Author Topic: 5.25 diskettes for 1571 (Read 2010 times)

alvaro262 · « **on:** February 17, 2011, 06:11 PM »

Hello Fiends!

I have recently bought some 5.25 diskettes, but when I tried to use them, the 1571 of my C128D failed and printed "bad disk error". I saw those disks are high density. My question is if the commodore floppy disk drives can use this kind of diskettes. I do not know where I can get the standard "double density".
Thank you for your help !!

RobertB · « **Reply #1 on:** February 17, 2011, 06:29 PM »

No, the 1571 cannot use a high-density 5.25" disk. Double-density, double-sided disks are available from several sources, like the Athana Corp. in Los Angeles. http://www.athana.com/html/diskette.html

FCUG celebrating 30 years,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

Andrew Wiskow · « **Reply #2 on:** February 21, 2011, 03:58 PM »

Athana is your best bet for new, high quality DSDD floppy disks. Alternatively, you can always find them for sale on eBay, but as with everything on eBay, the quality of what you'll get is kind of hit and miss.

RobertB · « **Reply #3 on:** February 21, 2011, 04:24 PM »

Quote from: Andrew Wiskow on February 21, 2011, 03:58 PM

Athana is your best bet for new, high quality DSDD floppy disks.

Yes, for the re-release of the rare C64 game, Super Pogo Stick, at the July 23-24 CommVEx this year, I was thinking of purchasing 50 colored disks from Athana. BTW, for the CommVEx 2010 release of Berzerk 1.1, the game came on NIB, baby blue disks (which we so happened to have in storage).

Having shown Super Pogo Stick at today's FCUG meeting,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

BigDumbDinosaur · « **Reply #4 on:** February 23, 2011, 03:01 AM »

Also, DSQD disks will work and actually may be a bit more reliable. Dunno if there's any source for them though.

RobertB · « **Reply #5 on:** February 24, 2011, 06:20 PM »

Quote from: BigDumbDinosaur on February 23, 2011, 03:01 AM

Also, DSQD disks will work and actually may be a bit more reliable. Dunno if there's any source for them though.

Athana International to the rescue again. Here is an e-mail I received from them a few hours ago --

Thank you for your inquiry about 5.25" Quad Density Disks (DS/QD). We
have this product available. The price is $32.50 EA. BX/10 plus shipping.
We accept Visa, MasterCard & American Express. If you have any questions,
please let us know. We will be glad to help.

http://www.athana.com/

They responded very quickly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

BigDumbDinosaur · « **Reply #6 on:** February 25, 2011, 02:41 PM »

Quote from: RobertB on February 24, 2011, 06:20 PM

Quote from: BigDumbDinosaur on February 23, 2011, 03:01 AM
Also, DSQD disks will work and actually may be a bit more reliable. Dunno if there's any source for them though.

Athana International to the rescue again. Here is an e-mail I received from them a few hours ago --

Thank you for your inquiry about 5.25" Quad Density Disks (DS/QD). We
have this product available. The price is $32.50 EA. BX/10 plus shipping.
We accept Visa, MasterCard & American Express. If you have any questions,
please let us know. We will be glad to help.

http://www.athana.com/

They responded very quickly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

That's about the price I was paying for them back when I had dual SFD-1001s hooked up to my C-128. I used BASF ones and never had any trouble. About one out of ten DSDD disks would fail to format on the SFD drives. That was never a problem with DSQD disks.

airship · « **Reply #7 on:** February 26, 2011, 06:19 AM »

Man, I loved my SFD-1001 back in the day! I could get an entire issue's worth of screen snapshots and text files on a single disk.

Andrew Wiskow · « **Reply #8 on:** March 21, 2011, 08:44 AM »

Quote from: airship on February 26, 2011, 06:19 AM

Man, I loved my SFD-1001 back in the day! I could get an entire issue's worth of screen snapshots and text files on a single disk.

I was never able to afford an SFD-1001 "back in the day," and nowadays, I haven't been able to find a working one.

RobertB · « **Reply #9 on:** March 21, 2011, 02:33 PM »

Quote from: Andrew Wiskow on March 21, 2011, 08:44 AM

I was never able to afford an SFD-1001 "back in the day," and nowadays, I haven't been able to find a working one.

I brought my working SFD-1001 to a FCUG meeting a few years ago.

Relaxing after showing my English friends the sights,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

Andrew Wiskow · « **Reply #10 on:** March 22, 2011, 02:54 AM »

Quote from: RobertB on March 21, 2011, 02:33 PM

I brought my working SFD-1001 to a FCUG meeting a few years ago.

