27 Apr
2010
27 Apr
'10
3:38 a.m.
On Fri, Apr 23, 2010 at 11:17:10AM -0700, Fred Cisin wrote:
On Thu, 22 Apr 2010, Tony Duell wrote:
> The disk drive was standard -- a standard 3" unit (and the Amstrad PCW --
> and Amstrad Z80 machines in general -- were not the only machines to use
> that size disk).
They were, apparently, quite popular in some proprietary navigation
thingy, because they were far more robust than 3.5/5.25 inch disks.
After new disks disappeared from computery shops, you could still get
them for a few years in chandlers' along the east coast of England.
> The disk cotnroler was, IIRC, a
standard 765=, the disk
> format was a normal-ish MFM one. I suyspect it would be very easy to link
> an Amstrad 3" drive (or any other 3" drive -- some of the Hitachi ones
> had a 34 pin edge connector with the stnadard pinout) to another machine
> and write Amstrad disks on it.
Yes. I used to connect a 3" drive to a PC when I needed to transfer
files to/from my CPC 6128. IIRC I told the PC BIOS that it was a 5.25"
drive with a stupidly low capacity and it Just Worked. 22DISK would
happily read and write files.
> Some to think of it, didn't the CPC6128
pre-date the PCW? It had an
> external drive connector which IIRC was a standard 34 pin one. Was there
> ever an external 3" srive unit for that machine? If so it would be very
> easy to link to another machine.
Yes, there was. You could also use 3.5 and 5.25 inch external floppies.
Amdek sold an external drive unit with two 3"
drives. Their advertising
targeted the RS Color Computer. Trivial to connect to most machines with
a "standard" floppy interface.
Was "Amdek" affiliated with Amstrad in any way?
Not AFAIK.
--
David Cantrell | semi-evolved ape-thing
Irregular English:
you have anecdotes; they have data; I have proof