FD-55E Series
Technical Specifications
(Source: Brochure TEAC FD-55 Series)
The double-sided TEAC FD-55F is already a somewhat exotic drive. But the TEAC FD-55E is even more exotic and can only be used under PC/MS-DOS with special programs like 22DISK, UniForm-PC or SuperCopy.
The TEAC FD-55E is a single-sided 5.25 inch drive that can write 96 tracks per inch (TPI) and corresponds to the 'capacity' of the TEAC FD-55B. But be careful. Both drives are fundamentally different!
In the CP/M world the TEAC FD-55E can be found often. There are some disk formats with one side and 80 tracks or 96 TPI. You can easily test this with the DOS program 22DISK. Simply select the appropriate format and format the diskette (initialize). This works without any problems.
Pictures
A test with 22Disk, Uniform-PC and SuperCopy
I use the TEAC FD-55E with my IBM PC or XT and it works fine in combination with the program 22Disk. In other words, I use the floppy drive only in conjunction with external CP/M formats. Example:
22Disk:
- c:> cfmt /DEC2 b:
- c:> dtoc /DEC2 read.me b:
The first command formats a diskette in drive B: in CP/M format SS, DD, 96 tpi (DEC2) for the DEC Rainbow. The second command copies the file 'read.me' to drive B:.
With Uniform-PC I selected the CP/M format "DEC Rainbow SSDD:96:CPM". Under PC/MS-DOS the access is quite simply possible with DIR B:. The file 'read.me' is displayed correctly.
SuperCopy works similar to UniForm. First a logical "CP/M" drive must be mounted in DOS via DEVICE=CDRIVE.SYS ... . Then select the appropriate CP/M format with SELECT.EXE. After that a normal file access is possible.
Specifications (S) and brochures (B)
- S: TEAC FD-55 Drive Specification (A, B, E, F, G, GF)
- S: TEAC FD-55 Jumper Settings
- B: TEAC FD-55 Series (A, B, E, F, G, GF)