Task: Purchase a New XF351 3.5″ Floppy Drive for Your Atari 8-Bit Computer
Needed: 8-Bit Atari Computer, Web Browser
Time: 10-15 minutes
Introduction
The Atari XF351 was a planned 3.5″ floppy disk drive for the 8-bit line of computers. The drive was never released to the public and only exists in rare prototype form. A photo of one can be found at the Atari Computer Museum website.
Fortunately, you can experience the joys of booting files from 3.5″ floppy disks using a newly made XF351 replica developed and sold by Piotr Bugaj Nowowiejskiego. The unit comes in a 3D-printed case along with a 5V Euro power supply and a 3.5″ floppy disk pre-loaded with MyDos 4.53 that allows you to interact with files on DD (720K) or HD (1.44MB) floppies. It has a built-in SIO cable.
The drive plugged right in to my 800XL and the floppy disk booted into MyDOS. Note that I am in the U.S. and had to use a Euro plug adapter. I have several of these from traveling to Europe. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a 5V power adapter with the larger barrel plug. MyDOS noted 2822 sectors free on the floppy.
To put this to the test, I set the XF351 as Drive 2 using the DIP switches on the back of the unit (1 and 2 up for Drive 1 and 1 up and 2 down for Drive 2). I then connected it to a 1050 set as Drive 1. Note that the SIO connector was a tight fit on the 1050. I copied one of my previous horizontal scrolling demo in BASIC from 5.25″ floppy to the 3.5″ floppy. I then set the XF351 back to drive 1 and booted the 800XL into BASIC. The scrolling demo ran fine loaded from 3.5″ floppy.
Instructions
A newly made XF351 replica can be purchased for £95 from Sell My Retro. I paid an additional £15 for shipping to the U.S. This translated to about $150. Not a bad price for a newly made drive IMHO. The drive comes with a built-in SIO cable, a 5V Euro power supply, and a 3.5″ floppydisk with MyDOS pre-loaded.
To try this out all you have to do is connect the SIO, plug in the power, pop in the disk, and boot the Atari with the Option key held down. This will boot into MyDOS.
Comments
I am very happy to have this in my collection. Definitely gives me a taste of what owing a real XF351 would have been like in 1987 had Atari decided to market them.
Note that the developer makes these by hand, and thus it can take some weeks for it to get built and shipped. Be patient.
The SIO cable was a very snug fit in my 1050 drive. I may need to file down some surfaces to get it to fit easier. I was worried I was going to split the SIO socket on the 1050.
I probably should have set up a 65XE or 130XE for testing given the case design is for those units. Has someone made a 3D-printed case for this in the style of the XL computers and drives?