27 Jun
2005
27 Jun
'05
3:09 p.m.
I have an HP 16500A analyzer with original 720k disks.
Problem is that only the rear drive seems to read the disks.
Does thls machine use the full-height Sony double-head drive that HP used
all over the place? If so, have you re-greased the eject mechanism? If
not, do so before you ruin the heads -- that's quite possibly what's
happened to one of your drives already :-(. I have done a head
replacement on said Sony drives, it's possible, but not totally trivial
(and nor is getting the replacement head carriage).
I am suspicious that the front drive is bad. I am using
stock 720k (single hole for write protect only) and trying
to format them in both front and rear.
I also am not able to read the stock originals with any
program under either linux or dos. I realize that these
seem to be formatted in a proprietary HP format.
Are these similar to HP LIF disks, as used on the HP9114, etc)? Have you
tried the LIF Utilities for Linux on the HPCC site, or the LIF Utilities
for MS-DOS avaiable somewhere else?
I luckily downloaded all the kits from the Agilent site before
they were thoughtfully erased by Agilent. However these
programs have not produced anything but floppy images
which I cannot get onto a disk either.
I should also explain that I am trying to use the 1.44 disks
Do you mean disks or drives here? Don't try to use 1.44M media, it won't
work (the density-select hole is in just the right place so that the
disk-inserted sensor is not activated. It may work better if you cover
this hole, but I still don't recomend it). You should have no problem
with a PC 1.44M drive, though.
I've never figured out the details of the HP format, in particular the
bad-track stuff in the last cylinder. My method has always been to format
good-quality disks in an HP drive (thus ensuring there is no bad block
replacement) and to then just bother with the first 77 cylinders.
I pretty much am convinced the front floppy on the
thing is
bad, so I need one of those. I don't know if it is common, or
a weird one specialized to HP yet or not. I also have not been
If it is the SOny I would guess it is, then it's a 600 rpm drive. The
interface pinout is non-standard too, but the double speed (and thus
double data rate) is the main problem with using other drives.
These drives can often be repaired (I've got home-made schematics for
several versions, I've done mechanical repairs too). If you pull the
drive, post the numbers off the nameplate and the number on the main PCB
(it'll be something like FC-9), and I cna see what I can do.
able to clean it, as I need to buy a fresh supply of
alcohol (isopropyl)
to clean with.
-tony