| Click here to select a new forum. |
| Mac Plus Floppy Drive - should I replace it? |
Posted by: el_jeffe on 2019-07-13 10:35:13
Was having a discussion with a coworker about floppies on vintage computers. He suggested I probably shouldn't bother replacing the floppy drive at all since there are all sorts of solid-state card devices out there now. I just feel like my Mac Plus won't be fully 'restored' until it gets a working floppy drive. No reason I can't have both but it does make me wonder if the floppy drive is really needed.
|
Posted by: LaPorta on 2019-07-13 10:45:57
Needed? No. Something I'd consider a crucial part of restoring it? Yes.
|
Posted by: nglevin on 2019-07-13 10:46:11
If you ever have a need to dump and preserve floppies as Disk Copy 4.2 images, you will absolutely want to have one.
Generally I agree with the sentiment that floppies should be used sparingly. There's limited quantities of them out there, and they're all living on borrowed time.
|
Posted by: dcr on 2019-07-15 19:05:15
I agree that a computer doesn't feel completely restored without a working floppy drive. I have a Mac SE that I restored from multiple machines, yet was frustrated by the lack of a functional floppy drive. Tried cleaning and lubricating one or two drives without success. Maybe three; I don't remember anymore. Finally bought a working one (from LaPorta I believe) so that I could finally have a fully functional machine. (Of course, now it may be having SCSI problems but that's a separate issue. . .)
I have a Floppy Emu for it, so a floppy drive isn't absolutely necessary but it just doesn't feel like it's a fully functional computer without it.
I will primarily use the Floppy Emu with it, but it's nice to know there's a working floppy drive in there should I ever need it.
|
Posted by: LaPorta on 2019-07-15 19:11:32
You know, if you ever don't need those other 800ks... 😉
|
Posted by: dcr on 2019-07-15 19:14:19
You know, if you ever don't need those other 800ks... 😉 I'm sure I will need them, especially if the three Mac Pluses I mentioned in another thread all turn out to have defective floppy drives. But, I may have to pay you to fix them for me at some point. 😉
|
Posted by: CompaqMac on 2019-07-19 14:56:32
A slight aside, but how much should we tear down a Mac Floppy drive when deep cleaning/lubing? I’m working on my first (Mac Plus) and I currently have a seriously dirty drive in 3 parts—the disk sled assembly, the main board/head/spindle lower unit, and the eject motor/gear assembly.
Should I be tearing it down any further or stop here?
|
Posted by: AwkwardPotato on 2019-07-19 15:08:05
You don't need to tear it down further; in fact all you really need to do for lubrication is remove the top "disk sled" along with the other sled on the bottom. Just don't try disassembling the head/stepper motor assembly because you'll probably mess up the alignment.
|
Posted by: CompaqMac on 2019-07-19 15:37:16
You don't need to tear it down further; in fact all you really need to do for lubrication is remove the top "disk sled" along with the other sled on the bottom. Just don't try disassembling the head/stepper motor assembly because you'll probably mess up the alignment. OK, thanks. I went ahead and took off the eject gear assembly because I ordered a replacement gear for the fragile one.
|
Posted by: el_jeffe on 2019-07-19 15:40:24
Speaking of, can these drives be repaired if they're out of alignment or have other issues? Mine has a broken eject gear but it also does not read disks even after cleaning and lube. Wondering if it's just cheaper to replace it.
|
Posted by: LaPorta on 2019-07-19 15:45:43
That can be a few things. Could be the drive heads making insufficient contact. Could be head alignment. There is a procedure for doing it with a few instruments in the Pina books.
|
| 1 |