Uploaded January 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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We connect an 8" floppy drive to a PC, learn the 11 ways they are different from standard PC floppies, and even design an adapter and make it available for all on Tindie.

8" Diskette floppy drive restoration playlist:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-_93BVApb59tOBmcSGTdc79zuEgp6MxF

Antoine's 8 inch floppy adapter on Tindie: tindie.com/products/siliconinsider/8-floppy-disk-interface-50-pin-to-34-pin-adapter

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:20 My 8" drives come from an HP 9895
02:37 The IBM 8" floppy and its media
06:03 Antoine's 8" floppy adapter
07:06 Booting my PC from the 8" floppy
08:24 8" drive restoration and bring up
11:08 Making the prototype cable adapter
20:16 The 11 quirks of 8" floppies
20:52 Single sided vs. double sided
21:48 Write protect works reverse
22:52 Four address wires!
24:56 Head load signal
25:41 Door lock signal
26:38 Disk ready vs. disk change
28:02 Track 43 current control
28:37 Pull up resistors
29:28 500kHz data rate
30:07 FM modulation support
30:49 ImageDisk and Omnidisk setup for 77 tracks
32:52 Formatting an 8" Floppy
34:07 Using the floppy with Windows
35:25 Playing Donkey Kong from the 8" diskette



Adrian's Digital Basement video on the 8" floppy: youtu.be/TfEzjcG_0gs

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