The Sinclair QL Forum

I mentioned in another topic a while ago that I'd never seen any original QL software supplied on a 5.25" floppy and surmised that it probably did exist, briefly. Dilwyn remembered that Eidersoft and QJump sold QL products on 5.25" floppy.

Found one!:

Well, 5.25" disk drives were rare, but they existed. Technically, connecting such a drive was no big problem (as long as you had the right drive that could do 720k).

And the QXL boards ended up in PCs with (mainly) 5.25" drives at the time. That's probably the main reason why QJump did supply some of their software on floppy floppy disks.

Hi,

I have about 10 x 5.25 " drives from BBC Micros, some are switchable 40/80 Track, DD/SD, all work on QL, textedon Trump Card.

tofro wrote: Tue Aug 06, 2024 6:03 pm Well, 5.25" disk drives were rare, but they existed. Technically, connecting such a drive was no big problem (as long as you had the right drive that could do 720k).

And the QXL boards ended up in PCs with (mainly) 5.25" drives at the time. That's probably the main reason why QJump did supply some of their software on floppy floppy disks.

I haven't looked at this one in a QL with the right drive setup yet, but aren't they 360k (180k per side)? I would have thought the 1.2mb drives came later than the small window when they were used with QL systems.

The first floppy I had with the QL was 5.25". I bought an expander-ram and CST disk interface, but ran out of money for a disk drive. A year or so later, I was able to get an "failed" 5.25" (I don't recall if it was 360K or 1.2 meg) drive from work. I bought an external drive case with power supply, hooked it up to the QL and it ran fine. I a few years later I moved on to 3.5" (DD and then HD).

I still have a few blank 5.25" floppies that I got from Paul Holmgren. He was recycling floppies from his work as they were tossing them. I might still have a few with QL data on them, but no drive to read them.

Tim

Chr$ wrote: Tue Aug 06, 2024 8:02 pm

tofro wrote: Tue Aug 06, 2024 6:03 pm Well, 5.25" disk drives were rare, but they existed. Technically, connecting such a drive was no big problem (as long as you had the right drive that could do 720k).

And the QXL boards ended up in PCs with (mainly) 5.25" drives at the time. That's probably the main reason why QJump did supply some of their software on floppy floppy disks.

I haven't looked at this one in a QL with the right drive setup yet, but aren't they 360k (180k per side)? I would have thought the 1.2mb drives came later than the small window when they were used with QL systems.

The 5.25 disk drives that hold 720k are called "quad density". They were quite common for a while for Acorns and other home computers - but vanished when PCs didn't pick up this technology but HD instead.

Exactly why my first QL drives were 5.25 inch. They were common on BBC Micros at the time (1980s) and the discs were cheaper. So seemed the way to go at the time. I remember the confusions as to whether lower capacity drives were single sided, fewer tracks, or lower density. I still have a few 5.25 inch discs which were still readable last time I got my old drives out (e.g. my old Page Designer 1 sources).

I’ve got about 150 5.25 floppy disks (a lot of them used, but still good, along with a few boxes of unused ones) of various types from SS/SD to DS/DD and a pair of cased 5.25 drives, but not tried them with a QL as yet. Might give it a go!

A bloke down the road threw out a load of C64 5.25" disks the other week. I nabbed them all before the elements destroyed them. Mostly German C64 mag cover disks, some original games but no original boxes. I've been dumping the contents with my Greaseweasel. I'll do the same with this QL disk.

When I was running CGH Services, I had a twin 5.25" drive and a twin 3.5" drive set-up so I could supply software on either format.

So it's possible I supplied some on 5.25" floppies, but mostly it was 3.5".
The 5.25" floppies were 720K IIRC.

(And mdvs as well ofc.)