5 1/4" floppy drive

[EC8010]

Yes, that's 5 1/4". This is from the era when a floppy really was floppy. Bought new in 1993, but I seem to have lost the floppies I used to use with it, so it's come out of my computer. It worked last time I used it...

Price: Free, plus postage.

[EC8010]

Well, I don't know, I thought there would be competition for this unique piece of computing history. If nobody replies soon it's going in the bin...

[jackinnj]

If you sell it, I have 5.25 editions of WordPerfect, Harvard Graphics, QuattroPro and QuickBasic which you could include.

Maybe I can find a Hayes 1200 bps Modem while I am at it.

(fwiw, my first computer modem was 120 bps)

[EC8010]

I think its future has been decided. The motor and control circuitry are on one nice board, and the motor has a convenient hollow boss into which I could fit a pulley. Yes, a turntable motor like audio origami's beckons. I even have a platter and bearing...

Looking at the motor, I suspect that 5 1/4" drives were rather like early videotape machines and relied on precision mechanical engineering to work, whereas later machines cheapened the engineering and relied on servos and error correction (failing that, reduced standards). The motor looks to be very well made, and must have quite reasonable torque to be able to rotate that large disk inside an envelope.

But thanks for the charming offer of contemporary software. I still use WP (and occasionally QuickBasic)!