rsimonian@x102c.harris-atd.com (Simonian RP 66449) (05/19/89)
I have an old external single-sided Atari floppy drive (SF 354) with the square front (not the slanted one) which is slowly starting to die. So I need to upgrade it or get a new one. My local Atari dealer doesn't have the parts, or any new drives for that matter, in stock. Question: what are my options for upgrading this to double-sided, with a minimal amount of hardware hacking? I've heard Toshiba makes a good drive; is it compatible with my case? I would like costs and addresses. Or, if anyone out there has a used (but working!) external drive they'd like to sell, let me know! Richard P. Simonian 407/984-6006 Natural Language Processing Group Harris GISD, Melbourne, FL 32902 Internet: rsimonian%x102c@trantor.harris-atd.com
clf3678@ultb.UUCP (C.L. Freemesser) (05/23/89)
In article <2074@trantor.harris-atd.com> rsimonian@x102c.harris-atd.com (Simonian RP 66449) writes: > >I have an old external single-sided Atari floppy drive (SF 354) with the >square front (not the slanted one) which is slowly starting to die. So >I need to upgrade it or get a new one. My local Atari dealer doesn't >have the parts, or any new drives for that matter, in stock. > >Question: what are my options for upgrading this to double-sided, with a >minimal amount of hardware hacking? I've heard Toshiba makes a good drive; >is it compatible with my case? (rest deleted) >Richard P. Simonian 407/984-6006 >Natural Language Processing Group >Harris GISD, Melbourne, FL 32902 >Internet: rsimonian%x102c@trantor.harris-atd.com Upgrading the drive will be EASY. Finding the identical mech will be hard. The mech used by Atari (the early square-faced version) was the Epson SMD-140 or SMD-180. These are no longer made. You can either put in a newer Epson (SMD-280, SMD-480) with a minimum amount of hardware hacking. You might also find a used 140/180 (I saw a few at our local Hamfest on Saturday). If you want to use a Toshiba, make sure you get the ND-354 model, NOT the ND-352! I know for a fact that the 352 doesn't work on the ST. Your best bet is to buy one of these mechs, and cut out the face plate in the SS drive so the one on the drive itself fits into it. If you do it correctly, it will look pretty good. Chris Freemesser, Rochester Institute of Technology | What I like : BITNET: %clf3678@RITVAX | 1) My Atari ST USENET: Just reply and hope it gets through | 2) My '77 Mercury "Another brilliant mind ruined by higher education" | 3) Coke Classic