Modifying a PC floppy drive to act as DF0:

[Everblue]

My A4000T's floppy drive acts weird sometimes (like saying that there is a bad disk in drive, when in fact, there is nothing) so I thought its time to replace it. I know that normal PC Floppy Disk drives can be modified and be used in towered amigas... will any drive do, and what is the procedure?

THanks!

[marcfrick2112]

Hi Nostromo;

First off, try googling 'PC floppy on Amiga' or something similar. I am going by memory here, be sure to get a second opinion

When you say that your 4000T's floppy says there is a bad disk, when there is nothing in the drive.... makes me wonder if the microswitches in the drive need to be cleaned. I had a 1010 drive do the same thing. You may need to take the drive apart to do this. You'll need to clean the 2 switches, using contact cleaner... Make sure it won't affect plastic or other materials.

As for using a PC drive on the Amiga... Well there's some info out there.. but you need either a modified drive, or cable....  I have a modified cable in my 1200T, seems to work 100%... ( I'm playing Blob from floppy now for 'testing' purposes ) maybe others can give more info... it's past my bedtime ......

[Everblue]

Thanks for the help - I wonder where I can get one of these modified cables?

BTW, how do I remove the floppy drive from the A4000T, do I have to remove the left panel? Isnt that held in place by pop rivets?

[dougal]

I have modded a couple of PC drives to work on Amiga. I forgot exactly the basic proceedure but its pretty easy although not all drives can be modded a lot can.

The easiest part is getting it to read Amiga floppies. Slightly harder but still usually quite easy is enabling it to detect a disk when inserted. (Click Click... when no disk is in)

Older drives are easier to mod. Some its just jumpers that need setting.

There are some sites with guides.

[Gulliver]

Hi, i bought a pc to Amiga floppy converter from Ian Steadman, at a very reasonable price, he even gives the schematic on how to make it yourself. I bought one fully assembled from him, and it still works like charm. Find all the information at http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/designs/Floppy_Adaptor/floppy_adaptor.html

[marcfrick2112]

Hi Nostromo, I can't help you with the modified cable, mine came with my 1200 Power Tower.... but there has to be some info on Aminet, I would think. It's just a twist in the cable.....

As for removing the floppy, I had trouble with that too
You have to remove the front panel... i.e. what the door is attached to... Best bet is to use advanced search here on A.org, search for posts containing ' 4000 ' by poster ' marcfrick2112 '

[Jope]

Overlapping information in all of these:
http://www.pitsch.de/stuff/amiga/floppy.htm
http://jope.fi/drives/
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=30944

My opinion even though no-one asked for it: forget cable mods, better install a properly modified mechanism that works with a straight cable. If your drive requires you to swap 2 and 34 around on the cable, then it will not be 100% compatible.

These are very easy to do, and instructions are for most commonly available (second hand) drive mechanisms.