Floppy drive oddity? (TEC FB-503)

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Wed Jun 23 23:33:56 2004

>
> Picked up 6 Morrow MD computers this past weekend.
>
> All appear to work, however I have one with floppy drive
> trouble ...
>
> The drives in question are TEC FB-503 1/2 height 5.25"
> drives. Only one of the machines has these drives.

[..]

>
> I thought that perhaps they were 80 track drives or some such,

Are there any letters after the FD-503 part of the number? In general
Teac suffixes tell you the number of heads and cylinders.

> Does anyone know anything about these drives? Are they 80 track
> or otherwise "odd"? Are they known to have a high failure rate
> (especially with age)? Any info would be appreciated.

Does the disk rotate? Does the head seek to cylinder 0 at power on? Have
you tried looking at the ReadData line on the interface connector with a
'scope or logic analyser?

-tony
Received on Wed Jun 23 2004 - 23:33:56 BST