0
DS3 o o o DS2
MM [o o] o MS
DCH [o o] o RDY
HD o [o o] LD
LS o o o 2S
is for standard PC AT

I need to archive 1.2MB floppies, as that's what most of my stuff is on. Will I be able to do so with the HD/LD jumper set to LD?

Frankly I'm not sure what the HD/LD jumper does actually, since a 5.25" drive doesn't have a density sensor, and there is a separate control for the spindle speed. Could be a single/double step control? I can't remember what I did with it but I'm sure it works in LD setting on a PC as a standard 1.2M drive.

Sorry for not keeping you updated, I was trying to find a cleaning floppy as removing the blue jumper didn't work and I thought the heads were dirty. Installing the drive the other way around got me to a Not Ready prompt again, but just asking DOS to retry succeeded. Since then I have read multiple disks from my collection including a copy protected one, the FDD lives on!