I need to replace the internal floppy drive in my recently acquired Quadra 700. Given my lack of success sourcing an auto-loading floppy drive, I'm wondering if it's possible and/or useable to replace the drive with one of the newer manual drives. I wouldn't imagine ejecting a disk would be a problem, but perhaps insertion is a bit more difficult? Anyone with any experience with this or advice? Many thanks!
As you may have noticed, the Apple FDD has a combined connection for data and power, via the ribbon cable. The manual FDD found in PCs used a different ribbon cable connection and a separate mini-power plug. Also, if you want to read/write 800K FDs, you need the variable-speed Apple "SuperDisk" FDD. A PC's FDD can only write 720K on a Double-Sided, Double-Density Disk. Are you located outside of the U.S., and that's the cause of your problem in finding a used replacement?
Hello, Jeff. Thanks for the response. Just to clarify, I was not proposing that I replace an Apple drive with a PC drive. I was considering the possibility of using one of Apple's more recent (1993 onward) manual inject drives rather than the auto-inject drive that came with the Quadra 700 (and previous Macs). In answer to your question, I don't live in the U.S., but it is also the case that manual-inject drives are a lot easier to find (even through eBay US) than auto-inject drives. They also tend to be less expensive given their greater ubiquity.
Manual loading floppy drive in Quadra 700?
