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The worst storage media of all time

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In my experience - Sinclair/ZX Microdrives (Score: 1)

by fatphil@pipedot.org on 2014-05-19 21:01 (#1RM)

One single continuous piece of tape, no spool, all zig-zaggy inside the case, that was quite literally shoved back into the cartridge as fast as it was being tugged out. 85KB capacity, IIRC. Innards of the drives visible here: http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/scripts/picshow.php?image=qlmicrodrives.jpg&folder=/Museum/Sinclair/ql&back=/Museum/Sinclair/ql/index.php . Although initially developed for the BT Merlin and the Sinclail QL, I had one on my ZX Spectrum as I splashed out on Interface 1.

Dire is the only word for them.

However, the drives were significantly lighter than the 40kg unit which I used to read these: http://fatphil.org/images/im_floppier.jpg

Re: In my experience - Sinclair/ZX Microdrives (Score: 2, Interesting)

by alioth@pipedot.org on 2014-05-20 10:55 (#1SC)

I had a Rotronix Wafadrive. It wasn't any better than the microdrive. Most the carts seemed to fail after about half a dozen uses.

I bought a second hand QL at a fair (for £5) in the late 1980s, and the microdrives on it were actually surprisingly reliable and I never had a cartridge fail on that machine.

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Time Reason Points Voter
2014-05-21 02:20 Interesting +1 fatphil@pipedot.org

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