CaptainTER06 wrote on 2025-03-28, 07:38:

Hi all, I've recently acquired a Toshiba Satellite Pro 410CDT laptop. The computer by itself works great, although I had to chan […]
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Hi all,
I've recently acquired a Toshiba Satellite Pro 410CDT laptop. The computer by itself works great, although I had to change the two green batteries inside (they fortunately did not leak). The issue is, the external floppy drive is not working (and have no model number written anywhere...).
I've heard this is because of a bad belt (there's a very high change that's my case too). I wanna replace that belt (even if it takes me 1 day to do it) without damaging the rest of the drive (head assembly, etc.). Does anyone have information about how to disassemble that drive and get to the belt, and also what size of belt I should use?
That would save me a lot of time, and maybe a floppy drive 🤣

Thank you 😀

P.S.: I can't post photos right now, so here's one from eBay (that's my floppy drive): https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/7QEAAOSwoR1nCIlz/s-l960.webp

It's got either a Matsushita / Panasonic EME278 drive or more likely an EME279 floppy drive in it. Could you open it up and find out?
To open the floppy drive plastic housing, just remove the screws and unclip the body. The clips can be pretty tough so use a plastic spudger to get it open.

The EME278 is harder because the PCB is on the top so you have to disassemble quite a lot to replace the belt: Re: Panasonic CF-41 drivers needed (solved)
The EME279 is easier since I think you can pretty much just lift out the floppy disk tray and replace the belt, apparently I never took pictures of that though.

Belt for both is:
204mm circumference / 65mm diameter
0.4mm thick, could probably be thicker without issue, just that's what I 3d print in TPU
1.5mm height - very critical dimension, too tall and it'll bind up and cause motor speed issues. I have to calibrate the 3d printer's z-height to make sure I get exactly 1.5mm tall belts.
The STL for that is at the end of this post, print in TPU, in vase mode: Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Welp, thanks for the info 😁
I'll open it whenever I'll have the time to, but sure
If I remember properly, on the previous one I disassembled and broke (I had a previous one, but the heads were damaged, so nothing really worth repairing), it was a pain in the ass to disassemble everything and get to the belt. But I'll check and tell you for sure.

I don't think there was any brand/anything written on the drive though.

Can't see the end of the connector in the photo you linked, but it looks like it might be
a USB connector.

I've got a Toshiba Tecra with what I think might be the "official" Toshiba floppy drive
(came with the laptop - which was purchased by a company I was working for at the time..
so I don't know for sure if it came from Toshiba) - which is USB.

I've also got three other USB floppy drives - and they ALL work on the Toshiba.
- so, if you do end up needing to replace it - might be fairly easy -

There's no USB port on the end, it's a proprietary connector. Also, where I live, those are not cheap at all, and impossible to find.

There's also no USB port on my laptop, so the question of anything USB is solved. Never tried a PCMCIA FDD, but they're also impossible to find...