choosing a 360k FDD

Teac FD-55Bxxx's are okay; Toshiba drives are very much ignored--I've got a couple of ND-01014's that I use for "tough cases" that will often work when nothing else does. There have been some YE Data (YD- 580B) and NEC (1053) drives that I've used with decent results. Fred mentions the Tandon TM-100's; they're not bad, but they are belt- drive. I tweak one of the low-pass filter caps on the drive electronics to give a bit more gain on these. Micropolis 1016-2 likewise are belt drive, but with a leadscrew positioner--they're slow, but indestructible, if the drive belt holds. Note that if you use belt-drive units, the tachometer circuit tends to be pretty simple, so you'll need to keep tabs on the spindle speed at regular intervals. Drives I don't like: Qume 142 and 542; CDC 9428; Shugart SA-450. Note that many older drives will require more power, if that's an issue for you. I've used others; but they didn't make enough of an impression to stick around. If you're going to use hard-sector diskettes from time to time, make sure that your drive will work with them. Some later- model (for 360K, that is) drives will wait until a "drive ready" condition exists (i.e., the spindle is at speed) before gating the read signal to the host. Cheers, Chuck