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5 1/4" 320K Double-Sided Floppy Disk Drive Conversion

ORPHANWARE · Mass Storage
Platform, category and status for this entry were derived automatically from the source list and have not yet been checked by hand.
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Catalogue IDHW-0391
ManufacturerORPHANWARE
Person or teamJohn Lingrel/Ron Collins
TypeMass Storage (Storage)
Connects viaADAMnet
PlatformADAM
StatusReleased
SourceCollectors DB v1.00 Master

Notes

A conversion doubling an ADAM 5.25-inch drive from 160K to 320K by using both sides of the disk.

Why 160K

  • Coleco fitted a single-sided mechanism to save money. The capacity followed from that decision, not from any limit of the format.
  • Coleco prototyped a double-sided 360K drive of its own and never shipped it - that prototype is catalogued here.

So the after-market finished the job, repeatedly: Eve sold a conversion, E&T wrote EPROMs for it, Micro Innovations built 320K drives outright, and Orphanware sold this. Four companies solving the same problem is a fair measure of how much it mattered to owners.

An ADAMnet drive carries its own processor, so a conversion needs new firmware as well as a new mechanism.