Repairing Floppy Drives

[robcfg]

Hello everyone!

I got another single drive Dragon Data disk unit, and to no surprise it doesn't work...

After DSKINIT I always get a ?RF ERROR.

Have you repaired your drives? And, can I use a standard PC 5.25 drive instead?

I have a 3.5 drive that I use with my Dragon that works like a charm, but I'd like to have my original unit workig if possible.

Any help appreciated!

Regards,
Rob

[pser1]

Hello Rob,
this remembers me the problems I had with the Lafumat controller trying to use 5.25" drives 1,2Mb.
Acording to him, you could make adjustements when this error pops-up, but I have never succeeded with those drives.
Finally, I gave up and now I have two 3.5" drives 1.44Mb that work without problems, formatted at 180K, 360K or 720K.
It seems that only drives of 360K - 5.25" could be a chance, Cumana type for instance ... but I have not tested that choice (I just have 1.2Mb or 1.44Mb drives)
If you are using the Dragon Data controller, maybe once open you could access some adjustable element (as in lafumat controller)
best luck!
pere

[Alastair]

I know of 30 year old disk drives for other computers failing due to worn or perished drive belts. I don't know if Dragon Data drives are susceptible to this problem, but it could be something to check.

[robcfg]

Hi Pere!

I usually have a 3.5" which works flawlessly, but I'd like to get the original drives working.

Alastair, I'll be taking a look, I was quite surprise to see that they have a belt. Is there any info on the belt characteristics so I can get some of them?

Thank you very much!

[tjewell]

Hi all, apologies for reviving this ancient thread, but I'm wondering if you ever fixed this?

I've got a new (to me!) double 5.25 Dragon Drive, and it reads the few floppies I have fine, but I get an 'RF' when I try and DSKINIT a new one. Any idea what this error is indicative of? Rob, did you ever fix yours?

Cheers, Tony

[robcfg]

In my case, I used another controller and the 5.25" disk drives worked straight away.

It may be a calibration issue, but that's not trivial to fix.

You could try to clean the heads with isopropyl alcohol.

Best luck!

[tjewell]

Thanks Rob!

It's funny, I can read and write to my one existing, pre-formatted disk (a stock control program that was in the drive when it came), which seems to imply all is well. I simply can't format a new disk. Thanks for the tip regarding using another controller - I do have one *somewhere*.

[tjewell]

Ah, alas, the spare controller doesn't make a difference. Doing a DSKINIT 1,1,40, I hear the drive move 40 times and then stop with an RF error. Which makes me think it's failing to verify it. Hmm.

[robcfg]

Which kind of floppy disks are you using?
I've noticed that HD 5.25" floppies (1.2Mb) don't work very well with older drives. If you can, try 360KB floppies instead.

[tjewell]

Ah, Simon suggested the same thing on the Facebook group. I'd forgotten that these things are important, and yes, I'm using HD floppies. Right, time to rummage through the boxes in the attic - there must be a 360K 5.25" floppy in this house somewhere!

Cheers, Tony