The Ubiquitous & Fickle Amiga Floppy!

[MiAmigo]

Out of all of the companies still making Amiga hardware, why is it that no one is making a new, replacement Amiga floppy drive? Don't they know that there's a fortune to be made? "They" could basically set their own price for a fully functional error free Amiga floppy! I personally would pay ANY price to have a few for my three Amigas!

(Now, if there IS someone making such a floppy drive - please tell me now so I can hold back this month's mortgage!)

[Dr.Bongo]

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=106

[MiAmigo]

Thanks! I'm on it, Red 2!

[MiAmigo]

Now, as to the stack of non-functioning ones I have: Should I keep them, sell them, toss them, or give them away? At last count I think at had at least 4, maybe 5.

[psxphill]

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=106

drive bay ones are trivial to convert yourself. it's the lack of compatible eject switches for a500/a600/a1200 that is the problem.

[CritAnime]

There was someone on ebay selling refurbished drives. If he still is or not I don't know. Might be worth a check. In the end I never bothered replacing my old drive after the second one.  I just went to emulated drives. However this means I now have games that are essentially useless.

[freqmax]

Why are the games useless?

[Mrs Beanbag]

I managed to hack an A500 drive into an A1200 case once.  Required trimming the case a little bit because the eject button is in a slightly different place.

One day I will go back to it and replace it with a converted PC drive, by cutting the case up some more to allow a standard 3.5" drive bezel to poke through.

[psxphill]

One day I will go back to it and replace it with a converted PC drive, by cutting the case up some more to allow a standard 3.5" drive bezel to poke through.

I was thinking about getting a model made so the eject buttons for various drives could be 3d printed.

[runequester]

Now, as to the stack of non-functioning ones I have: Should I keep them, sell them, toss them, or give them away? At last count I think at had at least 4, maybe 5.

Forgive me if this is a stupid suggestion but have you tried cleaning them? Old floppy drives have a habit of getting gunked up.

[nyteschayde]

I was thinking about getting a model made so the eject buttons for various drives could be 3d printed.

You mean like this one for the A3000?
http://www.shapeways.com/model/310385/amiga-3000-disk-drive-eject-button.html

[MiAmigo]

Forgive me if this is a stupid suggestion but have you tried cleaning them? Old floppy drives have a habit of getting gunked up.

There's an idea - and something I actually had n considered. What would be the best method to clean them?

[CritAnime]

Why are the games useless?

Well they are not useless. It's the wrong word to use. Should I say the aren't useful for my Amiga 600 as the emulated drive runs off a sd card. I can still play them on the 1200 but I don't get it out regular enough.

[MiAmigo]

While we're on the subject of the floppy drives, what about the floppies themselves?

Age, time, and electromagnetic fields have also made them fickle!

Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. And just when you've given them up for being dead, voila! - they start working again!

The person who can come up with a way of fixing these - at home - could make millions!

[CritAnime]

I have had to throw loads of floppies away as they refused to work. And this is after trying them numerous times. Most failed to load at all a couple worked for a little while then refused to load when trying to load a second level for example.

Much like my c64 tapes age and environmental conditions get the better of them eventually.