5.25" HD Floppy drive wanted

A long shot, but does anyone in Japan have a 5.25" drive I could borrow or buy? I have a load of 5.25" discs I need to transfer and am finding it difficult to track said drive down (or at least one which doesn't look like it's been bashed about or is being sold as Junk for >4000 Yen...), if anyone outside Japan wants to give me a drive for some Japanese random nick nacks then let me know.

 

what does the HD part mean? I know what a standard 5.25 floppy is but never heard of a HD one. And come to think of it they are as old as me and I didnt get into PCs until 3.5s what kind of plug did they use in IBM form? IDE?

I see old PCs regularly at my local thrift shops that have the drives in them and are going for like 5 bucks. I will keep a eye out and if I find one you can have it as long as you pay teh shipping ;-)

 

HD = High Density (1.2MB / 360K) as opposed to DD = Double Density (360K only), most half height drives should be 1.2MB. In ye olde days drives usually had 4 letter codes, like SSSD, DSHD, DSQD etc which told you sides used and density. They use a edge connector type connector which are used on tape drives until recently too.

 

I might still have one you can have, I just have to check to make sure. I've got a garage full of old computer parts aching for a good home, and I can happily give you one for some nick nacks.

 

Right now there's a new Epson on eBay for $40 + s/h: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160183517144 The seller ships worldwide.

 

Matthew : Let me know if you find one which hopefully works and I'm sure I can send you some decent nick nacks.

Calpis : Thanks, but $40 for a drive is too expensive and shipping it is a lottery in itself. It's one of those things that very few people want or use and I know there are tons of these bastards around so I don't want to pay too much for one.

 

I have a 5.25, but not in japan. not sure if it works though.

wanna risk it?

 

I found 8 of them, I'm going to test a few of the nicer looking ones and you can have one of those.

 

This one was working great what do you think: