Why I Still Use Floppy Disks - Roctec Roclite Drive Repair/Restoration 

When I was a kid and all I had was a ZX Spectrum and a tape (K7) player, all I wanna had in life was a beta disk interface and (of course) a disk drive, even if it were the most affordable type - 5.1/4 single sided, low density (144 kb) - it would be like a miracle for those who used the infamous K7 tapes as storage media!

The weather through the windows, made me feel colder! LOOL however, Sitting back and watching the goodness of disc drive repair!!! kinda reminds me of the time we had to fix my A1200 Disk Drive with a GUESTIMAGE Capacitor! OHH THOS CLICKS CLICK CLICKS!

Here comes my Rockstar maddy🤩🤩 I have had a floppy disk just once in my life. That was when I was in grade 5 or so. My dad brought it from his office. And I was so thrilled to see it. And was so upset that my new home PC couldn't run that black thing. I was complaining to my dad that our PC is garbage because it didn't have any place for floppy disks. Lol. My dad had no clue about what I was saying. I was raised in the XP era. And until then the CDs took over. I remember how thrilled was I when I saw a mp3 player on a pendrive. Lol And today even HDDs are obsolete. Smartphones are foldable. Time flies. I am still thrilled by your video. To notice how musical the sound of a running floppy drive is. Lol Lots of love & good wishes Maddy 💗💗

I still use floppies as well. That was the experience when I was a kid and I still love it. I use modern storage with retro comps too. I love it all.

I still have all my amiga floppies. Still use them. My cumana external drive is still going strong. I even still have the box I bought it in. I agree entirely. The floppy drive is part of the experience.

Within a year, two of three EVOs in my system fatally crashed. I'm done with NVMEs for the next 200 years. I've returned to HDDs now and I'm super happy not only because of the reliabiliity but also because of the wonderful SOUND. I think beside cat purring old drive sounds are my favorite sounds in the world.

I'm so jealous. I really miss the days of the floppy disk.

Also love loading things from original media like floppy disks or tapes for the same reason. it gives me that fond memories of the good old times. 🙂

Your opinion about the bad reputation of cassettes is on point ✌🏼a agree

Nice Kensington trackball :) After burning of interface chip because of connection to AT PS/2 with wrong wiring, its main chip was survived. And I've revealed that it's 100% compatible with Amiga interface :)

Two things from me: The first is that I remember I had a dual external 3.5" drive for my A500, which I got back when hard drives were just a dream due to the expense. So yeah, I was one of those freaks with DF0: through DF3: available. The dual drive was probably just two drives stacked on top of each other, but it was a nice format. Thing two: I'm nowhere a purist, but I'll still keep a working drive around because it's still useful. One of the great things about where we are today is that we have choices now - back then it was the drive or nothing. Today I can emulate that drive, or even go completely in other directions, including new hardware, a lot of which has even more computing power than the Amiga ever did! For example, for years I wanted to reacquire a C64, which was where I learned most of my early programming skills. But really, the thought of the serial bus and a 1541 drive and all that kept me from doing it. Finally I got the Ultimate 64 motherboard, and a real SID, and put it into a breadbin case, and it's perfect! Is it a "real" C64? For me, it certainly is, especially with an actual SID chip. I'm experimenting with the MiSTer FPGA these days to see if it can replace my A4000's or not - the jury is still out on that.

I still use my Cumana CAX-354 Floppy disk drive on my Amiga, I got it new and it still works today. I have got a second one so I can link them together. The problem now is finding new/old disks for themm so I have made a external gotek to use, but all of my Amigas still have the floppy drive in them.

This was very informnative! I love old tech, however I hav'nt used floppy discs since 2005.

Hey hey Maddi! I still use floppies too. I’ve actually been complaining on social media about the lack of reasonable priced places to buy them from. lol

I'm diggin' it. I was just taking a break from restoring a TM-100-2A Tandon full height 5.25" 360K drive when this video appeared as a recommendation. The TM-100 has a belt drive. So big they're easy to work on. Great job on drive there. Enjoy it for years to come!

I completely agree, The idea that your software is coming from a D64 file is different than that of a file coming from an actual disk spining in an actual disk drive, I prefer to load from tape than from disk drive, it makes what ever you load worth more. If it takes 10 minutes to load then it means you will investest more time before giving up and moving on to the next game.

I still use floppy disks too when I use my old 486/133 games PC and other old computers!

