Teac Floppy Drive - Help!
Ira
The Thomas Bourke disks are really pushing me through disk drives, and
I am hoping someone out there can give me some hints.
I have tossed 2, and have 2 epsons and 2 teac 55gfrs. Most recently,
I received a 55gfr and it looks pretty clean, so I am hopeful. One
bought from an online store came so rusted, it never worked.
Does anyone out there know the correct jumper settings on the 55gfr to
get it to read a trs-80 disk? The one I currently have exhibits the
wierd trait of reading track 0 as 0 sectors, and then reading the
remainder of the tracks as what would be accurate for the track before
them. I can't imagine its THIS out of alignment, and perhaps the
jumpers are wrong.
To avoid the follow ups on how I know the above, I went to read disks
I had already read, to avoid destroying things the archive does not
have. On Dungeon Escape or other Kim Watt loader disks, track 0 is 2
sectors, and then the rest of the tracks are 10. On the newest drive,
track 0 is 0 sectors (as it is on multiple previously-read-disks) and
then track 1 is the 2 sectors, etc. The resulting DMKs will not boot.
Otherwise, I have 3 in my dead pile, this new one, and no other drives
:( so any help is appreciated.
Ira
NSM
"Ira" <youknowwhe...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:e2i56113sme6555hj...@4ax.com...
> Does anyone out there know the correct jumper settings on the 55gfr to
> get it to read a trs-80 disk? The one I currently have exhibits the
> wierd trait of reading track 0 as 0 sectors, and then reading the
> remainder of the tracks as what would be accurate for the track before
> them. I can't imagine its THIS out of alignment, and perhaps the
> jumpers are wrong.
That looks like a Track Zero calibration error. I can read most any disk
EXCEPT single density on a 1.2 Mb floppy on a 486.
--
N
Ira
Does this mean that I should put this one on top of the other 3 drives
in my dead drive pile?
Well, I have gone an ordered a few more drives. Fortunately, I have
only 1 more diskette from the 35lbs to read. I never lost a drive on
any prior collection, and hope that the conclusion of this set brings
the end to dead drives ...
... of course this assumes one of the ones I just bought actually
works (eBay has a 0% success rate).
Ira
On Sun, 17 Apr 2005 23:25:21 GMT, "NSM" <now...@to.me> wrotf:
tur...@gmail.com
The stepping speed will be slower but the heads may stand more abuse. I
have a vague memory that the heads on 80 track drive drives are much
more delicate and would be more likely to crap out. This might now be
correct but is my suspicion.
Also, the 40 Track drive head may give different results than an 80tk
drive when reading magnetically weak or otherwise hard-to-read
diskettes. Maybe better results; maybe worse.
I think this has something to do with the actual head width being
wider.
Momo
At least you only have three dead drives, at last count I have around eight
problem childs. I've had the same problem you have with Teac drives, havent
had time to diagnose them yet though. I feel your pain brother.
Mo
Tim Mann
> Does anyone out there know the correct jumper settings on the 55gfr to
> get it to read a trs-80 disk? The one I currently have exhibits the
> wierd trait of reading track 0 as 0 sectors, and then reading the
> remainder of the tracks as what would be accurate for the track before
> them. I can't imagine its THIS out of alignment, and perhaps the
> jumpers are wrong.
As someone else said, possibly the track 0 stop is off. I think this is
usually fixable if you have moderate hardware skills.
You're reading 40-track disks in these 80-track drives using cw2dmk,
right? You might try the -a1 flag, which will make cw2dmk double-step
the 80-track drive to physical tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, ... instead of 0, 2,
4, 6, ... If the track 0 stop isn't *too* far off, perhaps that will
compensate.
(By the way, I have a bunch of Teac FD55-GFR drives and have never seen
this problem, so it's not universal....)
Oh, also: for a probably more reliable source than eBay, try
http://www.weirdstuff.com/. They're advertising FD55-GFR drives for
$14.95 each right now. They have a couple of other brands on
http://www.weirdstuff.com/cgi-bin/category/REM000 too. Their store is
local to me and I've bought a bunch of stuff there.
--
Tim Mann use...@tim-mann.org http://tim-mann.org/
Ira
I had placed my order for 3 drives from WeirdStuff on Saturday ---
they shipped yesterday morning!!!! Small world.
I also ordered one more from eBay.
I am, however, now either having problem with the computer, new
catweasel, or current drive, and haven't had a chance to figure it
out. Ugh ... I was real close too :(
Ira
On Mon, 18 Apr 2005 22:26:57 -0700, Tim Mann <use...@tim-mann.org>
wrotf:
Frank Durda IV
: I have tossed 2, and have 2 epsons and 2 teac 55gfrs. Most recently,
: I received a 55gfr and it looks pretty clean, so I am hopeful. One
: bought from an online store came so rusted, it never worked.
:
: Does anyone out there know the correct jumper settings on the 55gfr to
: get it to read a trs-80 disk? The one I currently have exhibits the
: wierd trait of reading track 0 as 0 sectors, and then reading the
: remainder of the tracks as what would be accurate for the track before
: them. I can't imagine its THIS out of alignment, and perhaps the
: jumpers are wrong.
You didn't mention which TRS-80 you are speaking of, AND you didn't mention
what computer the drives are connected to. Subsequently, the following may
not apply to you at all.
For an 80 track DD DS 5.25" 300RPM drive (TEAC FD-55F-03-U), the correct
jumper settings for use on the Model I/III/4/4D/4P are: DSx, HS, SM, HL, PM
(all other jumpers removed), and add/remove terminator as needed.
CAUTION: As an 80 track drive, it will not be directly compatible with
existing 40 track media. For original "boot" disks formatted 40 track, you
need a 40 track drive. The boot code in the various systems will not know
that it needs to double-step, so the operating system or free-standing
application with a 40 track format will fail to boot on an 80 track drive.
The only notes I have for the FD-55GFV-07-U (also an 80 track, but HD DS 5.25"
360 RPM) drive, which would be used on a Model II/12/16/16B/6000 system)
is with regard to the three pins next to the terminating resistor pack,
and move that jumper to the RY position (it would have been in DCRY for a
IBM PC configuration).
WARNING: The FD-55GFV would require other jumpers to slow it down to 300RPM
to be used on a Model I/III/4/4D/4P (or with media created on those systems),
assuming it even has a jumper to alter the spindle speed. I don't have
one handy to look at, so I don't know if it has a dual-speed motor. Again,
this is an 80 track drive, not suitable to be drive 0 on a
Model I/III/4/4D/4P when using original format diskettes for booting.
As always, write down the jumper configuration before you start changing
things so you can put it back!
The 80 track issue may be what is causing what appears to be a positioning
error, but is really just a media-format/drive-type mismatch.
Finally, some of the TEAC FD-55* models of that period had an electric head
load. If present, make sure it is actually loading the heads. It as possible
to configure them so they would select but not actually load the heads,
which all of the Tandy OSes didn't like.
Frank Durda IV - only this address works:|"I picked up a Magic 8-Ball the
<uhclemLOSE.apr05%nemesis.lonestar.org> | other day and it said 'Outlook
You must remove the "LOSE" to mail me. | not so good'. I said 'Sure,
http://nemesis.lonestar.org | but Microsoft still ships it.'"
Copr. 2005, ask before reprinting.