Uncreative Labs

Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 3

I was thrilled to find a forum for discussion of vintage computers and
own 1 working AT and three PX XT 5160s. I am a retired middle management logistics analyst who grew up on DOS and these machines.

Perhaps one of you can assist me. On one of my XTs I am trying to replace my half height 5.25 floppy which is underneath my ST-225
hard disk.( I found a repacement floppy drive which works). I took out
all the visible screws and tried pulling the carriage out from the front.
The drives come out 4 inches and ssomething seems to be impeding
the removal. Am I doing something wrong? Do I have to remove the power
supply and take out the assembly from the rear?

Thanks for reading this and hopefully someone can resolve this problem.

Fred

Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:39 pm

Have you checked the cables on the back? The edge connector for XT-class floppy drives usually comes off nicely, but the power cable tends to be more difficult. (It's happened to all of us at one time.)

Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 3

Thanks for responding but I am not sure what you are saying. Should
the piggybacked hard drive with the half height 5.25 floppy be removed from the front or back of the bay? I am trying to pull them both out the front
but they get stuck after moving out 4 inches. Something on the lower
track is impeding removal.

Or can this only be removed from the rear?

I hope that I made myself clear on the problem.

Thanks,
Fred

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

look on the bottom there are screw holes undeneath
the real IBM construction is terrible
the shily plates on the sides make it very hard to remove the drives
they DO come out the front.
the full height floppies are belt driven and a good thing to aviod
some are single sided ( one cable at the rear not two

even if you are a purist get rid or the xebec full length card is is a DOG

Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 3

Thanks for the response and did remove one screw. Is there another one to
remove?
Fred

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

all I know whoever designed that was nuts
the early cases were intended for full height drives and lacked the holes to mount two 1/2 ht drives

so Ibm made that metal plate and Jammed it in the case. there are plates, a rectangle with a tab that goes behind the bottom support.
they were very common THEN.

Joined: 20 Nov 2004 Posts: 589 Location: Shandong, China

I've done a bit of work with the half-height drives in the XT. I completely agree that they are a pain in the ass to install and remove. It's been a while, but I do believe that the half height drives need to be removed from the back rather than the front like the full height drives. This assumes you are working with the OEM IBM drives which have a smaller bezel which allows them to pass through the drive bay. Removing the power supply is not 100% necessary but it should certainly make it easier.

I believe the half height mounting plates which bolt onto the sides of the drives are impeding removal from the front.