5.25 inch floppy drive inspection, repair, cleaning, alignment

[@SimonSideburns]

They say you learn something new every day, and today is no exception. I don't think I ever used a source drive in the SYS command back in the good old MS-DOS days. I think I was always booting from a drive, and then transferring the system files to another drive, so only ever used one parameter - the destination drive. It piqued my interest enough to look up the command syntax.

[@LarryRobinsonintothefog]

Intriguing, back in the day we had to use a diagnostic program to adjust track 0 and to step to the track where we would use an an alignment disk with an oscilloscope. Using sounds is neat.

[@bbuhler]

Do you by chance know where I could find that procedure documented? I don't have a motherboard with a floppy controller on it, so I have to use a USB archival interface to access the drive, and I can't think of how to use this DOS program to check alignment.

[@LarryRobinsonintothefog]

@@bbuhler That's been back in the 80's so I don't remember if they had a Tandy Service manual or someone showing us what to do. They later had Tandy computer repair classes. There was TDC (Tandy Drive Controller) as a diagnostic program for Tandy computers so there should be manuals.

[@LarryRobinsonintothefog]

@@bbuhler The Model-3 PDF linelectrickery.hosting.philpem.me.uk/comp/trs80-4p/doc/Model_3-4-4P_Diagnostics_Manual_(1983)(Tandy)(pdf).pdf

[@bbuhler]

@@LarryRobinsonintothefog thank you, I'll run down that path.

[@FloppyDiskWorkshop]

As far as I know using a DOS program to directly access USB hardware, especially a USB floppy interface is impossible or at best unreliable. Secondly, if you are using an off-the-shelf USB 3.5 inch drive, it doesn't require alignment I would try to get a Pentium 4 motherboard or an early CoreDuo motherboard. Those are the most recent ones with an onboard floppy controller and BIOS support.

[@Bedfford]

very instructive, thanks!

[@JmJou]

Hola. Unos años despues...... ¿Qué programa utilizas para alinear?. Saludos y gracias.

[@FloppyDiskWorkshop]

I used ImageDisk 1.18 vetusware.com/download/ImageDisk%201.18%201.18/?id=15485

[@angel-karumagames4170]

Thank you for your video.It's great.

[@angel-karumagames4170]

Can you share the program used, "IMD". Thanks.

[@FloppyDiskWorkshop]

dunfield.classiccmp.org/img/

[@MrTomuhho]

Great video I love such restoration of the old machines. I do the same. By the way do you have any spares for NEC FD1157C? I need the chip which is named on the board N109 with TI logo.

[@FloppyDiskWorkshop]

Nice to hear. Unfortunately, I don't have spares for these kinds of chips, so I'm sorry I can't help you.

[@simoncowbell.6783]

Hint: you can use a wide flat blade screwdriver to finely adjust the alignment. Those notches at the edge of the head assembly attachment and the base are made for that. Very similar to what a car's points ignition had for adjusting the gap.

[@FloppyDiskWorkshop]

Thanks. This particular unit doesn't allow for anything else than what I do in this video, so I'm not sure what you mean. Depending on the brand and make, these actions can be totally different for each drive.

[@MChardine]

Great vidoe. What's the name of the dos software to check aligment ? Thank you 😂

[@FloppyDiskWorkshop]

It is called ImageDisk by Dave Dunfield

[@ryant2389]

Is there a way to get a disk from an aligned drive without having one yourself? Like anyone that sells them reputably? I have a teac fd55gfr and a fd55bk but neither can read discs. I’ve cleaned them, and can read the file structure of some of my floppies, but can’t copy the data or format the disks. Is it possible the drive is fine and all of my disks are bad? I got them from a coworker and I don’t think they were stored well.

[@FloppyDiskWorkshop]

You can always try to buy disks from some kind of OEM software package, like official DOS install disks, especially ones with the write protection intact. Those would in my view be the best starting point in case you have no good drives and no proven good disks. Have you tried WinImage to read the disks as an image? That way you might at the very least be able to recover some of the data on them. It is hard to draw conclusions from this, but from what you describe, it sounds like the drives are bad, but it might also be a combination of bad drives and bad disks. You say you cleaned the drives. Did you clean the heads also? How did you do this?

