WTB: FULLY WORKING Acorn BBC Computer 5.25 inch disk drive

Argh! I just threw out a bunch of old storage hardware, which included some ESDI doorstop hard drives, and some floppy drives that had been used prior to the last "wife ordered" cull where I threw out about 4 or 5 of the BBC Model B's themselves.

I don't think there's anything special about the drives as most I had purchased from a metal salvage shop for a few bucks each. I think I also ended up putting one of the newer 5.25" drives originally from a Beeb into a 286 PC. I can't remember how many pins the socket on the Beeb has, but if it's 34 then a standard floppy cable may even work. If you have a dead drive (ie the enclosure) then it could be as simple as replacing it with a standard half height 360k drive.

HTH

Yeah I'm told I can use the 360K IBM drive as a single sided 40track BBC drive. Any idea where I can get one? The enclosure is working 100% as the drive's motor spins, it's just that the drive's head doesn't seek. I've tried formatting with a blank disk but the drive head just sits on track 1.

When the head is moved with the power off, it does indeed go back to track 1 but that's about all it does.

I bought a BBC with a disk drive etc from eBay but it's turned out a complete pup. The p/s blew at some point and took everything with it, including the keyboard, but luckily I had a spare rare BBC + 64K that was a bit battered, and I've put everything in a good case and I'd like to try out the boxes of disk games I got with the kit. The machine also came with an RGB monitor, a customer-made desk, a Prestel adaptor and a Z80 Second Processor.

You threw out your Beebs? Aw that's such a shame - I love Acorn stuff. Does anyone in the forum have any BBC stuff or a suitable 5.25" drive I could use?

Thanks for the info.

Steve

In message , Pyrrhic writes

IIRC almost any 360K 40 track 5.25" drive will work as will almost any

80 track 5.25" drive, you can even select disk sides but I'm not sure if that's a feature of the DFS ROM or hardware (SPST switch). Only problems I remember were to do with using 80 track disks in 40track drives but it's been a *long* time since I had a Beeb.

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Clint Sharp