Third Party Floppy/Floptical Drive & Media Suppliers for SGI's

New info - Used drives for sale!

Here is all the information I have on flopticals. I purchased one from CompuPlus. It arrived June 22, 1995, however, they sent me the EXTERNAL unit and I ordered the INTERNAL one. The packing slip said internal. It took them about 2 weeks to get everything straightened out. Everything automatically worked fine when I first tried it as an external unit and later when I installed it as an internal unit on our Indigo2. I just shut down the machine, connected the drive and rebooted. When I logged in I had a floptical icon on my desktop. I have transferred quite a few files to/from PC floppies and it works much faster than the floppy drive we have on a Sun here, but then the floppy IS connected to a Sun, so it is difficult to tell whether the DOG slow Sun is the bottle neck or the floppy. I don't have any of the floptical media, so I don't know how fast or well that media works.

Have one report that a Teac SCSI Floppy FD-235HS worked in an external enclosure connected to an Indigo2 Extreme SGI and cost ~$200.

If any one has any updated information, changes, or corrections, please let me know. I try to only keep a list of company names that end users have actually purchased equipment from and are satisfied with that company's products and service. If you have problems with a company, let me know and I'll see about dropping them from the list.

  
  TPawlichuk@aol.com
   Selling a bunch of used floptical drives.  Send him email for
   details.  The drives are suppose to work fine.  They are just replacing
   all the floptical drives at their site with the LS-120 drives.

  Comet Enterprises
   88 North Fort Lane
   Layton, UT 84041 - USA
   Phone: (801) 444-3600,	FAX:(801) 444-3606
   http://www.gocomet.com/
      Bare Floptical Drive				$159 (Feb. 2000)
      External Floptical Drive				$199 (Feb. 2000)
      (don't know if these have SCSI interfaces or what)


  IoMega
   Makers of Bernoulli
   Federal Systems Group
   8230 Leesburg Pike
   Vienna, VA 22182-2641
   Phone: (800) 777-6004, (703) 506-8809     FAX: (703) 506-8868
   Phone: (Jim Willson)
   Phone: Technical: (800) 456-5522
   Contact: Jan Ruderman, phone: (703) 506-8813 Voice mail:391-8525
      Bare Floptical Drive, NO Indigo2 Brackets		$274 (April '95)

  CompuPlus
   130 McCormick Ave, Suite 106
   Costa Mesa, CA 92626
   Phone: (800) 536-7378, (714) 438-1100, FAX: (714) 438-1106
   http://www.compu-plus.com
      Floppy with Indigo2 Bracket (Part #:CP2FL35ET)	$345 (Aug. '96)

      Floptical Drives no longer available (as of Aug. '96)
       Floptical with Indigo2 Bracket (Part #:CP2FP21II)$380 (July '96)

      Quote from Chris Fedde <fedde@lagrange.math.colostate.edu>:
      "I purchased a floptical drive for my Indy from CompuPlus for
       around $300 (internal).  So far I have used it to read/write/
       format DOS, MAC and Irix (tar format) diskettes, along with the
       21 Mb floptical diskettes.  Standard 1.44 Mb diskettes are dirt
       cheap these days, but be warned that the 21 Mb flopticals are
       ~$18 apiece." 14 Apr 1995 20:36:26 GMT

  Impediment, Inc.
   541 Plain Street
   Marshfield, MA 02050
   Phone: (781) 834-3800, Alex Sunguroff (car phone): (781) 694-4488
   Fax: (781) 834-3666
   Email Contact: Walter Seamon <walter@impediment.com>
   Email Contact: Alexander Sunguroff : alex@impediment.com
   http://www.impediment.com/
      Octane Sled with SCA converter (DAT-OCTANE)	 $225 (Aug. '98)

  SGI
   SGI purchased floppy drive has been said to be a
   Teac FD-235HS (part num. 19307393-07) (1992 time frame, U.K. customer)

  Avalon48@aol.com
   St. Paul, MN
   Email Contact: Bill, Avalon48@aol.com
      About 300 floptical diskettes all new, mostly Insite brand (some 3M and
      Iomega).  $6.50 each.  Will discount for larger quantities.

  Comet Enterprises
   88 North Fort Lane
   Layton, UT 84041 - USA
   Phone: (801) 444-3600,	FAX:(801) 444-3606
   http://www.gocomet.com/
      Single 21MB floptical disk			$13 (Feb. 2000)

  Inmac
   Phone: (800) 547-5444

  Global
   Phone: (800) 845-6225
      Pack of two $17.99

  MacWarehouse
   Phone: (800) 255-6227
      Single 21MB floptical (Hitachi) Part #: ME 6212	 $15.49 (Sept.  '95)

  MEI Micro
   Phone: (800) 634-3478

I325VM POWER CONNECTION AND JUMPER OPTIONS

Looking toward the rear of the drive:
Cover of drive on top:			Ground is circle (o)

2MM shunt Jumper
*  *  o  o  o  o  o
*  *  *  *  *  *  *	<- Jumpers
E7 E6 E5 E4 E3 E2 E1


No Connection	-> * o o * <- +5V	<- Power connector
		   _______

E1 Drive Select 1
E2 Drive Select 2
E3 Drive Select 3
E4 Enable SCSI Parity Checking			<- Enable this
E5 Enable Unit Attention after SCSI Reset	<- ? Don't remember

E6 & E7 Terminator Power Options	E6	E7
			No Power	Open	Open
			SCSI Power	Open	Short
			Drive Power	Short	Open
			Drive & SCSI	Short	Short

Note: The SCSI Interface connector is keyed. If the mating cable is not keyed,
pin 1 is on the end next to power.
Mating Power Connector: Amp 171825-4 equivalent
2MM Jumper Shunt: Molex 87188-02; Hirose A3-SP or equivalent
14 pin option block connector: Honda LPC 14FDG

My other SGI 3rd party hardware lists:

CD-ROM's, DAT's, Hard Disks,
Joysticks, Magneto Opticals, Memory,

CDR's (Writeable CD-ROM's), DLT's (Digital Linear Tape), Mice

If you have any additions, corrects, or updates to the above information, please email me at: blbates@vigyan.com, thanks.

Last update: May 14, 2002