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Slimline Floppy Drives..?

Started by Charlie, 22:26, 01 February 11

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Charlie

Hello all,
The 3" drive in my CPC isn't long for this world... Not that there's much wrong with it but I'd rather have something more universally useful.


The obvious thing to me is to replace it with a HxC floppy emulator but having a 3.5" drive would be good too...
...being mad everything's got to be internal.


A slim-line 3.5" drive would be ideal but it's been long time since I've seen one with a 'proper' IDE connector rather than USB or one of the 'toy' laptop connectors.


->HxC + Slimline 3.5" FDD mounted where the 3" drive is currently situated + ABBA switch. :)


Has anyone seen a 'proper' IDE slimline drive recently?


Thanks
Charlie.

Are you pondering what I'm pondering? The Qube Server

arnoldemu

Quote from: Charlie on 22:26, 01 February 11
Hello all,
The 3" drive in my CPC isn't long for this world... Not that there's much wrong with it but I'd rather have something more universally useful.


The obvious thing to me is to replace it with a HxC floppy emulator but having a 3.5" drive would be good too...
...being mad everything's got to be internal.


A slim-line 3.5" drive would be ideal but it's been long time since I've seen one with a 'proper' IDE connector rather than USB or one of the 'toy' laptop connectors.


->HxC + Slimline 3.5" FDD mounted where the 3" drive is currently situated + ABBA switch. :)


Has anyone seen a 'proper' IDE slimline drive recently?


Thanks
Are you talking about floppy or harddrive here? You say IDE which seems to mean harddrive.

Actually if people are looking at harddrive stuff, perhaps looking at S-ATA would be a nice step to look at?
Perhaps a S-ATA interface for CPC may be possible.

Mounting a harddrive inside a CPC would be possible, however you need a hardware interface and software to run it.

There are some existing solutions for IDE, one by Yarek and the symbiface.


XD-DOS and FutureOS and SymboOS can use harddrives. XD-DOS is made for MFM harddrive interface, but could be patched to work with IDE.

Symbiface has an IDE interface built in.

If you are talking floppy drives, then some need modifying to give the ready signal that the cpc uses (mostly a jumper moving on the floppy pcb).

It may be possible to remove the floppy drive from an external usb one and modify it to work with cpc..


My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

Bryce

#2
I assume Charlie is referring to floppy drives and means Shugart not IDE. Best bet is eeiiiibay or an old (486) laptop. Sony and Toshiba laptops had very nice slim 3.5" drives. It used a non-standard 26pin socket, but it was actually shugart (more or less). I can send you the pinout details if you do buy one of these.

Bryce.

Such as this one:  http://cgi.ebay.de/Mitsumi-D353F3-Slim-Line-Floppy-FDD-schwarz-Ai08-AL-/370473613828?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_77&hash=item5641f2ba04

MiguelSky

Quote from: arnoldemu on 10:41, 02 February 11XD-DOS and FutureOS and SymboOS can use harddrives. XD-DOS is made for MFM harddrive interface, but could be patched to work with IDE.
Don't forget BonnyDOS !!

xesrjb

#4
Quote from: arnoldemu on 10:41, 02 February 11
Are you talking about floppy or harddrive here? You say IDE which seems to mean harddrive.

Actually if people are looking at harddrive stuff, perhaps looking at S-ATA would be a nice step to look at?
Perhaps a S-ATA interface for CPC may be possible.

Mounting a harddrive inside a CPC would be possible, however you need a hardware interface and software to run it.

There are some existing solutions for IDE, one by Yarek and the symbiface.


XD-DOS and FutureOS and SymboOS can use harddrives. XD-DOS is made for MFM harddrive interface, but could be patched to work with IDE.

Symbiface has an IDE interface built in.

If you are talking floppy drives, then some need modifying to give the ready signal that the cpc uses (mostly a jumper moving on the floppy pcb).

It may be possible to remove the floppy drive from an external usb one and modify it to work with cpc..

Do you have a patched XD-DOS? How does it work and how to work with an IDE Interface?

Has someone the XD-DOS 2.1 Disc's?


xesrjb
,,The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true."

arnoldemu

Quote from: xesrjb on 08:17, 03 February 11
Do you have a patched XD-DOS? How does it work and how to work with an IDE Interface?
Not yet, but I did plan to patch it.

My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

Charlie

Thanks chaps. :)


Yes, me causing confusion by calling the standard floppy interface 'IDE'.


Bryce, if you could send me that pin-out I would appreciate it.


@Thread:
Some interesting comments.
I'd like to have a 'hard drive' in my CPC (as well!) but there does seem to be a dirth of solutions available...
I believe there are hardware plans but no FS to drive it - correct?
My hopes:
Realised 'HDD' hardware - yes
Driver software 'Amstrad' - no (floppy image support with patched Parados ATM?)
Driver software 'CPM' - ??


Charlie.

Are you pondering what I'm pondering? The Qube Server

Bryce

This is the standard 26way pinout used on 99% of slimline floppy drives:

   
1 - 5V
2 - Index
3 - 5V
4 - Drive Select 0
5 - 5V
6 - Diskette Change
7 - NC
8 - NC
9 - Floppy Drive Enable 0
10 - Motor Enable 0
11 - NC
12 - Direction
13 - NC
14 - Step
15 - Ground
16 - Write Data
17 - Ground
18 - Write Gate
19 - Ground
20 - Track 0
21 - Ground
22 - Write Protect
23 - Ground
24 - Read Data
25 - Ground
26 - Side 1 Select

Bryce.

Charlie

Excellent! Thank you.


I shall go look for a suitable (black) slimline drive safe in the knowledge that I'll have to be pretty unlucky not to get it to work...


A mildly related question:
Sadly the HxC is looking like too much money ATM - I'm sure I read somewhere there is a DIY solution.
An IDE HDD (CF) interface that I vaguely remember being supported by one OS as a HDD, but also by ?ParaDOS?, patched,  to use it as a floppy disc image store...
...blowed if I can find the details now.


Am I imagining it?


Thanks
Charlie.

Are you pondering what I'm pondering? The Qube Server

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