Thinkpad's floppy drive ?

[123434]

Hello
What is inside IBM T23 internal branded Thinkpad's floppy drive unit when I unscrew the plastic rails and such off ?
- Is it one of those slim floppy drives that I need ?
3.5" Slim\Micro\Server floppy drive= Twice off the height of normal drive and the connector is a tiny ribbon cable .

I broke one slim floppy drive NEC FD1238H (1998)
- I stored the laptop outside boxed in a cold storage(probably due that) and now it makes a horrible noise when reading and reads somewhat but gives errors all the time.
- Cleaned heads, rubber band ok and no obvious corrosion.

TEAC made these the newest models are from 2008 are these any more made ? MTTF is only 30 000 hours.

[Thinkpad4by3]

Intenal or External? Which machine does it connect to? IBM made 30 different floppy drives.

[123434]

Internal T23.

[Thinkpad4by3]

Check the FRU of your drive against here: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Ultrabay_ ... oppy_Drive

[RealBlackStuff]

Plenty of T2x floppy drives on eBay.

[123434]

I think the NEC FD1238H broke 3pcs of my floppy discs ?
( I'm not brave enough to break more of them )
Nothing happens but loud constant noise+green led ON when reading with NEC and when I tried multiple floppies on it all of them appear now unreadable on the other laptop or it wants to format them and then it jams during format without any success.
-The thinkpad IBM one seems to work TEAC FD-05CSB.

This is a bad dream can a broken floppy drive cause all this havoc ? A nightmare from '90s.

1.) If I order a used floppy drive on ebay how to know it is a good one ?
I'm getting paranoid reading that shaking drives during deliveries and such can cause write heads to be misaligned and break floppies and such.

2.) Does formatting in Windows XP differ physically from formatting in Windows 98 ?
I mean is the disk compatible between different OS and ideally same if formatted in Windows XP or 98 ?

3.) What was the "Drivespace 3" or such packing software that was used in Windows 98 ? I have some disks that are packed and forgot also how to open them.

[Thinkpad4by3]

Out of the 20 or so floppy drives I bought on the internet, 1 was DOA. Floppy drives generally dont break.

[automobus]

What is inside IBM T23 internal branded Thinkpad's floppy drive unit when I unscrew the plastic rails and such off ?
- Is it one of those slim floppy drives that I need ?

Yes, it is one of those slimline/micro drives, nominal thickness is 12.7 mm; it connects via 26-pin, 1mm pitch, 0.3mm thickness flexi-ribbon.

I think the NEC FD1238H broke 3pcs of my floppy discs
…
can a broken floppy drive cause all this havoc ?

Yes, a damaged or dirty head (in disc drive) can spread damage or contamination to disc surface (and vice versa).