Date   : Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:02:31 +0100
From   : Jeff Gaines <jeff@...>
Subject: Re[2]: Collected notes on floppy drive butchery?

Hello Group,

On Saturday, October 22, 2005, 10:55:15 PM, David wrote:

> Yes, I have a nice Sony 3.5" floppy drive (MPF 920), a nice length of
> ribbon, a nice Master 128, a nice copy of the Welcome disc.

> What I end up with is a nasty unformatted disc, a nasty silence or all the
> nice things just being plain nasty.

> Has anyone managed to get a formatted disc out of this combination yet.

I can tell you what I did, it's the Sony MPF920 from PC World straight
out of the box.

A Master, cosmetically nice but I think one of the early ones. MOS
3.20, ADFS 1.50, DFS 2.24.

Scenario 1
Standard twisted floppy cable, Sony connected to middle (untwisted)
connector. Drive responds as 1 or 3, using 720MB disks and DFS.
Formats, verifies and saves files. Won't boot though because of the
drive number.

Scenario 2
Untwisted the floppy cable (2nd one, bits from the connectors of the
first one still all over the place 'til I hoover). Sony still on the
middle connector, older drive with a slide switch on end. Moved slide
over, old drive responds as 0/2, Sony as 1/3, both format and verify
and I can copy files between them.

There have been different views in here about un-twisting the cable,
it just didn't work for me until I bit the bullet and un-twisted it.

If anybody can tell me a place where I can buy IDC connectors, a
crimping tool and the cable I would appreciate it. The current cable
is too short.

-- 
Regards
Jeff Gaines
Damerham Hampshire UK