My Hitachi's stiffydrive finally gave out. It's a TEAC FD-235HG 7338-U5. The agents are totally crazy on the price for a new one (about R5000-00!!!).

Is it possible to save the TAP file on a memory stick, make use of a usb to rs232 adaptor cable to download the nc file on the machine's harddrive?

The memory stick & cable cost R250. Much much less than a new stiffy drive......

What is so special? this is just a normall Floppy Drive right? A similar Teac model in the US goes for $20.00.
Have you tried another model/make?
Al.

It's one of those that have to be dedicated by jumpers. It's also not a 1.44mB but a 720kB.
The machine does not read the "newer" type of stiffy drives.
The agents know this, that's why they are so expensive on the replacement ones....

Acording to the Teac site the 235HG will handle up to 3 densities and is a current model.
http://www.teac.co.jp/dspd/product/magnetic/fd-235.html
This outfit will ship internationally, US$14.00 before shipping.
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/alan-fm/fd-235hg.html
It might be worth trying.
Is the agent the machine supplier? as often an OEM will mark up spares up to 1k%
Al.

Al, i have a 235HG drive as a backup. I tried it, it did not work.
This is the reply i got from someone at Hitachi.....

"Unfortunately Teac floppy(you call stiffy) disk drive stopped production
by the manufacturer of Teac. Maybe they still have 5th version drive.
Compatible floppy disk drive you can find from internet as name of
compnay Y-E DATA. You can find below address.
http://www.yedata.com/products/floppydrives/internal_slim.shtml
Model name is YD-702-6639D as 1.44 MB
But I can't guarantee whether they sell these model as standard verion or not."

I hope that this info might be of help to others.

Why not use a lantronix Wport or Xport depending on if your rs232 is 2 or 4 wire and transfer the data via a WLAN? should be able to get everything you need for $300.00 including the wireless router and never have to touch a floppy again.

Klox,
Is there anything special about that floppy. In that I mean is it the normal floppy interface cable?

Use the standard diskette drive that was mentioned. A 1.4 is also a 720K.

The thing that makes yours special is the jumpering. High volume PC drives do not have "jumpers" installed on the board. The jumpering is there, but you will have to cut some traces and perhaps short other traces.

Download a manual for whatever brand and model drive you are going to buy and make sure it has the information as to where the "jumpers" are. It probably will be on the diskette manufacturer site and not be included in the box.