[Coco] Full height 5.25" drives

[Rswoger at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/6/2005 9:45:15 PM Central Daylight Time,  
jimcox at miba51.com writes:

Weren't  most of the full height 5.25" drives 180K?

I have several full height  5.25" drives that I was going 
to send to someone, but I am not certain if  they are 360K 
or 180K.

Does anyone have any experience with  these?  Are they boat  
anchors?

-Jim



Most of the older full height drives could do 180K -- CoCo only used 36 of  
the 40 tracks available on one side. There was software that would allow the  
CoCo to access all 40 tracks.
 
By the way, a Florida outfit used to sell CoCo owners two full height TEAC  
drives mounted by DEC horizontally side by side in a CoCo 2 colored sturdy 
metal  case with power supply and a "D" connector. They were absolutely quiet 
because  of a special non rubber belt drive and a 30 ms step rate that matched the 
rate  of the original CoCo drive interfaces. I DEMOed them at a Glenside 
meeting. I  have at least a half a dozen of them. Not ready to part with them. 
They are a  treat to use.
 
The noise some folks refer to was brought about by drives with faster step  
rates were never accommodated by CoCo Drive controllers -- the faster step rate 
 drives, some able to step at a 6 ms rate, would chatter at CoCo's 30 ms  
step rate signal. (Sometimes older is better.)
 
Bob S