Dead floppy drives...

[Urchlay]

Does anyone here specialize in fixing Atari floppy drives? I have two dead 810's, a dead Indus GT, and a dead 1050 w/US Doubler upgrade.

 

What I'd really like is to trade all these drives to someone who actually enjoys fixing them... All but the 1050 were working 7 or 8 years ago, but they got left in an attic (never leave anything at your parents' house when you move out). To me, they're just lumps of useless junk (I lack the time, discipline, and experience to fix them myself).

 

I'd want to trade all four drives for one working stock 1050... but that's probably not going to happen, is it?

 

Maybe someone would sell me a 1050 and take the dead drives for a few bucks off the price... I dunno.

 

What I *really* want is the Indus working again. I can buy an 810 or a 1050 + USD from B&C or Best, probably for less than it'd cost me to have them fixed (considering I'd have to pay shipping both ways)... but the Indus was my baby, and I'd love to see her alive again.

 

Assuming any of my floppies are still good (they were also left in the attic), I'd need a 1050 to read them, as they're almost all formatted in enhanced density.

 

So, what do you people think? Should I bite the bullet and throw the drives and disks out, and start over when my SIO2PC gets here? (Just ordered today)... Is there any chance at all of reading my old floppies? Most of them are games that are widely available now, but a few are old code that I wrote, or that my friends wrote.

 

Assuming my floppies are all bad, and assuming I have an SIO2PC, do I have any reason at all to own real Atari drives? I can't even buy new blank disks for them, can I? (The disks made for 1.2 meg 5 1/4" drives don't work in an 810 or a 1050, do they? Different coercivity or some such... I forgot)

[classics]

YHPM regarding the dead drives.

 

On the disks, dont be surprised if, with a little work, they are all still recoverable.

 

I've recovered disks that were clearly wet at one time and covered in dirt and muck. Atari disks can stand up to an awful lot of abuse before becoming completely unrecoverable, unlike higher density PC floppies.

 

Unless they have been burned/melted or otherwise physically mangled I wouldn't give up hope right away. Even disks that are frozen to the inside of the sleeve are usually recoverable once freed up.

 

I think most people end up transferring off the floppies into ATR images, but if you really want to make new disks there are sources on the web for brand new DS/DD disks.

 

Steve

Edited October 15, 2006 by classics

[Almost Rice]

Don't throw them away without attempting to get them repaired or offering them to others as parts machines. You could possibly contact Metalguy66 to fix it for you. He is busy with his MIO project though. Also, he sells SIO2PC interfaces that built into the Atari. So if you negotiate with him, you could work out a trade.

 

Edited for not being able to read at 1am thanks larry

Edited October 15, 2006 by Almost Rice

[+Larry]

> I have two dead 810's, a dead Indus GT, and a dead 1050 w/US Doubler upgrade. <

 

What XF-551? Did I miss that? -Larry

[+remowilliams]

On the disks, dont be surprised if, with a little work, they are all still recoverable.

 

I've recovered disks that were clearly wet at one time and covered in dirt and muck. Atari disks can stand up to an awful lot of abuse before becoming completely unrecoverable, unlike higher density PC floppies.

The old 5.25s are incredibly tough.

 

One of my ferrets knocked (minutes before I needed it of course!) an ancient Apple 5.25 into water and soaked the whole thing. I took a new floppy out of the box, slit the tops of both floppies, pulled out the soaked magnetic media, dried it off, and put it into the new floppy housing.

 

It read perfectly!

 

On the other hand a modern PC floppy I wrote last week, now has read errors.

[joeventura]

I'll trade you a fully functional Atari 800 for the two Dead 810s, I have a graveyard of 810 parts and bet I could make a single working drive out of the parts.

[dinosaur]

Hello! I have a lot of 1050 drives and love to tinker.

I can trade you one for your deadies.

PM me or Email [email protected]

No problem.

[Urchlay]

I got more responses than I'd have expected for the possible trade... to everyone who offered a trade, thanks.

 

But I decided (after a few inspirational words) to have one more go at fixing the Indus... and I got it working (!), along with one of the 810's. The other 810 is still sick, but it's closer to working than it was.

 

So now I don't want to get rid of them... though I might change my mind again about the 1050 (it won't even *try* to boot).

 

The amazing thing is that (so far) most of the disks I've tried still work. I actually found a disk full of old BASIC programs I wrote, and they all loaded.

 

Can't wait for the SIO2PC to get here... will be able to actually back up my ancient crappy code on CD-R.

 

Sorry if I got anyone's hopes up falsely... I was feeling pretty rotten and desperate when I posted that.

[dinosaur]

Take quiet Atarian pride that you brought those back from the dead!

 

Congratulations!

 

I have revived a few and now I know what a successful surgeon must feel.

[Ansiterm]

How'd you fix them?

[Urchlay]

How'd you fix them?

 

Cleaned the heads, track 0 sensor, rails, and cleaned/rotated the pressure pads.

 

Also, found an actual un-copy-protected single-density floppy to test the 810 with. Originally I was using a game I *knew* would fit on a SD floppy, and it does... but my copy of it was formatted in enhanced density, for no good reason. I found an original Starcross (Infocom) disk, factory-formatted. I think it's not copy protected at all.

 

Even so, the 810 that's working is still flaky... it's getting read errors on a disk that reads fine in the Indus, but it's getting the errors on the same sectors every time, so I think it's an alignment issue (still studying up on how to do alignment correctly).

 

The other 810, I still haven't fxed, but it's closer to working than it was... and the 1050 I think needs parts (track zero sensor bad?).

 

When I have a few bucks to spend on it, I'll replace the 1050 drive mech (B&C and Best should both carry them).

[+Guitarman]

 

When I have a few bucks to spend on it, I'll replace the 1050 drive mech (B&C and Best should both carry them).

 

I have a couple of good Tandem (spelling??) mechs for the 1050 drive, if you are interested in one. I bought one used mech recently from Atarimax thinking the mech in one of my non-working 1050's was bad. Turns out it was the main board in the drive, so now I have an extra working mech. Still working on fixing the bad drive board. Let me know.

Edited October 18, 2006 by Guitarman