Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC • Hacker News Board

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#21

Post by b112 » Sun, Mar 28, 2021, 1:10 AM UTC

zabzonk wrote: post #12

jerrysievert wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They were incredibly noisy - the servos were banging away like mad, particularly if you were doing anything database-like, which I mostly was. heck, even my 5.25" c64 drive was so noisy from knocking its head that I kept the cover unscrewed to realign it on a regular basis. especially after trying to use "copy protected" disks that causes even more knocking. I was also confused when 3.5" floppies came out and were…

My Dad had a floppy on his C64 and it was terribly unreliable, but (once again) less unreliable than the cassette deck that I was stuck with. He loved gadgets, but really only used it to play "Hunchback" and similar games. I often thought "Shall I hit him over the head with a hammer and steal it, so I can create some truly brilliant software?", but I never did.

I wonder about these posts citing c64 and Amiga floppy reliability issues.

Was around both for 10 to 15 years, in computer clubs, ran a punter bbs, worked repairing/selling amigas for years, reliability was awesome, unless one had the rare a bad drive.

Were you lot running 1541s, 71s? Were you living under power lines, beside a power station, and your mom loved fridge magnets? :P

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#22

Post by p_l » Sun, Mar 28, 2021, 2:20 AM UTC

louwrentius wrote: post #5

paulsutter wrote: post #2

Embarrassed to be old enough to remember: 8" floppies were actually called disks, and the smaller 5.25" floppy drives were called diskettes because they were so compact

In Dutch, we always talked about 'diskettes', when talking about the rigid 3.5" disks. The large 5.25" were called floppies. Diskettes were called floppies too sometimes, but never the other way around. I'm from the time frame in which I never saw 8 inch floppies. The 5.25" were on the way out, many PCs had both 1.44 and 1.2 MB drives for a while. /rambling

At least in Poland, the PC culture seems to have ended up calling both 5.25" and 3.5" "dyskietka" (lit. "diskette").

"Disk" tended to be encountered in "official" names used by OS software (so, "disk A:" etc.) but at least I never encountered "disk" to refer to anything other than hard drive since ~1992 or so.

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#23

Post by tartoran » Sun, Mar 28, 2021, 2:25 AM UTC

paulsutter wrote: post #2

Embarrassed to be old enough to remember: 8" floppies were actually called disks, and the smaller 5.25" floppy drives were called diskettes because they were so compact

Haha, good one. I never used 8” disks but I do remember the diskette term going along with floppy disks late 80s/early 90s when I got my first PC. I never put one and one together

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#24

Post by jerrysievert » Sun, Mar 28, 2021, 2:48 AM UTC

b112 wrote: post #21

zabzonk wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Dad had a floppy on his C64 and it was terribly unreliable, but (once again) less unreliable than the cassette deck that I was stuck with. He loved gadgets, but really only used it to play "Hunchback" and similar games. I often thought "Shall I hit him over the head with a hammer and steal it, so I can create some truly brilliant software?", but I never did.

I wonder about these posts citing c64 and Amiga floppy reliability issues. Was around both for 10 to 15 years, in computer clubs, ran a punter bbs, worked repairing/selling amigas for years, reliability was awesome, unless one had the rare a bad drive. Were you lot running 1541s, 71s? Were you living under power lines, beside a power station, and your mom loved fridge magnets? :P

mine was a 1541, but most everyone I knew who had one had the same problems. my amiga floppy (and the external clone drive I bought) was super reliable.

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#25

Post by bcaa7f3a8bbc » Sun, Mar 28, 2021, 3:41 AM UTC

Fan fact: Shugart is today's Seagate, the name was changed because the founder, Alan Shugart Shugart, had two companies, one for HDDs (Shugart Technology) and another for FDDs (Shugart Associates), both named after him. Later the FDD company was sold to Xerox but kept the name, so the HDD company had to change its name to Seagate. The rename was quite clever, it still rhymes with the original word.

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#26

Post by ck2 » Sun, Mar 28, 2021, 3:48 AM UTC

Ha memories. Used to bike down to the local Radio Shack every weekend and fiddle around with their Model II display for hours. How far we've come in my lifetime.

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#27

Post by bitwize » Sun, Mar 28, 2021, 3:51 AM UTC

paulsutter wrote: post #2

Embarrassed to be old enough to remember: 8" floppies were actually called disks, and the smaller 5.25" floppy drives were called diskettes because they were so compact

No. ALL floppies were called "diskettes" because they were tiny compared to hard disks, which were the usual sort of "disk" up until IBM devised the floppy format for loading boot code into their mainframes.

Sauce: My dad had a Tandy Model 16 with 8" drives (of the Shugart Thinline variety, one of which is pictured in the article!). Tandy sold blank 8" media that were labeled as diskettes. In addition, when the computer booted, if it could not detect a boot disk it would turn the screen white (green) with the words "INSERT DISKETTE" in the middle.

In addition, IBM referred to the 8" floppy format as the "Type 1 Diskette", which nomenclature dates from 1973.

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#28

Post by EarlKing » Sun, Mar 28, 2021, 5:35 AM UTC

The first computer I ever used was a Heathkit H89 microcomputer kit running CP/M. Somehow my old man got ahold of an 8" floppy drive from somewhere. I don't recall that it ever saw much use, though. 5 1/4" floppies were simply so much more convenient.

Those were also the days when we still used acoustic couplers with our Hayes Micromodem 100's because god forbid we should ever attach anything directly to Ma Bell's precious phone lines. ALL HAIL THE PHONE COMPANY! BLESSED ARE THE DIAL TONE MAKERS!

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#29

Post by mrlonglong » Sun, Mar 28, 2021, 2:13 PM UTC

I broke my 5.25" floppy disk drive attached to my Pentium 166MHz by putting in a rusty floppy disk. I didn't know enough about these drives to fix it. A real shame, as the 3.5" drive still works.

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#30

Post by zabzonk » Sun, Mar 28, 2021, 2:26 PM UTC

b112 wrote: post #21

zabzonk wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Dad had a floppy on his C64 and it was terribly unreliable, but (once again) less unreliable than the cassette deck that I was stuck with. He loved gadgets, but really only used it to play "Hunchback" and similar games. I often thought "Shall I hit him over the head with a hammer and steal it, so I can create some truly brilliant software?", but I never did.

I wonder about these posts citing c64 and Amiga floppy reliability issues. Was around both for 10 to 15 years, in computer clubs, ran a punter bbs, worked repairing/selling amigas for years, reliability was awesome, unless one had the rare a bad drive. Were you lot running 1541s, 71s? Were you living under power lines, beside a power station, and your mom loved fridge magnets? :P

My Mum detested fridge magnets for some not clear reasons. And no overhead power lines. There was a nearby power transformer though, which on one memorable day burst into flames.

But I remember Dad frequently complaining about reliability, and the drives keep on having to be taken down to a computer shop (back when such things existed) in down-town Lincoln (UK) to be fixed. The problems were entirely mechanical, not electronic.