Seeing a working one is cool... but I want to *own* a working one.

airship · « **Reply #11 on:** March 22, 2011, 08:52 AM »

Finding an IEEE interface is the hard part. I see an SFD-1000 for sale 3-4 times a year, but I have never seen a C128 interface for sale. I know they exist, and I'd love to have one. Then I'll buy an SFD.

tokra · « **Reply #12 on:** March 22, 2011, 09:15 AM »

This german shop has about 100 SFD 1001 (new and tested) and the interface for it IEC64W for sale. The SFD1001 is 98,50 EUR. The interface 49,50 EUR.

http://elektronik-technik.biz/

The shop has LOTS of rarities for Commodore, but the prices are very steep usually. I'm not sure if he speaks english, never dealt with him myself, but I've heard from others on german forums who did. He seems to have been a Commodore dealer back in the day already.

Andrew Wiskow · « **Reply #13 on:** March 23, 2011, 12:56 AM »

There are two big deterrants to buying a drive from Germany... First, the power for the drive would most likely be 220/240V. Second, the shipping cost would be very expensive. I've purchased a couple 1570 drives from Germany just for the rarity aspect, and by swapping out the internal power supply in the 1570 with the power supply from a North American 1541, they work fine on 120V power. I'm not sure if the same would be true for a European SFD-1001.

maraud · « **Reply #14 on:** March 23, 2011, 06:39 AM »

I did a bulk order of disks from Athana a couple of weeks ago and can save you quite a bit off of their boxed price. I can sell em for .80 USD each with a sleeve for as many as you want. Plus S&H and paypal fees of course.

Blacklord · « **Reply #15 on:** March 23, 2011, 08:11 AM »

I've just picked up 200 boxes of NOS Verbatim DSDD 5.25" floppies (10 to a box). All sealed and at an very, very good price (less than $AUD1 per box)

Once I've checked a few of them I'll offer them up for cost plus postage.

FOR USA guys, I've had a lot of issues with postage there lately and Australia Post is not guaranteeing delivery of normal items - your homeland security mob tend to randomly stop mail. So any items to the US will need to go Aus Post Courier (so it can be tracked and insured) which will bump the price quite a bit. They also state that all articles over 500g and all ECI and EPI services to the US will be subject to an additional $9 security surcharge and may face transit delays of up to 48 hours.

These restrictions don't apply to postage anywhere else in the world.

BigDumbDinosaur · « **Reply #16 on:** March 23, 2011, 02:19 PM »

Quote from: Blacklord on March 23, 2011, 08:11 AM

FOR USA guys, I've had a lot of issues with postage there lately and Australia Post is not guaranteeing delivery of normal items - your homeland security mob tend to randomly stop mail.

Mob is a good description of the "Homeland Security" crowd. We can't keep out illegal Mexicans but, by Gawd, we're going to crack down on the illicit flow of floppy disks!

Blacklord · « **Reply #17 on:** March 23, 2011, 03:14 PM »

Quote from: BigDumbDinosaur on March 23, 2011, 02:19 PM

Quote from: Blacklord on March 23, 2011, 08:11 AM
FOR USA guys, I've had a lot of issues with postage there lately and Australia Post is not guaranteeing delivery of normal items - your homeland security mob tend to randomly stop mail.

Mob is a good description of the "Homeland Security" crowd. We can't keep out illegal Mexicans but, by Gawd, we're going to crack down on the illicit flow of floppy disks!

Actually I had an Amiga 2000 keyboard returned recently witha "prohibited import" sticker attached

BigDumbDinosaur · « **Reply #18 on:** March 25, 2011, 12:11 PM »

Quote from: Blacklord on March 23, 2011, 03:14 PM

Actually I had an Amiga 2000 keyboard returned recently witha "prohibited import" sticker attached

That's ridiculous! The "prohibited import" sticker should be applied to the forehead of the pea-brain customs bloke who decided that a keyboard for a 20 year old computer system is dangerous. Nothing like our tax dollars being used so wisely.

Hydrophilic · « **Reply #19 on:** March 26, 2011, 07:35 AM »

Corrrect me if I'm wrong (I've never owned an Amiga, though I really wanted one back in the day), but those keyboards are not passive devices like the C64/128 keyboard ... right? They are more like PC keyboards with digital circuitry to decode keystrokes and turn them into 'scan codes' ?

Such devices invaribly employ an oscillator. As an oscillator is a key component of nuclear warheads (and other weapons of mass destruction); as such, it should be 'banned' by homeland security

Author Topic: 5.25 diskettes for 1571 (Read 2010 times)

alvaro262