SE/30 Floppy Drive questions

[OIPDrummer]

Hi everyone! 
 

I recently bought a replacement floppy drive for my SE/30. When I try booting from a floppy disk, the drive is very noisy but definitely reading something. Instead of booting, however, I get the floppy disk with an “X” on it before it immediately tries rereading the disk. Am I missing something? I’ve tried the drive in my SE FDHD also, but I’m getting the same result. 
 

I really hope this isn’t a stupid question, I haven’t actually used this computer regularly since I was in elementary school and I had a hard drive to boot from. 

 

[Byrd]

Welcome OlPDrummer

Was your replacement floppy drive refurbished, tested working?  All need a deep clean of the heads and to be lubricated again, issues like worn gears is another (secondary) issue.  I'd also check the floppies you have on another machine.

JB

 

[OIPDrummer]

The seller said it was tested and working, but cleaning it is a good idea. I just did some more searching and found the guide on here.   

 

[Byrd]

I wouldn't spend too much time tinkering - just give things a quick clean, look up guides on head cleaning with a cotton bud - if sold as working, the more you interfere the less chance you'll get of a refund. 

Another thing to consider is that if all your floppy disks worked previously on your old drive, sometimes the drive timing is off and the same discs might work on the machine they were formatted in but not on other machines.

JB

 

[MrFahrenheit]

I wouldn't spend too much time tinkering - just give things a quick clean, look up guides on head cleaning with a cotton bud - if sold as working, the more you interfere the less chance you'll get of a refund. 

Another thing to consider is that if all your floppy disks worked previously on your old drive, sometimes the drive timing is off and the same discs might work on the machine they were formatted in but not on other machines.

JB

This is a very good point.  I usually test a drive by formatting a disk in it, copying files to it, copying the files off, and formatting it again.  Sometimes a disk just doesn't want to read in another drive.