3B1 floppy drive problem solved!

[Boyd Ostroff]

I posted a plea for help with a floppy drive problem the other day,
but still haven't got any answers.  Anyway, I seem to have fixed it
myself and thought the solution might be of interest to others.

Upon closer inspection, I found that I could read floppy disks (such as
cat < /dev/rfp021 or mount /dev/fp021 /mnt), yet any attempt to write
to the floppy yielded an error.

I opened up the case and cleaned/wiggled the drive connector which
may have helped.  I think this was the problem, though:  I noticed a
ball of lint ("dust-bunny") lodged between the case and what appears to
be the write-protect notch sensor on the drive.  I suspect that it was
blocking the photocell and convincing the drive that every disk had
a write-protect tab on it!

Anyway, it's working again.  I would still be interested in seeing
a step-by-step description of how to replace the floppy drive with
a 720K 3.5" mechanism, however....

||| Boyd Ostroff - Tech Director - Dept of Theatre - SUNY Oswego 
||| Sys Admin - "The CallBoard" - (315) 947-6414 - 1200/2400 baud 
||| ostroff at oswego.oswego.edu - cboard!ostroff at oswego.oswego.edu