Flipping disks is more a thing of the Apple II era and the original 5150 PC I believe. PC 5 1/4" floppy drives were already capable of reading both sides so there was no reason (or benefit) to flip a disk and put it back in.

Looking at your previous threads, there's no real reason to get such a drive unless you want to interchange data with XT and AT systems that don't have a 3 1/2" drive. If you want to go for it anyway (maybe you just want it to seek during boot?), you just need a 1.2MB (high density), 5 1/4" drive. And you need a floppy cable with edge connectors on it and not just the I/O card end-style connectors for 3 1/2" drives.

Ah okay thanks for the info. I would use the drive for old 80s dos games

You want a standard PC 5.25" HD drive, so that it can read and write 1.2M floppies. It will also read 360k, and even older formats (support for 160k and 320k depends on DOS, not the drive), but can't write those properly. By properly I mean it won't be readable on actual DD drive but this one will still be able to read what it has written, so you can make copies of original game floppies and create saves - no problems there.

The only reason to pick a DD drive is to make the machine period-correct, or if you want to write DD media to be readable by other DD drives. Probably not want you need.

I would always go for the real thing. 360KB !

I always went for the high density drives myself.

In the 5.25" category, I was partial to the white NEC ones with the latch. (FD1157C) pretty green activity light.

The only real issue with HD drives is that the head's surface area needs to be smaller than on a double density drive, so it does not really write the data track in a truly proper way when using double density diskettes (between machines).

For your own useage this shouldnt matter, though. A drive should always be able to read its own disks.

I usually paired such a high density NEC FD1157C with a high density NEC FD1231.

I'm only going to use the drive for gaming so this sounds good!

Lot of old games could write scores back in the disk (or save game?)

Personally I would use a 360K unit for that purpose if all the games I want to play are in 360K format if I where to get original disks.
If you make your own disks then you can use an HD drive, in that case it won't matter at all.

Given the fragility and rarity, I wouldnt want to use originals anyway.

I'd image them, then write working copies to use. Archive the images, then store the originals in a cool, dry, dark place where they will be protected from oxidation and mold.

Man, where's the fun in that! Do the reverse. Image the original disk, enjoy playing the original disk.. if it breaks image it back 😎

wbahnassi wrote on 2024-07-24, 19:10:

Man, where's the fun in that! Do the reverse. Image the original disk, enjoy playing the original disk.. if it breaks image it back 😎

Chad

What's the difference between a 3.5 floppy connector and a 5.25 one?

Cursed Derp wrote on 2024-07-24, 19:43:

What's the difference between a 3.5 floppy connector and a 5.25 one?

The shape. Electronically, it's the same.

5.25" is a card edge with a slit on one side.

3.5" is an IDC connector.

Is there an adapter to plug a 5.25 drive into a 3.5 slot?

Cursed Derp wrote on 2024-07-24, 20:56:

Is there an adapter to plug a 5.25 drive into a 3.5 slot?

Older FDD cables typically had both connector types on them.

Ahhh nice. Where could I get one of these cables?

Cursed Derp wrote on 2024-07-24, 20:59:

Ahhh nice. Where could I get one of these cables?

Ebay.

Or if you have any local computer recycling centres, you could try there.

You can get them new from amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/CablesOnline-24-inch-U … ps%2C485&sr=8-3

wierd_w wrote on 2024-07-24, 21:20:

You can get them new from amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/CablesOnline-24-inch-U … ps%2C485&sr=8-3

Thanks

Deunan wrote on 2024-07-24, 10:11:

You want a standard PC 5.25" HD drive, so that it can read and write 1.2M floppies. It will also read 360k, and even older formats (support for 160k and 320k depends on DOS, not the drive), but can't write those properly. By properly I mean it won't be readable on actual DD drive but this one will still be able to read what it has written, so you can make copies of original game floppies and create saves - no problems there.

The only reason to pick a DD drive is to make the machine period-correct, or if you want to write DD media to be readable by other DD drives. Probably not want you need.

1.2m drives write 360k diskettes just fine ...

The actual problem occurs if you write 360k disks that were previously written on a 360k drive.. the 80-track 1.2 has
thinner tracks than to 40-track 360k drives - this often leaves some of the original 360k track at the edges.
If you read the diskette back on the same (1.2M) drive - no problem, the thinner head doesn't see the "noise" at the
edges.

If however read it on an actual 360k drive, it's wider head sees the noise on top of the actual track data,
this can cause problems.

When writing 360k diskettes on 1.2m drives that you might want to read on actual 360k drives, best to do so
on a fresh (never written) or bulk-erased diskette.

Another problem can happen with non-PC formats... the 360k drive rotates at 300 RPM, while the 1.2 at
360 RPM - the PC controller "compensates" for this by using a data rate of 300kbps instead of 250kbps
used on 360k drives - this works out the same bit density for DD PC formats, but can cause problems
with SD and other formats - I've got information on my "Daves Old Computers" site about modifying
a HD drive when using ImageDisk so that it can be switches to rotate at 300 RPM, thereby making it
able to do the various formats which don't work at 360 RPM.

Dave Dunfield - https://dunfield.themindfactory.com