ostroff@penelope.Oswego.EDU (Boyd Ostroff) (09/01/90)
Help! I just went to do a backup on my 3B1 and the floppy drive spins
but does not make any seeking noises. After a couple seconds, I get a
disk error. Same thing happens if I try to format a disk.
I very rarely use the floppy drive (backups? who needs backups? :-) -
it's been several months. About a month ago I opened up my machine
for its yearly cleaning, and it occurs to me that my problem could be
related to this. I have had intermittent floppy problems in the past,
though, and recall reading about floppy drive failures here too.
Any help will be appreciated. My specific questions:
1. What should I try first? Lubrication? Connections to check?
2. Assuming it is dead, what do I need to buy to replace it (preferably
plug-compatible, as I'm not much of a hardware hacker). Where can
I get a cheap replacement (I subscribe to Computer Shopper)?
3. I've thought about upgrading to a 3.5" drive before. I only use
the floppy for backups, so I don't particularly care if I can't
read 5.25" disks anymore and the 720K capacity would be nice.
Again, exactly what would I need to buy for this. Does somebody have
complete instructions available (again, I can use a soldering iron,
but wouldn't want to get into too big of a project)? Is there
a plug and play type of IBM-style 3.5" drive that can be easily
installed? How about an iv configuration file to format 720K disks?
4. Anything else I should know?
Thanks in advance!
||| Boyd Ostroff - Tech Director - Dept of Theatre - SUNY Oswego
||| Sys Admin - "The CallBoard" - (315) 947-6414 - 1200/2400 baud
||| ostroff@oswego.oswego.edu - cboard!ostroff@oswego.oswego.edu