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Old April 23rd 09, 01:07 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Mike S.
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Posts: 149
Default 5.25" floppy drive to IDE to USB?


In article ,
Anthony K. -removeme wrote:
In article ,
Franc Zabkar wrote:


SMSC had a USB bridge chip (USB97CFDC2-01) that supported "640K, 720K,
1.44M, 1.2M Windows 98 J, and 1.2M NEC DOS 6.x Formats":


It could be worth exploring. Thanks, Franc. The worst case scenario, I
end up with another shiny new vintage computer. I was told elsewhere
that I might have luck if I track down a first gen USB 3.5" floppy
because it might also contain the logic for a 5.25". There's some
possibilities yet.


Unlike almost every other 3.5" USB floppy drive on the market, Buslink
makes (brands?) a large metal-cased one which contains a standard 3.5"
drive and a USB-to-floppy bridge board using standard connectors. (In
almost every other such product, all of the electronics are integrated
into one board on the drive mechanism itself, making it impossible to
access the floppy data bus).

It wouldn't take much work to open this thing and (using a card-edge
connector adaptor) connect the bridge board to a 5.25" floppy and see what
happens.