Interesting reading about floppies.

[sup8pdct]

I found this sitehttp://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/drive.html#325
Any one ever seen a 3.25 floppy??

James

 

 

edit. Fixed link (i hope)

Edited November 29, 2013 by sup8pdct

[TXG/MNX]

I got the the AMDEK 3 inch floppy drive overhere for Atari...

[BillC]

I found this site http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/drive.html about floppy drives

Any one ever seen a 3.25 floppy??

 

James

That link is broken, this would appear to be the current one:

http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/drive.html#325

[sup8pdct]

I just did a copy and paste with my tab... never checked ad i assumed it would work.

I do remember seeing the amdek being advertised in antic and such. Are the disks still around?

 

James

[thorfdbg]

I found this sitehttp://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/drive.html#325

Any one ever seen a 3.25 floppy??

 

James

 

 

edit. Fixed link (i hope)

Yup. Some Amstrad/Schneider computers had them. Pretty unusual format. Floppies were more rectangular, not like the square-type thing we are used to, and had a slde-open mechanism that was triggered on the side instead of the front like you know from the 3.5" disks.

 

They became so rare that the owners then migrated to regular 3.5" drives, requiring a custom mod of the machine (this said, I installed such a mod on a machine once).

[JamesD]

I saw photos back when they came out but I've never seen one in person.

Yup. Some Amstrad/Schneider computers had them. Pretty unusual format. Floppies were more rectangular, not like the square-type thing we are used to, and had a slde-open mechanism that was triggered on the side instead of the front like you know from the 3.5" disks.

 

They became so rare that the owners then migrated to regular 3.5" drives, requiring a custom mod of the machine (this said, I installed such a mod on a machine once).

Side open mechanism? These don't have a door to cover the media.
They are pretty much just like 5 1/4" floppies.

[+Larry]

Very interesting. Amdek "Disk III" had more of what I'd call a "cartridge" -- hard shell (IIRC). Looked for a picture but could find no really good pics of the the Amdek Disk III "cartridge." I did also run across an Amdek Disk II floppy for the Apple II. It looked a lot like this 3.25" -- truly appears to be "floppy" rather than the hard shell type.

 

-Larry

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

 

besides Google, there is also Wikipedia if you want to know more about diskettes... e.g. 3,25" diskettes:

 

 

 

-Andreas Koch.

[TMR]

Yup. Some Amstrad/Schneider computers had them. Pretty unusual format.

The Amstrads are usually referred to as being 3" drives.

[Subby]

Thanks for the link James, now I have a source, other than Wikipedia, for the HD/DD debate.

 

I just drooled over the Amdek drives when they first came out (yes, I'm messy) but the price! Arrgh!

http://www.atarimagazines.com/v3n4/floppies.html

I still want one.

 

(Although several years later I almost bought one for my Sinclair QL.)

[thorfdbg]

I saw photos back when they came out but I've never seen one in person.

 

 

Side open mechanism? These don't have a door to cover the media.

They are pretty much just like 5 1/4" floppies.

I stand corrected. The Amstrad used the 3" format, not the 3.25" format. So there were even more wierder floppy standards out in the past.

[Rybags]

I remember probably reading about machines with 3" before others smaller than 5.25.

Really thought it'd take hold but as it happens 3.5 took over pretty quickly.

[Magic Knight]

I was reading about the first ones being 8" drives -imagine atari got this in quick and the 610 drives came out mid 70's - retailing in at $1100 dollars each?!

[+slx]

Still have a bunch of 3" Amstrad CP/M discs in the basement but no machine to read them. They have a sturdier feel than the 3,5s. Maybe the plastic of the casing is sturdier. How I would have loved that AMDEK drive back then....

 

It's certainly strange to think how 3,5" discs used to be cool and progressive in 1985 and how quickly they have faded from mainstream computing. I had at least two PC 3,5 drives fail me because I never used them even in the early 2000s. Last time I carried a disc to move data must have been around 2000.....isn't progress strange?

 

[1050]

Not knowing anything of all of the above except that floppy were for data storage, I was drooling over the 8 inch surplus drives offered for $40 each. I spent all money I had in the world back then and wound up getting two with nothing to hook them up to, I still don't have a real use for them. They have only served as door stops all the time I've had them, and are well suited for that job. Absolutely monstrous. I did wonder where they coming from at the time but had no idea they were probably being taken out of service and replaced by 5 1/4 drives of which I had not a clue were even in existence. Hard to stay in the loop with only surplus catalogs for input.

[Caterpiggle]

I do have Amdek 3.25 for Apple II family. I has only four 3.25 diskette for Apple format.

 

I would be happy to post 3.25 disk drive for Apple. It does work fine on the regular Disk ][ Card. No special Amdek card required.

Edited December 5, 2013 by Caterpiggle