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Hi,
I am looking for a 720kB 3.5" floppy drive (half-height) to install in my Epson Equity I+, which is an XT clone.
Please let me know if you have one available to sell that is clean, functional, and reliable.
Thank you!
Does it have to be a 720K drive? An ordinary 1.44MB drive will function as a 720K drive if you connect it to a floppy controller which doesn't support high density.
Does it have to be a 720K drive? An ordinary 1.44MB drive will function as a 720K drive if you connect it to a floppy controller which doesn't support high density.
I'm going by the product support bulletins put out by Epson, which state that 1.44MB drives are not supported.
This is probably a dumb question but so long as you use a 720k disc, doesn't a 1.44M floppy drive and HD controller adapt to that floppy?
That is true for most common 1.4MB drives; those that use the media sense hole to determine capacity. There were a few that used a signal input on pin #2 to determine media density, but those are very rare. So the easiest thing to do is find a good working 1.4MB drive and a half height 5.25" bracket. Use DD media and it will work just fine on the Epson.
I have used two 3.5" drives with my Swan/DTK XT clone. Both are 1.44 capable - that is, they have, in past years, on the machines that I harvested from, formatted, read and written 1.44.
They will not read/write or format a 1.44 diskette when they are attached to my XT (DOS 6.2) because the controller in the XT says "sorry, I see no acceptable media in the drive".
I can format a 1.44 diskette to 720 in the XT without any problems - even if it has been previously formatted to 1.44. All I ever use is format b: /U these are near modern drives (removed from an old XP or 2000 or something like that years ago and I don't have to mess with a sense line or really anything else.
They are fairly cheap on the bay and some other places. I might avoid some unnamed brands but $20-$30 should do it. Of course, your mileage may vary.
I'm going by the product support bulletins put out by Epson, which state that 1.44MB drives are not supported.
They just meant that you can't use 1.44MB drives in 1.44MB mode, because it doesn't have a high-density floppy controller. But you can use a 1.44MB drive in 720K mode, and it will work fine.
Some of the last 1.44 MB drives produced will not work with 720K disks. There were billions of drives manufactured that supported both 720K and 1.44MB formats so finding one won't be too hard.
What type of floppy connector does the Epson use? Nearly all 1.44 MB drives used pins while many of the XT clone machines used card edge connectors. A replacement floppy cable or an adapter may also be needed.
Some of the last 1.44 MB drives produced will not work with 720K disks. There were billions of drives manufactured that supported both 720K and 1.44MB formats so finding one won't be too hard.
What type of floppy connector does the Epson use? Nearly all 1.44 MB drives used pins while many of the XT clone machines used card edge connectors. A replacement floppy cable or an adapter may also be needed.
The Epson uses card edge connectors. There is a 360k 5.25" drive in it now, with room for a second floppy drive.
Some of the last 1.44 MB drives produced will not work with 720K disks.
That is true with many USB floppy drives, but not with any I've ever encountered that use the standard 34-pin floppy drive interface.
Stick with known drive makes and models and you'll be fine. I like the Teac FD-235HF, for example.
That is true with many USB floppy drives, but not with any I've ever encountered that use the standard 34-pin floppy drive interface.
I believe that was covered in past instances of this discussion with a mention of Samsung drives omitting the double density features from the 34 pin models just like the USB models. The logic board may be different but the rest of the drive is the same.
Does it have to be a 720K drive? An ordinary 1.44MB drive will function as a 720K drive if you connect it to a floppy controller which doesn't support high density.
This is true as I'm using a 1.44 as a 720 in my Tandy 1000SX with no problems,
Follow up: I wanted to thank everyone for your help. I bought an Epson 1.44 MB floppy drive and it is working fine as a 720k drive.
