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Finding drives for an XT chassis

Forrest

Forrest

Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2018
Messages
37
Location
Western PA, USA
Hey there! I am finally getting around to my XT/286 build, having trouble finding some new drives.

FDD:
I want to add a 3.5" drive to the system, mine only came with the 5.25" half height and a blanking kit. I've read somewhere that later XT and XT/286's had this as an option, and if so, I'd like to find one. If not, then I'm wondering what the best match aesthetically would be.

HDD:
Got a Seagate ST-4038 comming from the eBay. It has no faceplate. The broken drive my system shipped with has an IBM plate, but missing the LED. So really I'm hunting an LED.
 
I'd imagine finding a 3.5" drive intended for a 5162, if they exist, would be even harder than finding one for a 5170.

Fortunately the drives in a 5162 are black, so I'd just get a nice vintage 5 1/4" to 3.5" drive mounting bracket in black, and a modern 3.5" drive in black, and use that to replace your current drive blanking box (but save it, as the XT drive blanking kit is pretty hard to find these days as well).

Something like this:

floppy drive adapter.jpg - Click image for larger version Name: floppy drive adapter.jpg Views: 0 Size: 25.5 KB ID: 1228321
and this:
black floppy.jpg - Click image for larger version Name: black floppy.jpg Views: 0 Size: 21.6 KB ID: 1228322

I'll bet the colors match better than when people do the same thing on a 5170 using beige or white parts.
 
True, but what about the texture? The IBM parts my system came with seem to be "rougher" than some other stuff I have.
 
Forrest said:
Come to think of it, wouldn't the IBM drives of the time be 720k?
Click to expand...

Yes, the drives IBM offered for the XT, AT, and XT/286 were 720K but the high density floppy controller in the AT and XT/286 could support 1.44MB drives. No reason not to use the more common 1.44 MB drive and it will work fine even if used only for 720K formatted disks.

Note that the setup for 1.44MB drives isn't supported by IBM's setup program so a workaround is described at minuszerodegrees.net
 
Okay, guess that settles that then. What can y'all tell me about the hard drive light tho? I think I'm missing a screw for that too.
 
Forrest said:
Okay, guess that settles that then. What can y'all tell me about the hard drive light tho?
Click to expand...

LEDs come in a vast universe of shapes; looking at a picture of a 5162 it looks to me like it uses a white-bordered panel indicator one like this. (Although, come to think of it, I'm not sure the original would be red, they may have been green or yellow? And of course you may not have the same bezel, measure the hole.) If you can't find a preassembled jumper wire (I used to hoard these sorts of things in a junk box) it should be simple enough to assemble your own with an LED, wire, a Berg connector, and some shrink-wrap tubing.

One thing I'm not sure about is in a 5162 is if you should be trying to connect that activity LED to the drive itself (if it has jumpers for it) or if it should have wires long enough to run to the HD controller. I want to say in an AT the HDD activity light is driven by the controller, but it's just been too long.
 
The photos Ive seen all have the LED plugged into the drive, I think AT used the card since the LED panel was part of the whole case.

As for the panel, what holds the LED in place?
 
Forrest said:
As for the panel, what holds the LED in place?
Click to expand...

Depending on the bezel it may have just been a blob of hot glue.

And re: modem7's comment, yeah, that fits my vague recollection. If you want the LED to blink you need to run it to the front panel LED header on the controller.
 
Hms't. Starting to wonder if my bezel will even work. My system came with a Seagate ST-4096, doesn't look like an IBM oen drive, but had an IBM bezel. Will this even fit the ST-4038?
 
K, just noticed something else, the screw for the 5162's half height mounting brackets are a finer thread than the rest of the screws. How the heck do I make the new drive fit?
 
Search for a Toshiba ND-352TH-A 3.5" Floppy Drive 720KBIf you get lucky you might find one with a black face plate. You will then need to replace the led in the floppy with a dark yellow one. IMHO you would be better off with a seagate st-251 w/an IBM logo FH face plate, I believe it came with a riser that the face plate attaches to. The 5.25 should be a YE Data YD-380 with a black face plate replace the led again with a yellow one. I went with a 1.44mb Toshiba 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive ND-3561GR because I wanted a 1.44mb drive. It only took be about 5 years of looking then within two weeks I got both but saw a 3rd one I was out bid. Including shipping I paid $60 for one and $40 for the 2nd. Finding the correct model number lead me to these drives. They both come with the 5.25 size face plate and 5.25 inch mount. You will also find many of these drives without the face plate cheap. I mention that because the drives if not working can easily be replace. I have a ST-225 on an IBM riser with a FH face plate. Find one of those and replace the smaller drive with the larger one. Hope this helps. Love my 5162, it just rocks.
 
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