FD-10 Floppy Drive

Dave,

Windows XP will read and write to standard 5.25" floppy disks in 1.2 MB
and 360 KB sizes with a compatible drive.
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;309623

I do not think the old Amstrad floppy drive is a standard 5.25" floppy
drive. I had an old Amstrad computer and most of its components would not
work in a slightly newer PC compatible computer. Is this a 360KB drive
which, of course, won't read 1.2 MB floppies?

If the floppy disk has a reinforcement ring at the inside hole, it is a
360KB floppy. If the floppy's inside hole is smooth with the surface of the
rest of the disk this is a 1.2 MB floppy.

Make sure that your cable is placed on the drive the correct way. Many
of the old floppy drives had the stripe on the drive cable AWAY from the
power connector, unlike the hard drive cables which have the stripe next to
the power connector.

Good luck!

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"Dave Regan" <dave.regan2@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:019f01c37aec$80ad56e0$a101280a@phx.gbl...

> I have an old FD-10 Amstrad floppy drive that I am trying
> to use to access some old games on 5.25" floppies.
> I have dismantled the drive from it's external case and
> removed the caling leaving a standard 4 pin power socket
> and a 34 way pcb connector. I have used a standard FDD
> cable tp connect the drive, picked it up in the BIOS and
> Windows XP recognises the 5.25" drive. But every time I
> try to access it, I get not accessible errors saying
> there is an I/O problem. Can anyone help ??