I have a similar drives in original boxes. Back in the day I wanted one but couldn't afford it. I love the sound of fdd and xcopy. I used to drill holes in my Amiga disks to use it with PC, bad thing to do since it was not reliable.

I like your videos videos so much. I feel the same way about you loving floppy disks more than anything. Of course I use a CF card as a hard drive on my upgraded A500, but I still use my floppy drives on the Amiga all the time. I particularly like your description of the diskettes. I really mean that now!!! Kind regards from Berlin, Germany to Enland to all Amiga freaks. LG Retrobulle

Sheesh, some people eh? If we were to get rid of all the floppy disks then what would we use for the save icon? Aladdin game-play from back in 2017? Wow, that's like, the olden days! 😛 And how cool is that extending floppy disk box!

For me, a huge part of retro computers and games as a hobby is recreating the sort of experience you could have had with the hardware back in the day, and IMO physical media is a **huge** part of that! The Gotek, and things like it are definitely convenient and useful, and I'd be lying if I said I haven't used them extensively. But at this point I can't imagine having an Amiga without a real disk drive anymore. I had replaced the internal floppy drive in my A500 with a Gotek once, and had it like that for maybe a year before I went back.

I still use floppies for all my old machines (both 3.5" & 5.25"). My Atari 1050 disk drive that I rebuilt a couple of years ago also has a belt in it. I really love the sound the floppy drives make when they assess the disk!

Glad I'm not the only one who still loves using floppy disks ......... it's part of the nostalgia of using the Amiga to me and I will continue to use floppy disks until I get to a stage where it's impossible to keep the disks and drives working.

DFO and DF1 forever 😊 love my floppies and glad we have ADF’s nowadays to back them up👍

Oh the memories I remember them floppy sounds when I fist had my Amiga 1200 I had two external drivers plus the internal one it made playing certain games such as beneath a steel sky just that little bit better 🙂

Have to agree about high density drives, the A1200 should have had one, even more so when Escom were manufacturing them in mid 90s. Pretty sure Escom were modifying HD drives to be DD later on too.

The belt is why I got rid of all of these slim roctecs. Direct drive is where it's at! :-)

Mads I still use floppies. My other half thinks I am mad as I have thousands of the things. I will hang onto them until one day there are no more working disk drives and all of the floppies have died! I have every option going, goteks and hxc's but there is something about hearing and seeing a real disk load on an Amiga.

Still using floppies here too. Had a Gotek for a bit but you lose some of the experience of using real hardware. Anyway, prefer browsing through a physical disk box than pushing buttons to go through a file list on a tiny LCD. This said I do have an SSD in my A500 and use JST for games with multiple disks. My daughter saves her DPaint art on floppy disk, loves it. Megaball! My son was playing this yesterday.

a belt drive drive Lik this??? WOW... the distance from drum to motor, the wow-and flutter sheesh!!!

What I don't get is why should anyone have a saying on someone else using floppies or cassettes to the point where they feel the need to comment on it. Why use wristwatches? Or uncomfy business shoes? Because one can and wants to. So, use them or not... And don't mind so much if others do or don't 😊

Now that is a mechanism I have not seen before. It looks odd compared to all the other 3.5" drives I have seen. I mean you are right it is odd for a 3.5" drive to have a belt. I love disks and that won't change. I also have modern storage too but prefer to use real disks. I still have most of my Amiga and Commodore 64 disks. I have been in the process of imaging them because some seem to go bad. It's a daunting task because I had a lot of disks growing up and saved most of them in storage. I am not sue why people get irritated over others still wanting to use actual disks. That is so weird. I mean why do they care? It's your choice how to use your own gear. Strange.

I think the issue with floppy disks is the idea that they wear out and data con be lost. Plus they're much harder to get. I get the appeal of using them, there's something about flipping through a case of 100 disks. These days I'd want to take images of them just to make sure the data isn't lost though...

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Retro Tele... I have done similar with old tech. I always feel bitter sweet reliving the past, so I've stopped trying just to save my emotions❤

Nice blue Amiga. I love your content very much. Greetings from Steven from the Netherlands

Hey! I really enjoy using floppy disks as well! (: I converted different drives so that they can be used in Amigas…. It is something one can be nostalgic about, I totally agree with you!

I had 3 boxes of floppies before I moved and I didn't have the time to get them out so they've ended up in landfill most likely :(, that was before I thought about buying another Amiga. I used to have one of those drives bitd, they were nice because they were so slim and lightweight compared to the more chunky ones, plus they looked nicer. The new one will be getting a GOEX as I only have the mb and the kb, which I need to get working. I'm pretty certain my A1200 had an HD drive internally, I was using 1.76MB disks back then. As for them never updating Paula, I would wait for 1) Buffee and 2) ReAmiga 1200 ITX. BITD, because everything was controlled via DMA, the DMA chip, Alice, would've needed more channels adding, and therefore more pins on the chip, I doubt they even considered it.

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My Atari STFM is jealous - it hasn't been fired-up in months. Waiting for me to finish fixing my Tascam 244! 😢

Searching the web for the correct wiring for something on Amiga led me here, great to see you Maddi and lovely video as always. That breakout game looks incredible, I'll be installing that one!

Hiya Maddi ☺️ Loved this upload. I had so many disks back in the day and l wished l’d kept them. When l got my 600 early this year, l looked for disks of any description and wow, difficult to get and highly expensive. Even a simple plastic disk storage box was a ridiculous price 🙄 But very much like using disks, audio tapes, VHS cassettes etc there is something so satisfying listening to things read and load. Ah for the days when l worked in a stationery shop and D/D 3.5” disks where £5 a box lol 😂 Anyways, great video as always and all the best to you, Rich, Mr Neelix and everyone there ☺️👍🏼

That screw dropping down a crack @ 6:36 is the story of my life... ugh.

I agree, I use floppy disks for certain software and use modern CF storage with software that requires a lot of disk swaps. 🙂👍

Last Sunday I put a shelf up just to store my disks.

I would use floppys more often if they werent so expensive. And fragile. I mean if you buy Moonstone for $250 (was the last I saw sold on my local site) you wouldnt want it to break. I still have my old floppy from my childhood. But I use a SD card emulator for my c64 and gotek on amiga

Amazing video!! Thank you so much! 💖

I've embarked on the long, arduous task of backing up my floppies to ADFs for the sake of having a secure backup, but I still use all my floppies if I can't install the software onto my Amiga's HDD. I do use a Gotek sometimes when I've downloaded something I don't have or it's got errors, but if I've got a usable floppy, then I'll use it.

Quite recently was I discussing with someone on a game project, and in the discussion came the (dream for now) eventuality of an Amiga 1200 specific version. I was like "That would be cool, also with the doubled size offered by high density disks."... Only to be answered "Well not really, that's not standard drives on the 1200." [classic-blinking-sorry-what-face.gif] 😅 As the Atari Falcon had HD disk drives, I just thought it would be have been the same on the 1200. But yes, as you said, the perfectly designed commercial system of the time never exists. As industry requires compromises, focused toward end user price and release time.

I don't think I've ever had a bad experience with a floppy

I love floppy disks still today. The sound they make is nostalgia fuel to me :) Can't resist a box of mf2dd. They are rarer and rarer this days.

Jesteś piękna i zdolna. Pozdrowienia z Polski. Amiga Rulez!

that screw slipped thru the table when you moved the drive !!

I still have my original external floppy drive for my childhood amiga, got it for my 16th birthday in 1996. But for some reason my amiga won't boot when I try to use it, so it's kinda shelved for time being. I bought a load of floppy disks when I got back into amiga but they're all blank as I really have no use for them when I'm running a physical hdd with everything installed on that. So I don't use the floppy drive even for the physical games I do own, kind of a waste really

A cool vídeo

I certainly don't want to use floppies day to day but I gotta do it once in a while. I'm one of those weirdos that saves video clips to floppy.

Sometimes you have to use floppy disks... To make all those ADF files of long gone rare games and software!

5:50 - is that the Gotek police on their way to arrest you? 😂

I see nothing with using floppies! The reason they get a bad rap is towards the end they were made poorly. The older stock is more reliable.

well, floppies failed on me so many times, like they were so unreliable. and modern computers don't even have a floppy port, so they got phased out i guess.

I still use Floppy 💾 disks. Not huge on cassettes but I do have them and datasets for C64, 128.. also love my micro SD and full SD cards .. Kung fu flash is a must

I miss floppy 💾 stuff cassettes i remember loading bounty bob strikes back for 60min then it crashes 😂😂😂 But had copy 5½ floppy that cud copy tapes to disk 😅 but went out of fashion when master system came alive 😭 also got 8bit cartridges to😂 all Atari tho 😅 Lemmings was class game Got it on ps3 and on my fone 😂🤣😭