rees@pisa.citi.umich.edu (Jim Rees) (03/19/91)
I have an Apollo dn330 that has a 1.2 Mb NEC 8 inch floppy drive with a st506 interface. It has a 50 pin card edge connector. I want to replace it with a 1.2 Mb 5 inch floppy. I've been told that even if I get a 5 inch drive with a st506 interface, I can't just plug it in because the 5 inch will have a 34 pin connector, and the rotational speed may be different. Can I just make up a special cable and get this to work? Or will I need to change jumpers on the controller or muck with the device driver somehow? What should I ask for when I go shopping for a 5 inch drive?
berger@iboga (Mike Berger) (03/20/91)
rees@pisa.citi.umich.edu (Jim Rees) writes: >I have an Apollo dn330 that has a 1.2 Mb NEC 8 inch floppy drive with a >st506 interface. It has a 50 pin card edge connector. I want to replace it >with a 1.2 Mb 5 inch floppy. I've been told that even if I get a 5 inch >drive with a st506 interface, I can't just plug it in because the 5 inch >will have a 34 pin connector, and the rotational speed may be different. *---- If you get a floppy drive with an ST-506 interface, then it won't have a 34-pin edge connector. Frankly, I wasn't aware that anybody made such a thing. I'm dubious about your identification of the 8" drive, since they were commonly made with 50-pin interface connectors, but not in ST-506 interface as far as I know. >Can I just make up a special cable and get this to work? Or will I need to >change jumpers on the controller or muck with the device driver somehow? >What should I ask for when I go shopping for a 5 inch drive? *---- Assuming that most of what you said was incorrect, you can probably get this to work with simple cabling changes. You may have to mess with the device driver to get a suitable disk format. -- Mike Berger Department of Statistics, University of Illinois AT&TNET 217-244-6067 Internet berger@atropa.stat.uiuc.edu
wilko@idca.tds.PHILIPS.nl (W.C. Bulte) (03/20/91)
ST506 is a HARD disk interface, not floppy! I think it is something like SA450 for floppies. In general, a lot of the signals on this 50 pin 8" drive cable are not used for most systems. The 34 pin 5" version is a sort of subset of the 8" interface. A normal 8" drive spins at 360 rpm, giving a data rate of 500kbits/s. Most 5" floppies spin at 300 rpm, there are versions however, who can spin at 360 and 300 rpm. The 300 rpm is used for PC double density disks. Hope this helps _ __________________________________________________________________________ | / o / / _ Wilko Bulte Domain: wilko@idca.tds.philips.nl |/|/ / / /( (_) uucp : [mcsun,hp4nl]!philapd!wilko * Philips Information Systems Nederland phone: +31 55-432372 fax: +31 55-432103 "Do, or do not. There is no 'try'" Yoda - The Empire Strikes Back ________________________________________________________________________________
ritchie@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com (David Ritchie) (03/25/91)
1.2 Mbyte 5 1/4" floppies and 8" floppies both use the same clock rate iff the 5 1/4 is in high density mode. You might ask over on comp.os.cpm about this... there are several persons who have done this modification for CP/M boxes. -- Dave Ritchie ritchie@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com