From: wrr3118@ariel.tamu.edu (Rick Russell) Subject: REPORT: Repair options for internal FDHD Date: Mon, 7 Feb 1994 15:30:20 -0600 (CST) A while back, I wrote: > My Mac IIfx's floppy drive has just given up the ghost, completely. I > don't think it's dust, or contamination, or anything easy to fix, and > it's beginning to look like replacement is the only real option. and I asked for some input. I haven't decided on a final solution yet, although I did find out that a company called "Pre-Owned Electronics" (check your favorite Mac magazine's small ad/classified section for details) offers a refurbished, 90-day-warranted replacement FDHD for $169, and they'll give you $40 for a trade-in of a damaged drive. That's a net cost of $129, which is the best net cost I've seen yet. The following (edited) messages contain information on repair/replacement of damaged FDHD drives. Thanks to everyone who replied. Particular thanks go to those who provided specific data on repair options, and to david randall for a fantastic message on the pros and cons of various repair options. If anyone wishes to add to their replies, or submit news ones, I'll be happy to update the report. Rick Russell *** rick-russell@tamu.edu ** IRCnick: Cobalt Messages follow: > From: Wells@mcc.com (Derrell Wells) > Subject: Re: Cheap 1.44Meg FDHD replacement? > Rick you still have a repair option. Try SoftSolutions in Eugene, OR. I > have used them a number of times to repair floppy drives and have never had > a problem with them. Give them a call and they will give you a quote over > the phone. Here is their address: > Soft Solutions > 907 River Road, Suite #98 > Eugene, OR 97404 > Sales 503-461-1136 > Fax 503-461-2005 > From: Parimal Jobanputra > Subject: FDHD available -2nd note > I have a single used 1.44 meg Apple FDHD for sale. It works fine and can > be yours for a total of $150 (including ground shipping and COD charges). > Let me know either way. > My email address is parimal@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu (Note: I did not take him up on his offer, which still stands as far as I know). > From: Fred G Martin > Subject: Re: Cheap 1.44Meg FDHD replacement? (Re: Applied Engineering External Drive) > Isn't that device a SCSI drive? I -think- it is, but you'd better > check. I think it's a good shot, though. > Yeah: Sun Marketing will repair your drive for $109 (assuming it's > not a head problem), or exchange it for a refurbished one for $189. > They've been in business for 11 years, so they're a pretty reliable > establishment. 800 821 3221. > Oh, about the floptical: just checking that you know they can't read > Mac 800K format diskettes. > -Fred > From: randall@indigo.ucdavis.edu (David Randall) > Subject: Re: Cheap 1.44Meg FDHD replacement? > Rick: We have run into a similar problem in our lab. Unfortunately, > it seems as though some bucks are required to fix the problem. If > you are willing to do the installation yourself you can save some > money. The swap is really not very difficult, I (a not too > technical minded person) have taken the drive in and out several > times. The hardest part is getting the lid off the pesky MacII > cases. > Shreve Systems in Shreveport, Lousiana (don't have 800#, see > MacWEEK) will sell you an "official" apple/sony 1.44 floppy drive > that is supposedly brand new with a full one year warranty for $199 > (i believe - at worst it's $299). Sounds pretty good, but wait > there's more. They will give you a credit for your old modem. A > couple of weeks ago, it was $100. So now you are saving > considerablly (at least $70) over your educational price. If you > have any old mac "junk" sitting around collecting dust you can > resell it to shreve for credit. I have not been involved in > purchasing anything from these people, I know of one happy customer. > I checked into getting a drive through our apple authorized repair > shop. Dumb as it may sound (well maybe not), Apple would only send > REFURBISHED drives to them, for the same price as i could walk over > to our apple authorized dealer and buy a new one. It seems like a > pretty good idea to buy NEW. > You mentioned purchasing a floptical as a replacement for your > floppy. We were lured into that trap. I love our floptical!!! It > is most excellent. But there are a couple of problems with using it > to REPLACE a floppy. First, the one we have (i assume all others) > will NOT read 800k floppies, it's idea of a double density disk is > 720k (like in pc world). You can format DD mac disks using the > floptical to 720k, but you won't be able to read 800k disks. Newer > flopticals may have addressed this problem, but i sort of doubt it - > ask the dealer. > The other down side of replacing a floppy with a floptical is that > sometimes you need to boot from a floppy, like if your hard drive > crashes, and various other nightmare instances. You CAN boot from a > floptical, but you will have to change the boot device, since the > floptical uses the scsi bus, like your hard drive. If you have had > a catostrophic failure, you may not be able to access this control > panel. Even in this event you are still not up the creek with out a > paddle, as you can reset the floptical's scsi id to 0 (the normal > boot up device value) and change the hard drive's scsi id. This > should work, but I have not actually tried it. > The bottom line is that there are a few times when you simply MUST have a > floppy drive. Maybe that would be more accurately phrased: There are > times when your life would really be much more simple if you had a floppy > drive. > Of couse if you are really interested in saving some money, perhaps you > could purchase an 800k drive. > By the way, we are in the middle of replacing our broken floppy, but > have not actually done the dirty deed yet. As i mentioned our > floptical works very well for data archival, etc. Please don't > misconstrue my negative remarks about this one aspect of the > floptical as not liking my floptical. These are the only things > about it which i don't like. > If you are interested in the shreve option, reply and i'll check my > macweek. good luck. > david randall randall@chem.ucdavis.edu > Subject: Re: Cheap 1.44Meg FDHD replacement? > From: stubbs@cs.ukans.edu > I just happend to know that apple just drastically reduced > their exchange and outright purchase price of superdrives > to well under $150. I don't know what a mac service dealer > adds on top for markup and installation, but maybe you > could try a different dealer. > SO you think you can't fix the drive? I've fixed quite > a few, but their are some that really go, and some > require a rather lenghty disassembly and lube. > > stubbs@cs.ukans.edu (My thanks again to those who replied - Rick)