internal or external floppy?

[lost84]

Hello,

This is my first post. I'm totally new to the CPC, being more of a spectrum man, but a few weeks ago I got a cpc6128 with color monitor for £30, which I thought was a bargain. I think the floppy needs a new belt, but not worried about that as I've fitted a 3.5" externally.

I have the bits to mount a drive internally which I'd like as the external looks a bit ugly frankly. However, mounting internally seems like butchery.

Is there a neat way to mount the drive externally? Should I mount the drive internally?

[Bryce]

3.5in Floppies never look good internally on a 6128. No matter how good the modding is, it just looks wrong because the shape is wrong. Buy an external floppy housing (the Amiga ones aren't bad) and install the external 3.5 in that.

Bryce.

[MiguelSky]

Well, not necessary bad looking:

[lost84]

Thanks Brice,

Starting to think along the same lines. The floppy is just too wide, and I don't really want to alter the original.

I've removed the 3" for refurb at a latter date, and have fed the power cable and internal FDD cable out through the b drive edge. This way the external drive sits nicely on top of the housing of the old drive. Looks OK and seems to keep extra wires to a minimum.

[lost84]

Well, not necessary bad looking

Looks great. I guess you mounted the floppy high to avoid having to remove the screw fixings for the old drive. It seems a tight fit up there. It was another way I way thinking, and have the switch below. May have another look in a few days.

[TotO]

This is my first post. I'm totally new to the CPC, being more of a spectrum man, but a few weeks ago I got a cpc6128 with color monitor for £30, which I thought was a bargain. [...] Is there a neat way to mount the drive externally? Should I mount the drive internally?

Welcome !!!
A 6128 is a nice choice. Don't start on the CPC world by destroying your lovely computer.
Order a belt and fix your original 3" drive and plug an 3"1/2 external drive that can be switched for A or B drive uses.
Some tutorials exists on Internet for that. You can buy things already done too, but that will cost a bit.

Have fun,

  TotO.

[00WReX]

While I agree with Tot0 & Bryce (I would not damage a perfectly fine CPC), but I do
have 2 CPC 6128's that had previous damage and also dead 3 inch drives (not the belt).

So with those I experimented a bit with fitting 3.5 inch drives internally.

After looking around the net and seeing how most were done, I was a bit disappointed
that the majority just did not look quite right.

Mainly the top of the CPC casing around the disc drive area tended to get a bit deformed
due to the 3.5 drive being wider than the 3 inch and pressing the case apart.

I have a few spare 3.5 drives (only 2 with black fascia's) the majority are white/cream
colour, so I decided to use one of those a a sacrificial not wanting to sacrifice a black
one just yet.

Anyway, what I decided was to trim down the ends of the fascia to make it the same width
as the 3 inch drive. I cannot remember exactly how far in you need to go, but from memory
it's around 3mm each side...my case is not apart to measure now, but easy to do for yourself.

I quickly attempted a picture to indicate what I did. Basically this is looking directly
down on the 3.5 inch drive fascia (removed from the front of the drive) although I added the
eject button just as a reference.

On the bottom picture you can see I notched out the two ends with a dremmel and a file.
The notch's reduce the width to the same as the 3 inch allowing the drive to sit in the bay
without pressing on the CPC case.

[attachimg=1]

Attached are the 2 different drives I tried this on (in two different CPC's).
I also experimented with the mounting height within the CPC.
The drive on top of the 3rd picture indicates how much wider the un-modified fasica is.

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

Cheers,
Shane

[Gryzor]

Wow, that mod from Miguel looks hot...

[TotO]

If a 3" drive not work, it's possible to replace it with an other one...
Putting a white 3"1/2 drive into a 6128 just show the lack of respect for the hardware itself.

[ralferoo]

If a 3" drive not work, it's possible to replace it with an other one...

Well, I have 5 x 3" drives, one of them I got working with a new drive belt. All the rest have "some other problem" that I haven't yet identified. It's also hard (or expensive) to find a new one.

3.5" drives on the other hand are practically being given away. In fact, there was a guy on Amibay offering a load of drives for postage costs only. And what's more, they all tend to just work!

[MiguelSky]

Wow, that mod from Miguel looks hot...

Hey, I had another better: Ramcard + 3"1/2 Drive:

[00WReX]

Putting a white 3"1/2 drive into a 6128 just show the lack of respect for the hardware itself.

That's not true, I fully respect the 3.5" drive 

Cheers,
Shane

[TotO]

It's easy to find black drives too. 

Hey, I had another better: Ramcard + 3"1/2 Drive

Poor CPC. 

[Bryce]

Admittedly, the mods above are some of neatest versions I've seen. But I have also seen so many people take chunks out of the CPC casing to fit the 3.5in drive. Please don't do this.

Bryce.

[The Last Bandit]

If you're going to the hassle of modding the CPC would you not be a lot better off splashing out on HXC floppy emulator ? If you must use 3.5" disks then they can be added externally easily enough.

[lost84]

If you're going to the hassle of modding the CPC would you not be a lot better off splashing out on HXC floppy emulator ? If you must use 3.5" disks then they can be added externally easily enough.

I have a divide for the speccy, but still prefer to load mp3s as that's part of the fun. I guess  the floppy emulator will be less authentic, like the divide card. I like the machine clunks etc.

Plus the CPC didn't come With any media, and the 3.5 seems easiest when starting from scratch.

[Bryce]

The DivIDE does a great job of loading tapes extremely quickly, but the tape loading sounds are missing, taking away from that nostalgic feeling. However disks never had that, so disk emulators are closer to the original than tape replacements. I still load tapes on my CPCs and Spectrums when I have time, just to hear it load

Bryce.

[TotO]

You may load mp3 too, if you think that is funny. 
The HxC is nice as it can be used for some computers and allow to simply copy files from PC to an SD card.

[beaker]

Yeah, and you don't have to worry about having a pile of disks around, bad sectors, worn belts etc.

[MiguelSky]

Poor CPC. 

The CPC was not harmed during that modding, only I needed to earn a little room under the upper case because that floppy drive model: the earlier one I fitted had no external case and fitted perfectly I need to use 3"1/2 floppy drive due I haven't any diskette (only the system ones and I got them after I got the 6128). For 3" diskettes I use an external FD1.

@Last Bandit: hey, that mod is 10 years old (minimum), then Hxc emulator wasn't born yet