I found a 5-1/4 drive today

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Fri May 14, 2010 5:57 pm

It was on an old laser controller they threw out at work. So I grabbed it, along with a whopping 480 meg. hard drive and some other non computer goodies. Anyone need it? I sure don't but I'd hate to see it go to waste.

THE
RESCUER
AARDVARK

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Fri May 14, 2010 6:16 pm

YES YES YES.

I really need one. I recently bought a FC5025 floppy drive controller which connects to a 5 1/4 drive, but the drive I was planning on using does not work properly. I've been begging for one for a couple of weeks on Facebook/Twitter.

If you send it to me, I will personally name drop you in the next podcast. And in the blog post I write which talks about how awesome Aardvarks are -- not only you, but the entire genus and species.

Be glad to pay for shipping and whatnot.

Also, today a random guy at work came up to me and gave me an 8" floppy disk.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sat May 15, 2010 5:27 am

It's yours then. It's an industrial model, which means it has no housing or anything. Made by Teac and it has lots of shop grunge on the front. the processor that was also in the controller was an Intel 486 DX so that gives you some idea of the age of the thing. I'll post pix so you can see what kind of shape it's in. Send me an address by PM and I'll have it in the mailbox by the middle of next week.

THE
NO DRIVE LEFT BEHIND
AARDVARK

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sat May 15, 2010 6:43 am

Will do. I will need your address as well. I may have a few spare things I need to mail your way.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sat May 15, 2010 6:57 am

How about if I send it to your PO box? I only ask because I already boxed it up and labelled it already. The post office is open till noon on Saturdays and I figured I'd get it going right now. I hate waiting for Christmas to get here.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sat May 15, 2010 4:08 pm

I saw the reply this morning, about nine-ish and immediately set to work boxing it up. I grabbed the PO box number from the website and was all set to pop over to the post office before noon. We had to make a stop or two before that, nothing I need to leave the car for, so I bring my netbook and leech onto unsecured networks while I wait. I see in my PM that there's a different mailing address and I quickly post the last message. Then, ten minutes later, it occurs to me that I can still get home, change the shipping label and get back to the post office before noon.

So that's what I did.

Now , some pix:

It doesn't have any kind of outside cover like a CD drive would , It was just screwed in to the case. must be for a clean environment or something.
The door lever was cracked so I stuck a little super glue there to hold it. Might be OK. It really needs one of those cleaner discs to be run through it lots of times cause the shop grunge and dust is pretty bad.

I don't even know if it works as the laser controller it was part of was never hooked up since we've had the machine (five years or so.) But there's hope. Anyway, enjoy!

THE
PART TIME DOOFUS
AARDVARK

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sun May 16, 2010 12:33 pm

D'oh! I appreciate all the effort -- I wish I had seen it earlier, 'cuz the PO Box would have been fine too!

Back when I lived in Spokane and was running my music magazine, I decided to get a PO Box because I wanted people to be able to mail me music CDs to review and I didn't want to put my apartment address in the magazine. I got so used to having one that I just ended up getting one when we moved back to Oklahoma as well. I think it's something like $40/year and it's handy to have for the same reasons as before.

Cleaning it is no problem, and most drives like that didn't have a case per se, although I have one sitting here waiting for it. Projects, projects ...

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Tue May 18, 2010 1:29 pm

Did you say you had an 8" floppy drive? Is that why your co-worker gave you the disc?

THE
CLARIFY
AARDVARK

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue May 18, 2010 2:12 pm

Sadly, no -- only a few 8" floppies.

That would be cool, though. I've never actually touched an 8" disk drive. That would be a pretty cool security measure of it's own. "Here are my passwords. On an 8" floppy disk. Have at it."

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sat May 22, 2010 8:46 am

The drive arrived today! Well, that's not true -- *I* arrived today, and the drive was already here waiting on me! I'mma go clean it and hook it up shortly and see how it goes!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sat May 22, 2010 6:24 pm

Lemmee know if it works for you.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 3:03 am

Still working on another drive, never fear!

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 7:56 pm

Flack wrote:Sadly, no -- only a few 8" floppies.

That would be cool, though. I've never actually touched an 8" disk drive. That would be a pretty cool security measure of it's own. "Here are my passwords. On an 8" floppy disk. Have at it."

While MSDos could support 8" diskettes I don't think anyone ever made a PC with 8" drives.

Back around 1990 or so I bought a PDP-11/03 minicomputer for $200. I had used one back in the late 1970s back at my old junior college. The 11/03 came with two 8" RX11 drives which support 256K per diskette, and 64K of memory. I had about 20 or 30 of the 8" floppies I'd kept from California. I ran it as an external terminal to my PC. It hooked up via RS232 on a COM port as if it was an external modem.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sat Dec 11, 2010 3:23 pm

Thanks again for the phone!

[youtube][/youtube]

THE
LONG DISTANCE
AARDVARK

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sun Dec 12, 2010 3:17 pm

it handles very well.

[youtube][/youtube]