Japanese floppy standard.

[gt40]

How compatible are the japanese floppy drives with US hardware and vice-versa.
I need to replace a floppy drive in a controller for a japanese machine - and the machine manufacturer (SodicK) wants $1500 US for an new floppy.

[GT98]

Are 3.5 inch floppie drives universial?

[VJ]

Nope, I know there is a difference in Japan... but that is an awfull lot for a floppy (then again, IBM estimated the price of a fan for an older server around the same price)...

Sasq will most likely be able to tell more...

Jörg

[Jammrock]

Japanese 3.5" floppies are 2.88 MB disks ... or something like that.

Have you searched PriceWatch? Googled it?

Jammrock

[gt40]

I've tried googling, not too much info.
I do know they are 1.2M, and I've heard that they may turn at a different speed???

[Kooldino]

wow, that's crazy. Any way you can "borrow" one and transfer all the data to a US format?

[Jon P. Inghram]

I wonder if an Amiga HD floppy drive would work? Seriously though, if it's just a regular floppy you can go to www.pricewatch.com, click on the floppy drive button, then search for mode 3 and you'll find some drives that say they're compatible.

[gt40]

Thanks for the tip Jon, I'll have a look

[Gurm]

Yep. It's just the "mode 3" thing. The drives are more expensive, but not THAT much more expensive. Like $25 instead of $5.

- Gurm

[The PIT]

Re: Japanese floppy standard.

Originally posted by gt40
How compatible are the japanese floppy drives with US hardware and vice-versa.
I need to replace a floppy drive in a controller for a japanese machine - and the machine manufacturer (SodicK) wants $1500 US for an new floppy.

I reckon they don't do a massive trade in replacements. What a rip off.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

Let see... for 1500 US, you can get...

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Asus K8N (or something)
512MB DDR SDRAM
ATI Radeon 9600 PRO 128MB
Plextor DVD+/-RW
DVD-ROM
US Floppy Drive
A great 430W PSU
A nice chessis



or




a Japanese Floppy drive

[Sasq]

a 1.44 is the same as far as I know, I havn't seen many 2.88's on the shelves so I have no idea.

Well, lets put it this way, i buy a japanese drive, and plug it into my Australian bought mobo - and it works.

Dan

[az]

Most mainboards are compatible with both 1.44, 2.88, and Mode 3 floppies. It's an option in the BIOS.

AZ

[gt40]

Unfortunetly this mobo is a proprietary epson with some special hardware on some special bus that I haven't seen before (and a 286 cpu)-there is no option in the bios must be a jumper somewhere)- also the floppy needs to have jumpers for drive select - there is no twist at the end of the cable.

[Sasq]

just put a twist cable in