Broken Atari SF354 Floppy Drive.

[Joe Stella]

Here's what I know, optically, it looks nice. Turn power on, nothing (I think that's standard for ST drives), power on ST, the LED flickers red briefly, I hear disk spinning noises. Without a disk, it takes a lengthy time to time-out and go to desktop. When a disk is inserted, it errors with: Drive A: is not responding. Please check the disk drive, and insert a disk...

 

I have a non-Atari brand disk as Drive B:, which works fine in the daisy chain.

 

Appreciate any tip on how to get started checking this.

[RickR]

I think your next step is to observe the drive in action with the cover of the drive removed. Most likely a broken or stretched out belt. New belts are available from a guy in the UK. Search on ebay.

[Joe Stella]

Thanks Rick! I'll report back.

[Joe Stella]

so it's all disassembled. looks pretty clean on the inside. i have nothing to compare it too, but the head looks a little off center/high? maybe that's normal. the drive motor spins, and the stepper motor seems to step. i'm not seeing a belt. must be buried under the drive motor somewhere. I'll dig deeper.

[RickR]

The belt should be plainly visible on the bottom of the drive. If you don't see one there, there probably isn't one. So, do you see a disk spin when you put one in? If yes, I'd try cleaning the heads. Gently with an alcohol soaked q-tip.

[Joe Stella]

Ok, I understand what you are saying, and after looking around, I've determined that my drive is the second version of that model. It does not have the visible belt on the bottom as does the first model you described. I shall try cleaning it and post some pictures.

[rolandg]

Its been a long time since I've used/owned a SF354 - but it is a single sided disk drive. I seem to remember that if you tried a double sided disk in the drive you got this type of issue - but I may be mistaken.

 

The non Atari disk drive will almost certainly be double sided - so it will read many disks the SF354 wont.

 

Roland.