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Floppy compatibility for Quadra 900

valejacobo

Active member
Hi y'all it's your boy valito here.

After unsuccesfuly cleaning, re-lubbing and breaking a floppy eject cog, I've decided to replace my drive on my Quadra 900.
I've seen a good one from a Performa, and a great condition one, but it's 800k. What are the compatibilites on these ones? Would the performa one (picture included) work on my machine?

1626781693980.png


The before mentioned Performa floppy, with a closed case and Mitsubishi drive.

1626781807345.png
The "Macintosh Classic" drive as it's listed.


Finally, for the same price as the open drive, I've seen a PowerMac G3, with a drive included, that I'm being tempted everyday more and more to just buy and transplant into the Quadra, with the benefit of a free-of-charge G3!
What are your thoughts on this one? Is any of the drives worthy of purchase, or I'll just be spending a lot o money just to get an incompatible one?
 

cheesestraws

Well-known member
The main thing here you need to be aware of is that there are two kinds of drive: manual-inject and auto-inject. Auto-inject drives have a motor in them to push and pull the disc in and out; manual-inject drives just use a spring, essentially. This means that manual-inject drives need a differently-shaped disc slot with finger grips either side in the case, because they don't push the disc out as far. So even if they technically work, they're a right pain to actually use (and some, I believe, are picky about working in older Macs).

So, if it's a drive from a mac that has a curvy floppy slot with finger grip holes, it'll probably be a right pain to use in your Quadra, if it works at all: if it's from a model that has a straight slot it will probably be OK. An 800k drive will probably work (as far as I know) but you will likely find it rather limiting.

I don't know about pricing over by you; over here, floppy drives come up reasonably often for reasonable prices still. I'd offer to send you a spare but by the time postage from the UK and pain and everything is taken into account, it will probably be much easier for you to find one locally, they're not that rare...
 

joshc

Well-known member
cheesestraws is absolutely right, the difference is the type and which one you use depends on the machine/bezel you are dealing with.

This photo will also help explain matters:

1626790081409.png

Manual inject machines have a curved groove on the bezel so there is room to push the floppy all the way into the drive, the manual inject drive does not have the mechanism to 'pull' the floppy into the drive, you have to push it in manually - hence manual inject.

A drive from a G3 will be too new, you want one from a Mac that used an auto inject drive.

The Performa one you have shown in your original post is also the wrong one. But the Classic one you've found would do the trick.

The model number you want to look for is Sony MP-F75W - also known as the 1.44MB SuperDrive.

Or just forget all that and hook up a FloppyEmu to the internal floppy port in your machine ;-)
 

valejacobo

Active member
The main thing here you need to be aware of is that there are two kinds of drive: manual-inject and auto-inject. Auto-inject drives have a motor in them to push and pull the disc in and out; manual-inject drives just use a spring, essentially. This means that manual-inject drives need a differently-shaped disc slot with finger grips either side in the case, because they don't push the disc out as far. So even if they technically work, they're a right pain to actually use (and some, I believe, are picky about working in older Macs).

So, if it's a drive from a mac that has a curvy floppy slot with finger grip holes, it'll probably be a right pain to use in your Quadra, if it works at all: if it's from a model that has a straight slot it will probably be OK. An 800k drive will probably work (as far as I know) but you will likely find it rather limiting.

I don't know about pricing over by you; over here, floppy drives come up reasonably often for reasonable prices still. I'd offer to send you a spare but by the time postage from the UK and pain and everything is taken into account, it will probably be much easier for you to find one locally, they're not that rare...
Thanks a lot for your kind offer, but the customs price I would have to pay, plus the shipping make importing one a no-go versus buying one locally. I'll try to source one here asap.

cheesestraws is absolutely right, the difference is the type and which one you use depends on the machine/bezel you are dealing with.

This photo will also help explain matters:

View attachment 32756

Manual inject machines have a curved groove on the bezel so there is room to push the floppy all the way into the drive, the manual inject drive does not have the mechanism to 'pull' the floppy into the drive, you have to push it in manually - hence manual inject.

A drive from a G3 will be too new, you want one from a Mac that used an auto inject drive.

The Performa one you have shown in your original post is also the wrong one. But the Classic one you've found would do the trick.

The model number you want to look for is Sony MP-F75W - also known as the 1.44MB SuperDrive.

Or just forget all that and hook up a FloppyEmu to the internal floppy port in your machine ;-)
Ideally I'll get the 1.44 SuperDrive, but since vintage Apple hardware is so scarce here in Argentina, making do with I have available is the best bet for now. Also for some odd reason most sellers sell their piece-of-crap-beaten-to-death-piss-yellowed machines as if they are some sort of lost developement NeXTCube or something. So, as long as it reads/writtes floppies reliably I'll soon settle with what I can find cheaply, and then scout eBay or arrange with any user here that sells the 1.44, as my plan for the Quadra is a full restoration with time correct pieces.
(Edit: grammar)
 

Franklinstein

Well-known member
A Q900 should be one of the transition machines (from roughly 1992-1994) that supports both auto and manual inject drives, at least electrically; the bezel may not line up quite right, though, because it was built fairly early in that period compared to others like the Q800 which were obviously designed to work with either type by virtue of their weird floppy slot that's not-quite-auto, not-quite-manual. Honestly if it was cheap ($20 or so) I'd probably buy the manual drive and try it. Worst case it just won't work; it won't blow anything up.
 

valejacobo

Active member
Little update, it worked with a Performa manual inject drive, also ejects it. With a folded paper as a shim, the height inside the case makes it usable, and if I use my pinky the floppy will inject.
Now I've come to face another problem, wich is a dead drive. So I'll scout my local marketplace and buy one when my paycheck arives. Also found a way to make bootable floppies on my win2k machine, so it'll be easy peasy from here on.
 
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