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External XT Vintage 5.25 Floppy Drive Connection to a New Computer OS
- Thread starter 2kman
- Start date
chuckcmagee
Veteran Member
If by "New Computer OS" you mean a modern computer running XP, I never did find any solutions. There are millions of USB 3.5 external drives out there but I have never seen a USB 5.25 external anywhere.
My solution has been to buy a 486 "clunker", put a 360K 5.25" drive in there, install DOS 3.3 or DOS 5.0 and go from there.
My solution has been to buy a 486 "clunker", put a 360K 5.25" drive in there, install DOS 3.3 or DOS 5.0 and go from there.
Yzzerdd
Veteran Member
:shock:
Burn him at the post! you must be crazy to call a 486 a clunker. Or did you mean a clunker 486, not that all 486s are clunkers? Either way.
--Ryan
chuckcmagee
Veteran Member
I meant a beat up, stripped down 486, a "clunker". I just got one by UPS the other day. No fancy video card, no network card, not much of anything in there. Perfect for fooling around with disk image software. In fact, that's the only thing I got it for. It was $24.95 + shipping.
Oh ya, no sound card either.
Oh ya, no sound card either.
Yzzerdd
Veteran Member
24.96+shipping? Jeeze, I'd a given you a clunker with stuff for $10 plus shipping. Interested?
chuckcmagee
Veteran Member
Not really. One is all I require and it's sitting here.
Jorg
Veteran Member
would there be any chance to open up one of these 3,5" USB drives and 'upgrade' them to attach a 5,25"?
There should be some sort of USB-Floppy bridge in there, shouldn't it?
There should be some sort of USB-Floppy bridge in there, shouldn't it?
chuckcmagee
Veteran Member
You would need an external power source for the drive at a min. 3.5 is USB powered. The power requirements for a 5.25 would likely exceed the limits and your laptop would shut down the port. Beginning to sound like a mess already.
carlsson
Veteran Member
Remember that some PC chipsets did not have full support for 5.25" drives in the end. I would find it likely that the electronics inside an USB device also only supports a subset of the floppy drives you'd want it to support. Maybe it would be easier to build an own adapter, or as Chuck said, install an internal 5.25" floppy drive if your computer and operating system supports it. Keep the external IBM XT one for the collection or sell to someone who is one short.
USB floppy drives are inferior anyway. They can not be programmed in the same detail that internal PC floppy drives can (and even those are a bit limited compared to other systems). Programs to write foreign disk formats most likely will not work if you use an USB floppy. Please advice me if I'm wrong.
USB floppy drives are inferior anyway. They can not be programmed in the same detail that internal PC floppy drives can (and even those are a bit limited compared to other systems). Programs to write foreign disk formats most likely will not work if you use an USB floppy. Please advice me if I'm wrong.
chuckcmagee
Veteran Member
No, that's correct. Another thread in this very forum exhausts that topic. Not enough low level control of the controller in the usb setup. My "paid for" Omniflop software says it doesn't work with usb drives.
Jorg
Veteran Member
Aha, I didn't know that one.
I do have an IBM PS/2 external 3,5" floppy (720K) by the way, but that doesn't seem to work anymore. I'll have it solved now by adding a 1.44 3,5" to my just acquired xt/286.
Until now, I had a 5,25 and 3,5 in my main pc- but the latest mainboard I have now just supports one floppy.
I do have an IBM PS/2 external 3,5" floppy (720K) by the way, but that doesn't seem to work anymore. I'll have it solved now by adding a 1.44 3,5" to my just acquired xt/286.
Until now, I had a 5,25 and 3,5 in my main pc- but the latest mainboard I have now just supports one floppy.
carlsson
Veteran Member
I can't imagine it is the USB specifiction that poses the problem, it must be the way these floppy drives are implemented. Are all brands identical?
I think an external floppy drive with a CatWeasel-like chipset, good drivers and programming support in some open source license would have a great potential in the vintage computing world. In particular if it can be fitted with either a 5.25" or 3.5" mechanism - even supporting 8" if it is feasible. Perhaps a such product already exists?
I think an external floppy drive with a CatWeasel-like chipset, good drivers and programming support in some open source license would have a great potential in the vintage computing world. In particular if it can be fitted with either a 5.25" or 3.5" mechanism - even supporting 8" if it is feasible. Perhaps a such product already exists?