25 Nov
2010
25 Nov
'10
8:14 p.m.
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,