Floppy Drive

I have a digital board that is connected to a 5 1/4" floopy drive
through a cable.
But I like to replace the 5 1/4" drive by a 3 1/2" floopy drive or
other new storage
devices. Is there any interface devices that can bridge the 5 1/4"
drive and other
storage devices?

On Apr 15, 12:07*pm, sofin wrote:
I have a digital board that is connected to a 5 1/4" floopy drive
through a cable.
But I like to replace the 5 1/4" drive by a 3 1/2" floopy drive or
other new storage
devices. Is there any interface devices that can bridge the 5 1/4"
drive and other
storage devices?


Well, most FDCs can drive both 3.5 and 5.25 inch floppy drives, except
some very old ones, and even those can usually often support the 3.5"
720KB format (but not the 1.44MB format). The 3.5" drives are often
supplied with a different (smaller) connector than the 5.25" drives,
but adapters were built by the millions, and should be easy to find
(or just make a different cable). So from a hardware perspective,
you're probably OK (although if this device is old enough to have been
designed to use a 5.25" floppy, you should check out the specs on the
FDC carefully).

OTOH, you will need to update the software on the device to properly
deal with the different format floppy. If nothing else the number of
sectors and/or tracks changes for the 3.5" devices. You *might* be
able to format the 3.5" disk with a 5.25" format, but you'll likely
need to tweak the diskette device drivers on the system that's going
to read those. If the current format is one of the 160/180/320/360KB
formats, you might actually get away with formatting a 720KB floppy
the same way, and (especially if it's 180KB or 360KB), actually get
that to read on an unmodified PC. You could always try it.

On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:40:29 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On Apr 15, 12:07=A0pm, sofin wrote:
I have a digital board that is connected to a 5 1/4" floopy drive
through a cable.
But I like to replace the 5 1/4" drive by a 3 1/2" floopy drive or
other new storage
devices. Is there any interface devices that can bridge the 5 1/4"
drive and other
storage devices?


Well, most FDCs can drive both 3.5 and 5.25 inch floppy drives, except
some very old ones, and even those can usually often support the 3.5"
720KB format (but not the 1.44MB format). The 3.5" drives are often
supplied with a different (smaller) connector than the 5.25" drives,
but adapters were built by the millions, and should be easy to find
(or just make a different cable). So from a hardware perspective,
you're probably OK (although if this device is old enough to have been
designed to use a 5.25" floppy, you should check out the specs on the
FDC carefully).

OTOH, you will need to update the software on the device to properly
deal with the different format floppy. If nothing else the number of
sectors and/or tracks changes for the 3.5" devices. You *might* be
able to format the 3.5" disk with a 5.25" format, but you'll likely
need to tweak the diskette device drivers on the system that's going
to read those. If the current format is one of the 160/180/320/360KB
formats, you might actually get away with formatting a 720KB floppy
the same way, and (especially if it's 180KB or 360KB), actually get
that to read on an unmodified PC. You could always try it.

You may also need to get or find a cable adaptor. There is a small
adaptor to convert the card-edge connector of a 5.25" floppy to the
pin connector of the 3.5" floppies. They were quite common, it's not
usually hard to find one laying around in a computer shop's junk
drawers. They also made cables with both sorts of connectors on them
- usually with a total of five connectors. One pin connector to plug
into the motherboard, then a pin connector, and edge connector,
another pin connector, and a final edge connector. You could use up
to two floppies at a time, usually, with each plugged into either a
pin or edge-style connector.

Hope this helps,
Anthony