Floppy drive to A600 Help - brands

[Tiago]

Hi everyone,
I will buy one A600 that has a broken floppy drive.
I have to buy a new floppy.
An old Floppy could be really expensive, i read that actual pc floppys can be adaptated.

I read that this brands can work in a Amiga:

Sony MPF520-1
CHINON FZ-357 -------> this one i think the most used one but is expensive...
Sony MPF420-1
Sony MPF920-3
TEAC FD-235HF 3217
TEAC FD-235H 5240
TEAC FD-235HF 7291 e Sony MPF-920E
TEAC FD-235HF 7291
Panasonic JU-257 A606
Panasonic JU-257 A606
Panasonic JU-253 043P

Do you know anything about them?
What stores do you know?
Thank you
Tiago

[Harrison]

I have no experience of adapting a PC floppy drive to work in an Amiga.

One issue you must take into account is high density (HD) drives. Escom used adapted PC HD floppy drives in the last A1200's they made and these caused a lot of compatibility issues, especially with games as many use their own custom disk file structures and the HD Floppy drives just couldn't read them.

So if you are going to try this make sure it is a Double Density (DD) drive you buy and not a High Density (HD) drive.

Personally I would source an Actual Amiga floppy drive from ebay. Many people sell of the parts from broken Amigas so you can often find drives for sale. Alternatively you can take the drive out of an external Amiga floppy drive and use that inside the Amiga to replace the original.

[Tiago]

Yes i will install a DD Floppy.

I found one TEAC FD-235HF 1 hour ago here in Portugal for 4 euros, i think i will buy it and see if i can modify it to work with the A600, it seems i have only to change some jumpers on the drive.

[Harrison]

If that is all that is required then that is a good solution.

Please let us know if you manage to get that to work as it will be a very useful piece of information for Amiga owners, especially as the Amiga starts to get older as more drives will start to fail.

If you find this does work then I will add the information to the main site's FAQs to help out others with a similar problem.

[Tiago]

If that is all that is required then that is a good solution.

Please let us know if you manage to get that to work as it will be a very useful piece of information for Amiga owners, especially as the Amiga starts to get older as more drives will start to fail.

If you find this does work then I will add the information to the main site's FAQs to help out others with a similar problem.


Sure Harrison, but as i told you, i do not have yet the A600, i will buy it in a few days, but i am allready reading info about the floppy.

[Harrison]

Couldn't you therefore find one that has a working Floppy drive instead and buy that? The A600 doesn't go for much these days, although it does fetch more than an A500. Strange considering it's actually not as popular.

[Tiago]

Couldn't you therefore find one that has a working Floppy drive instead and buy that? The A600 doesn't go for much these days, although it does fetch more than an A500. Strange considering it's actually not as popular.

Well i see your point but, i will get the A600 almoust free. I have one Hard-disk in home that i could use. The A600 dimensions are quite better then A500 or A600 (space is something i dont have). So i will just spend some money in the floppy.
But off course i would prefer a A1200...

[Tiago]

As i told before i bought the A1200, not the A600.

My internal drive was with problems, but it was easy, i just open tha amiga and the cable was not well plug. So it's fine now.

But i bought a Sony MPF920 floppy to see if it worked.... i did as i read... cross the cable pin #2 with #34, but the Sony MPF920 had to be model 3, and this one was a newer model, so it didnt work. :-(

[Harrison]

That is annoying. Is it possible to easily tell if it is a model 3 before purchase? Or is it a bit hit and miss?

[Tiago]

That is annoying. Is it possible to easily tell if it is a model 3 before purchase? Or is it a bit hit and miss?

The drive must be a:
Sony MPF920-3 but the one i got was:
Sony MPF920 (it did not have the -3) so, it is a different model, this one dont have jumpers....

4 euros down the toilet.... but i will not give up, till i found a compatible drive.