10 Dec
2004
10 Dec
'04
8:58 a.m.
From: "Gene Ehrich"
<gehrich(a)tampabay.rr.com>
Is there anyway that it can be attached external to the PC through serial,
parallel or USB ports
Hi
Yes and No. Of course, one can make some hardware to
handle the drive and connect it to anything. There
are 3-1/2 inch drives for the USB. It might be that
the software would see a 5-1/4 drive as it is through
one of these interfaces. Remove the 3-1/2 and wire it
to the 5-1/4.
For the parallel, I have some hardware someplace
that can connect an IDE drive to the parallel port.
I don't think I've seen anything for a floppy.
Although, I've seen tape drives that connect to
the parallel port. These normally connect to
a floppy port. One might be able to do something
with one of these interfaces.
One of the catalogs that I've seen recently had
a USB experimenters kit. One could most likely use
one of these with a PIC and a controller chip to
interface to just about any drive.
Does anyone recall if the ZIP drives were on the floppy
ports? If so, one could take a parallel ZIP dive and
remove the drive part to connect a floppy drive. One
still needs to create some software.
It is still just a problem of hardware and software.
A better idea might be to locate an older machine
at one of the second hand stores and use that.
Dwight
10 Dec
10 Dec
9:14 a.m.
At 02:58 PM 12/10/04 -0800, you wrote:
You should have. Backpack makes 3 1/2" and 5 1/4" drives that work off
the parallel port. And also tape drives, CD drives, etc. But I don't know
if they have drivers that work with W98 and up.
Joe
From: "Gene Ehrich"
<gehrich(a)tampabay.rr.com>
Is there anyway that it can be attached external to the PC through serial,
parallel or USB ports
Hi
Yes and No. Of course, one can make some hardware to
handle the drive and connect it to anything. There
are 3-1/2 inch drives for the USB. It might be that
the software would see a 5-1/4 drive as it is through
one of these interfaces. Remove the 3-1/2 and wire it
to the 5-1/4.
For the parallel, I have some hardware someplace
that can connect an IDE drive to the parallel port.
I don't think I've seen anything for a floppy. 
9:53 a.m.
On Fri, 10 Dec 2004, Joe R. wrote:
You should have. Backpack makes 3 1/2" and 5
1/4" drives that work off
the parallel port. And also tape drives, CD drives, etc. But I don't know
if they have drivers that work with W98 and up.
I used a Microsolutions Backpack 2.8M 3.5" drive with Windoze 95, so it
should work with 98 (probly).
Using it with NT/2K/XP would probably require different drivers.
11 Dec
11 Dec
12:34 a.m.
At 04:58 PM 12/10/2004, Dwight K. Elvey wrote:
There are 3-1/2 inch drives for the USB. It might be
that
the software would see a 5-1/4 drive as it is through
one of these interfaces. Remove the 3-1/2 and wire it
to the 5-1/4.
And power would come from where? I doubt USB can power
an old 5 1/4".
One of the catalogs that I've seen recently had
a USB experimenters kit. One could most likely use
one of these with a PIC and a controller chip to
interface to just about any drive.
And these kits let you set all the magic parameters that
are sent to the OS? And one of those tells what type
of floppy it is? I wonder how that's done. Maybe 8" is
possible, too.
At 05:30 PM 12/10/2004, Fred Cisin wrote:
It may be possible to convert some USB drives from 3.5
to 5.25.
But many of the MODERN ones have combined the USB interface with
the circuitry of the drive.
I thought the same thing... along with thinking that these USB
3 1/2" externals must be very low-power, laptop-y sorts of drives.
- John
4:39 p.m.
SMSC makes a USB floppy disk controller chip. Internally it contains
a 765 floppy disk controller controlled by an 8051 microcontroller.
From the datasheet it's not clear whether or not
the hardware and
standard firmware support 5.25" floppy drives.
http://www.smsc.com/main/catalog/usb97cfdc2_01.html
http://www.smsc.com/main/datasheets/97cfdc2_01.pdf
Power would not have to come from the USB bus. A USB device can have
its own power supply.
4:14 a.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: Dwight K. Elvey <dwight.elvey(a)amd.com>
To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 5:58 PM
Subject: Re: 5-1/4' drive on modern PC
Does anyone recall if the ZIP drives were on the
floppy
ports? If so, one could take a parallel ZIP dive and
remove the drive part to connect a floppy drive. One
still needs to create some software.
All of the internal ZIPs I've ever seen have been IDE.
Later --
Glen
0/0
5:09 a.m.
Does anyone
recall if the ZIP drives were on the floppy
ports? If so, one could take a parallel ZIP dive and
remove the drive part to connect a floppy drive. One
still needs to create some software.
All of the internal ZIPs I've ever seen have been IDE. 
14 Dec
14 Dec
3:19 a.m.
Glen Goodwin wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: Dwight K. Elvey <dwight.elvey(a)amd.com>
There are also SCSI internal and external ZIP drives
--
--- Dave Woyciesjes
--- ICQ# 905818
Does anyone recall if the ZIP drives were on the
floppy
ports? If so, one could take a parallel ZIP dive and
remove the drive part to connect a floppy drive. One
still needs to create some software.
All of the internal ZIPs I've ever seen have been IDE.
Later --
Glen
0/0
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acme＠gbronline.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
dwight.elvey＠amd.com -
glen.slick＠gmail.com -
jfoust＠threedee.com -
rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com -
spectre＠floodgap.com -
woyciesjes＠sbcglobal.net