12 Dec
2005
12 Dec
'05
9:24 p.m.
On 11/12/05 19:03, "Tony Duell" <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
Nope. It was Microdrives or nothing with Sinclair stuff. Someone, I'm not
sure who, did badge a 3.5" drive as a Sinclair unit for the QL but I've no
idea if it was Sinclair themselves since the associated controller was a
MicroPeripherals design and the casing was identical to at least 2 other
controllers I've got downstairs :)
Did Sinclair
use them purely because Amstrad had taken them over (or were
about to) and Amstrad forced them to use that drive? I remember magazine
articles around the +3 launch complaining that it didn't have a 3.5" drive.
Did Sinclair ever use the 3" drive (or any other floppy?) The Spectrum +3
was surely late enough to actually be an Amstrad (which would explain the
3" drive). I always thought the 3" disk was mechanically
superior to the 3.5" one.
Pity more manufacturers didn't use it.
They certainly feel more solid and can take an awful lot more abuse than
3.5" drives; I've never had a disk stick in a 3" drive for example, and
when
they become unreliable just change the drive belt and you're away again. The
Betamax of the floppy drive world.
--
Adrian/Witchy
Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator
Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?