exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

As I was browsing eBay the other day I saw a couple of listings for floppy drives and thought I’d have a go at fixing them.

I managed to get a couple of BBC micro drives including a Challenger 3 in 1, an Opus 40/80 track switchable one (case looks like it had been in the garden since the 80s) and a colourgenie EG400. I’ve never seen a CG in real life let alone used one and they seem to go for ridiculous money on eBay, so doubt I ever will.

Does anyone else have one and need a floppy drive?


I’ll post pictures of the others shortly. I’ve blown the EPROMs for the challenger, I just need to see if it actually works now and then if it does it’ll get a nice new paint job, as will the one from the garden :lol:

That drive definitely looks as though it's had better days. :-)

Nice. I've always wanted a 5.25" drive. For no reason other than I've never handled them myself - only ever got to watch a school teacher load those 'magical' disks - when everything I had was on tape.

OH nice. I've had one for a long time, since early 90s. I should connect it up see if it still works at some point :)

stephen_usher wrote: 21 Nov 2023 16:40 That drive definitely looks as though it's had better days. :-)

If you think that one’s bad then how about this? Although inside looks like new WTF?


@exxos you have a colourgenie or a 5 1/4 floppy drive?

PhilC wrote: 21 Nov 2023 18:04 @exxos you have a colourgenie or a 5 1/4 floppy drive?

Just the drive. Think its a 360K one. Has a jank cable for it also :lol:

Man that fist image through me back to my primary school days when the school had a single BBC Micro. I had a second hand Spectrum+ 48K at the time but I remember seeing the floppy drives and thinking it was science fiction.

A friend had a VIC 20 which was fun but my other friend got an Amstrad 464 one xmas and it was amazing. :o

Ahhh a simpler time! On reflection I also had two good friends and none of us had any "issues"! Good memories...

@Elliot I had my first floppy disk and drive when I was 14 and have owned them in one form or another ever since. In fact today I have more floppy drives than I ever owned back in the day.

So has nobody got a Colorgenie to try this EG400 floppy drive out on?

PhilC wrote: 22 Nov 2023 18:32
So has nobody got a Colorgenie to try this EG400 floppy drive out on?

Meanwhile. back in the real world...

That Opus has definitely seen better days, and reminds me I need to look at drive one in my dual Cumana setup, trouble is the lack of the Cumana disk to go with them...

Still, D0 won't even CAT, doesn't even spin so I think something more fundamental is at play.

@Elliot I don't think I had my first FDD, an Atari 1050, until my late teens, possibly early 20's.

PhilC wrote: 21 Nov 2023 18:04

stephen_usher wrote: 21 Nov 2023 16:40 That drive definitely looks as though it's had better days. :-)

If you think that one’s bad then how about this? Although inside looks like new WTF?

A lot of the Beeb floppy drives had cases pre-rusted under the paint, so I'm not surprised that the paint flaked off to show a load of rust but the drive is clean. I've seen Cumana, Watford Electronics and Opus drive cases rusting from under the paint, just not quite as badly as that one.