These 3½" & 5¼" Floppy Disc Drives are not the original Amstrad standardyet the media and drives were far cheaper so they were common especially as a 2nd drive.
Yet they were far cheaper and Especially the 3½" as the discs are nowadays easier to useavailable as used or new old stock online. You can also easily find such drives in any garbage if you properly scavenge old rusty computers.
Especially the Both 3½" as these disk are still available in some retailers. You can also easily find such drives in any garbage if you properly scavenge old rusty computers& 5¼" were often double sided and supported double density and high density.
These Disks couldn==Usage of Media== To make full use of the capacity of the media you need to use another DOS on your CPC which can support more tracks and two sides. Then you can use around 720KB per disc. Without another DOS you can still use some of the capacity: * 3½" discs can't be turned like 3" discs therefore with [[AMSDOS|AMSDOS]] you can use a manual side switch to choose the sides giving 2 x 178KB per side switched manually.The older models used only one Without the side (360 KB)switch it's just 178KB.Double * 5¼" discs can be turned and you can write both sides if you cut a write protect hole on the other side (DD) or even High Density were available.
[[image:3.5.jpg|200px|thumb|Internal 3.5" drive]]
[[image:5,25_cable.jpg|200px|thumb|advertisement for 5,25" drive cable for CPC in 1990]]
==Common PC Formats == 3"1/2
*DD = 720KB*HD 3½": 1,44 MB
5"*DD = 720KB *HD : 1/4,44 MB
*360KB*1.2MB5¼":
*DD = 360KB
*HD = 1.2MB
== Beware : HD ==
