UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post - 80-BUS Loft treasure?

ortek_service · 20th May 2021, 7:32 am

From what I found here: http://www.mfarris.com/floppy/tec.html
(Although others seem to quote a different size) they were fairly standard 80T D/S drives, that could handle upto Double-density
- The exact formatted-capacity being very dependent upon how many / large the sectors per track are on the system they are being used with, and could be 400KB Single-density / 640KB on Acorn systems, to 720KB or more on others.

If they didn't come from a PC, then they may need to have Drive select links changed, as PC's always had 'DS1' fitted, and had a twist in the cable to make one on the end of the cable appear to controller as drive 0.
- It's possible that the motor may still spin-up on other drives not being accessed (it may be a selectable option link), - so it's whether the light on the front comes-on that's most important.
And also, if connecting 2 drives, may need to remove terminator resistors from one in the middle of the cable.

20th May 2021, 7:32 am	#17
ortek_service Octode Join Date: May 2018 Location: Northampton, Northamptonshire, UK. Posts: 1,443	Re: 80-BUS Loft treasure? From what I found here: http://www.mfarris.com/floppy/tec.html (Although others seem to quote a different size) they were fairly standard 80T D/S drives, that could handle upto Double-density - The exact formatted-capacity being very dependent upon how many / large the sectors per track are on the system they are being used with, and could be 400KB Single-density / 640KB on Acorn systems, to 720KB or more on others. If they didn't come from a PC, then they may need to have Drive select links changed, as PC's always had 'DS1' fitted, and had a twist in the cable to make one on the end of the cable appear to controller as drive 0. - It's possible that the motor may still spin-up on other drives not being accessed (it may be a selectable option link), - so it's whether the light on the front comes-on that's most important. And also, if connecting 2 drives, may need to remove terminator resistors from one in the middle of the cable.