I have a Macintosh 512k with a dead floppy (400k) drive.
I do not have access to a replacement 400k floppy. I do, however, have a
closet full of working 800k floppy drives. Can I replace the internal 400k
floppy drive on the 512k with an 800k drive and have the computer just see
it and use it as a 400k drive? Does this work, or will an 800k floppy not
function when treated as a 400k drive?
You may be able to resurrect your 400k drive. These things are built like tanks and usually just need a bit of cleaning and lubrication. ...
... use Q-tips dipped in alcohol then squeezed nearly dry to clean the hardened grease off the moving parts. I then use a tooth pick with just a touch of silicon grease to re-lubricate those moving parts. Manually move the parts a few times to make sure they are free. CAREFULLY wipe the inside of the drive to remove the dust bunnies, using the same type of Q-tips. Don't get fuzz from the Q-tips caught up in the works!
I agree that cleaning the 400K drive usually works. The Mac Daniel stuff is now at:
http://chrislawson.net/writing/
Phil Beesley has a helpful how-to here:
http://www.mandrake.demon.co.uk/Apple/400kflop.html
Sometimes you have to remove the insert/eject mechanism and soak it in WD-40 or some such to get it to unfreeze, but in most cases this is not necessary. The one problem that is not possible to fix (without building your own replacement part) is the absence of the "pressure pad" (the little felt-tipped plastic piece that holds the disk to the drive head from behind when it is engaged). It is a common problem--maybe 30 or 40% of the drives I got had this problem when I went on a little buying spree of non-working 128K and 512K stuff last year on eBay.
It is, however, also possible to install an 800K drive into a 128K or a 512K machine without upgrading the logic board, if you use the later version of the 800K drives. Larry Pina covers this in _Macintosh Repair and Upgrade Secrets_, p. 192:
"Older models of the 800K drive won't boot unless 128K ROMs are installed. Newer models boot fine with any version of the ROMs. You can even install an 800K drive (part # 661-0345) in a 128K Mac and it'll work fine. You'll have twice as much MFS disk storage as before, ..."
There are some problems with this--the main one being you can't use an external 400K drive with it. See Pina for more details. He also shows you how to adapt a 400K drive bracket so it will hold an 800K drive, but if you have an old Mac Plus lying around, then you probably have an 800K bracket you can use ...
Regards, Eric
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