Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!madler From: madler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: floppy options Message-ID: <1991May13.214125.26544@nntp-server.caltech.edu> Date: 13 May 91 21:41:25 GMT References: Distribution: comp Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Lines: 34 In article mdixon@parc.xerox.com (Mike Dixon) writes: >next says we should buy a 3rd party scsi-mounted floppy drive, but judging >from the experiences reported here they're flakey, not perfectly integrated >with the rest of the system, and somewhat overpriced. One tends to only see problems on comp.sys.next, not successes. The PLI drive I bought has worked like a charm since I plugged it in (I didn't even read the documentation that came with it), and works very well as a Unix floppy drive. The DOS drivers also work pretty well, but are rather slow and don't always translate dates correctly. The thing is rather expensive for a floppy drive, but I needed floppy transfer right away. >it seems to me that we ought to be able to buy one of the floppy >drives next installs in new machines, free up a bay on one machine, >plug it into the controller hardware and power supply that are already >there, and have a 100% compatible cheap floppy drive. of course, we'd That's what I originally wanted to do, but it after many phone calls, I got the Sony headquarters in the USA that deals with floppy drives (among other things) and the fellow told me that the "X" in MPX-111N (the number of the internal NeXT drives) means experimental, and that is a special part that can't be ordered. There is this 34-pin (if memory serves) berg connector on my 040 upgrade board that's just begging to have a drive plugged into it, but it remains unsatisifed. The drive in my PLI has a different part number (which I don't have handy right now--I can post it on request), and that drive should work in that socket as well, though I haven't tried this. By the way, the drive in the PLI has no power connector, so it apparently gets power through the ribbon cable. Mark Adler madler@pooh.caltech.edu