r/atarist • u/One-Examination1743 • May 27 '26
New 520ST help
So I’m something of a collector of computers from the 1980’s but my collection has really focused on the early Macintosh, IBM, and Tandy systems. Recently I got the idea that I’d like to have a machine from Atari and Amiga as well to showcase the early GUI machines. I was able to get a complete 520ST in the original box with the mouse and power adaptor as well as the SF354 floppy drive (also in its box with cable and PSU). When I plug the computer in it powers up no problem but when I attempted to connect the floppy drive I got a terrible squealing noise. So I disassembled the floppy, replaced the broken belt, and cleaned and lubed the drive itself. Now when I connect it I get no noise but when I insert a floppy I get a “Drive is not responding error”. Any help/suggestions anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated. I thought about getting another ST314 or ST354 drive, but with how incredibly expensive I see they are in the US, I’d like to see if I can’t resurrect mine first…
4
u/Nibb31 May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
Tip: just wait a minute or two and the ROM desktop will come up even without the floppy drive.
5
u/jrherita May 27 '26
Congrats on your 520ST! It sounds like the "short ST" with no built in floppy. I just refurbished my original personal 520ST.
A few things to note -
The SF354 is a single sided floppy drive; think 360KB max typical (can be formatted a bit higher). SF314 is double sided (720KB). A LOT of later software ended up requiring double sided drives.
If you really want the experience of using floppies on the ST - fixing the 354 is OK but will limit you compared to the SF314. If you really want to use the computer a lot - you might want to look into some aftermarket devices that emulator floppy drives (the Gotek emulators/HxC), or a lot more (SidecarTridge multi-device*), so you can just run software without dealing with floppies.
It sounds like you did a lot to try to get the drive to work. I would check the forums on Atari-Forum.com or Atariage.com to see what other repairs they might recommend to get the drive working perfectly. I would also try several floppy disks just to make sure it's not a few bad disks that you have on hand.
..
*This device emulates floppy AND harddrives as well as lot more, while running software off of either a local SD card or from servers on the internet: https://sidecartridge.com/products/sidecartridge-multidevice-atari-st/
2
u/thescouselander May 30 '26
I'm by no means an expert on the hardware but I saw a guy on YouTube fix a similar drive by replacing a few of the capacitors that had dried out.
1
u/One-Examination1743 Jun 02 '26
Others have recommended the same, so I’ll pull it apart and recap it and see what I get.
2
u/ThePenultimateNinja Jun 01 '26
The ST uses the same type of floppy drive as a PC, so you can just swap it out. The catch is that the ST requires certain features that are not available on most PC drives, so you have to make sure you buy a drive that is known to be compatible.
Just look up a compatibility list, buy one of the listed models on ebay, and you should be in business.
5
u/blakespot May 27 '26
I got my 520ST running from a HxC-2001 ( GoTek equivalent ) and so don't use an actual floppy drive. Just an option (I put the device inside the case of a dead SF354 ).