5.25" 96tpi dual speed 300 RPM HD floppy drives

[NobodyIsHere]

Hi,
I am restoring a Vector Graphic computer and am investigating using some non-standard (ie 96tpi rather than 100tpi) floppy disk drives on it. I understand disks generated as a result of using these style drives will be incompatible with the normal 100tpi drives.

The 5.25" HD floppy drives I had have all proven to be either incompatible single speed units or dead/broken.

To move this project along I would like to purchase some of the dual speed compatible 5.25" HD floppy drives. If you would please review your cache of old IBM PC/XT/AT compatible 5.25" 1.2 MB HD floppy drives for the following models which are known dual speed (300/360 RPM) capable:

TEAC FD55
Panasonic JU475
Mitsubishi MF504
Mitsumi D509
NEC FD1157
Toshiba ND08
Epson SD680

There are likely others I may have missed. Please feel free to include those as well. If you find any you are willing to sell me please email or PM me with the specific model number so we can discuss.

Thank you in advance.

Andrew Lynch

 

[Ksarul]

AJ, actually the 96TPI standard predates the HD drives by a considerable length of time--there were quite a few manufacturers of these out there.

TEAC FD-55F
Tandon TM100-4
BASF 6118 (I think that's the right number)
along with QUME and a few others.

they were 5.25, 720K drives. . . .300 RPM

I have a couple on one of my TI-99/4As.

BTW, the switchable TEAC is the FD-55G

 

[NobodyIsHere]

Hi,

Yes, the DSQD 96tpi drives do predate the HD drives but they are nearly as hard to find as the 100tpi drives are. My plan is to convert the much more plentiful and relatively cheap HD drives to emulate the 96tpi DSQD drives.

I have had some success so far in this. It took a lot of research and trial and error but I was able to get a Panasonic JU-475-1 and a TEAC FD-55GFR to respond to my Vector Graphic. Either drive can now boot the machine.

Although the disks they produce are not compatible with the 100tpi disks, from the controllers perspective they behave the same. This allows me to boot my VG machine using the cheaper drives and save the scarce 100tpi drives for when I really need them. Eventually I will have 2 96tpi DSQD drives and one 100tpi drive on the machine with the 100tpi drive being used just for compatibility with other VG machines.

Do you know where I can get some real 96tpi DSQD drives? Thanks!

Andrew Lynch

 

[Sharkonwheels]

If you can find any Tandy 2000's, they came with (2) Mitsubishi 720kb drives. That's what we started using on Coco's with OS-9 way back when.

T

 

[Druid6900]

Andrew,

Found one of my boxes of 5.25" 1.2MB floppy drives and tested them all in preparation for going on my site, any of them suitable for you?

Panasonic JU475-xxx (letters) several different ones.
Mitsumi (Newtronics) D509V and 509V2
Teac FD-55-GFR
NEC 1158C (it's a 1/4 height with 3.5" drive-type connectors)
Epson FD600
YE Data YD380B

Let me know if any of them are what you might be looking for.

 

[Ksarul]

I actually had to hunt around for quite a while to find the two that I do have (a Qume and an MPI). I found one on eBay a couple of months ago and I got the other one from a guy out in Arizona who was planning on dumpstering all of his old drives over the Christmas holidays. He put a note on a newsgroup I was on looking for interested parties for any of the stuff he was getting ready to trash. I saw that one and snagged it (and several other drives I needed) immediately. Odd thing was--he wanted to sell them or trash them. I bought everything I could afford and he trashed the rest. . .

 

[mikey99]

I bought some vintage parts from a local guy here in NC awhile back with the same MO.
I bought a box of 8-bit cards from him. He wouldn't budge on the price
and threatened that they were going in the dumpster the next day.
I think he wanted either a few dollars in his pocket.... or the fun of tossing
stuff into a dumpster and watching it break Anyway..... I got a great
price on the stuff and the satisfaction of saving it from the dumpster.

I actually had to hunt around for quite a while to find the two that I do have (a Qume and an MPI). I found one on eBay a couple of months ago and I got the other one from a guy out in Arizona who was planning on dumpstering all of his old drives over the Christmas holidays. He put a note on a newsgroup I was on looking for interested parties for any of the stuff he was getting ready to trash. I saw that one and snagged it (and several other drives I needed) immediately. Odd thing was--he wanted to sell them or trash them. I bought everything I could afford and he trashed the rest. . .