Another Crazy Idea: disc drive controller swapping

controller board swapping used to be a "fairly frequent" (interpret that at your pleasure) occurrence in the cyber forensic community as a method of reviving media taken as evidence. Obviously it is rife with issues and some media will cooperate more than others but in general, the older media type with less on-board "smarts" will respond fairly well as long as the board(or chips if that old) are a good match. in terms of firmware... steve shumaker.. former (as in a long time ago) computer crime investigator/ forensics specialist On 11/25/2010 8:17 AM, Philip Pemberton wrote: > Here's another idea that'll get me a place in the Loony Bin. > > A little while ago I picked up a couple of Amstrad EME232 double-sided > 3-inch floppy drives. Out of the three I have, two have had their > read-write ASIC zapped by someone (in one case myself, in another an ebay > seller) plugging them into a PC power supply to "test". Net result: the > ASIC goes completely deaf. > > Let's assume for a minute that the heads in the EME232 drives are > undamaged. That means all the issues are related to defective circuitry > on the PCB. So, how about this for an idea: move the controller chip and > surrounding circuitry (or even the whole board) to the EME232, then wire > it into the existing drive mechanics. > > This would -- in theory -- allow the two dead 232s (and possibly the > EME156 single-head drive) to be resurrected. > > Anyone care to comment on this idea and its possibility or absurdity? > > The other option would be to get a new read-write ASIC for the Amstrad > drives, but those seem to be like hen's teeth. Part number is M51017AP > (made by Panasonic but if memory serves they're not marked with a logo or > manufacturer designation) if anyone wants to check.. :) > > Thanks,