Weird disk drive

[Allison]

>
>Subject: Re: Weird disk drive
>   From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk>
>   Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2006 05:03:11 -0600
>     To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>,
> sellam at vintagetech.com
>
>Sellam Ismail wrote:
>> It's basically just a disk drive that powers up and spins if you put a 
>> disk in it.
>
>OK, questions:
>
>1) Any sign of any additional drive boards within the case or anything that 
>might be ROM on the drive PCBs themselves?
>
>2) Does the disk keep spinning forever when you put it in, or just do a few 
>revolutions and stop?
>
>3) When you put a disk in, do the heads step at all? Or does it just sit on 
>track 0 all the time?
>
>
>And some initial guesses:
>
>1) Homebrew case which someone just never got around to finishing and adding a 
>data connector to.
>
>2) Commercial prototype for testing various aspects (PSU heat dissipation, 
>drive mounting, power socket mounting, case paint etc.)
>
>3) Tester for a *floppy disk* manufacturer (i.e. does my product foul a stock 
>drive mechanism, does it fall apart in the heat of a typical enclosure etc.)
>
>4) Degausser (as you say) or other form of disk eraser
>
>5) TV / movie prop
>
>I'm quite liking the first and last ones - although the last one's probably 
>only credible if the disk keeps spinning forever when you put it in.
>
>Some form of eraser might be possible if the thing's just wired to write junk; 
>even if the heads don't move I suppose someone could have built a "poor man's 
>eraser" which just trashes track 0 :-)
>
>Commercial 'pre-production' type products (2 and 3 above) do seem less likely 
>- not because they wouldn't have existed, but because I'm surprised someone 
>would bother to save them and/or they wouldn't have had a data connector added 
>later to make a fully functioning unit.
>
>Can you take the route of asking the person you got it from - and if they 
>weren't the original owner, following the chain back to the person who was?
>
>cheers
>
>Jules


Or #6:

Many of the trs80 external drive boxes (early non-RS product ca1978) 
would just plug the cable to the drive and pass it out the case through
a space or gap. There was no formal external connector.  

Also the external box for the NS* MDS-A (1978 also) had no external 
connector though there was a noiceable notch in the rear of the case
to pass the 34wide ribbon cable through.

I've seen several of thses.

Allison