[@ryant2389]

@@FloppyDiskWorkshop yeah I cleaned the heads with IPA after dusting them with canned air. Both drives were in a 286 with all the disks in those Rolodex style cases. It had been stored poorly I think due to the level of crud on the outside of the cases. I have a couple dos boot disks that I can try for alignment.

[@FloppyDiskWorkshop]

That indeed sounds OK as a cleaning method for the heads. Can you see evidence of the disks having been stored in moist conditions? For example, do they smell moldy? If so, I wouldn't get my hopes up for those disks, unfortunately.

[@gustavogoncalves3083]

where can i get the IMD program?

[@simoncowbell.6783]

Not going to post a link but it's not very hard to find. The program's full name is ImageDisk.

[@gustavogoncalves3083]

@@simoncowbell.6783 You helped me a lot! Thank you very much!

[@FloppyDiskWorkshop]

Not sure why it wouldn't be allowed to post a link. It's on the internet for free and its abandon-ware in any case, so I don't see the issue: dunfield.classiccmp.org/img/

[@simoncowbell.6783]

@@FloppyDiskWorkshop I thought the server hosting the program might get overloaded when search engines, bots and viewers who read the comments all follow the link. That's why.

[@FloppyDiskWorkshop]

Actually, I just typed in ImageDisk in Google to find that link to begin with :). And if there were a hundred people actually interested in using that program to do anything with floppy disks, I would be extremely impressed, considering how obscure this area of interest really is :)

[@shadman6167]

Hello, I have a Panasonic 475-5 disk drive 5.25” which i cleaned the heads with a cotton swab and isopropyl since i don’t have a cleaning diskette. I unscrewed the top head (2 screws) and put it back in place once cleaned. But not i cannot get it to work anymore. When using Imagedisk, it is always reading 0 matches and 18 mismatches and can get to the high frequency sound by moving the top head frontwards, backwards, right, left… Also i noticed that it doesn’t read anything at position /track 0 for both heads H0 and H1 on IMD. It shows “?”. I have to move it one step so that it starts reading. I need help !

[@FloppyDiskWorkshop]

What was the drive doing before you unscrewed the top head? It might have had problems before, but you may have made the situation more complex by breaking a potentially OK alignment of the top head and introducing a second issue to the drive. I normally only unscrew the top head when I cannot get it to read anything at all or cannot get it aligned while head 0 doesn't have issues. Cleaning, even without a cleaning disk, should not have required unscrewing the head. A cotton swab could have fitted between the 2 heads in the drive open position. In any case, the Panasonic JU-475 series has the head carriage driven by a motor with "worm" axis. This worm, if worn out, can cause head misalignment to occur randomly at every jerk of the motor. Please try to make sure your head carriage is completely fixated when the drive is turned off. It sounds like maybe this is your first problem. Like stated before, likely you created a second problem by unscrewing the top head and putting it back out of alignment. I would say this can only be solved if you first get head 0 completely in alignment to have a good reference. Then you can slightly unscrew head 1, and carefully move it around for fractions of millimeters until by chance you find the good alignment again. I have managed this once or twice maybe. But my experience with the Panasonic JU-475 series is that they are a lost cause if they are worn out.

[@shartfish1901]

Hello, do you offer head alignment service? My floppy drive just died :(

[@FloppyDiskWorkshop]

I can offer advice. You should visually inspect the drive first to see if everything looks OK and no dust is blocking anything. Then check the drive in a different PC and with different disks. A floppy drive dying could have any number of reasons. I wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion that head alignment is the problem. Head alignment might be the problem if you format/write a disk in that drive, which is then unreadable in another drive.

[@shartfish1901]

@@FloppyDiskWorkshop thanks floppy. Turned out it was a head crash on a bad disc. Some of the residue was leftover on the head, when I cleaned it it worked again =]

[@racsonp]

Nice!!! Could be nice if you list some drivers on eBay...let us know.

[@FloppyDiskWorkshop]

I think there are already many drives on eBay. For example, see www.ebay.nl/itm/224822645432?hash=item34587952b8:g:6hkAAOSwRFlh~S-n That seller also sells many tested drives.

[@henrikgustav2294]

what dos program to test ?

[@FloppyDiskWorkshop]

ImageDisk (IMD): dunfield.classiccmp.org/img/