ClassicConnect

VCSMaster · Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2026 1:43 am Post subject: Acquisitions

Did YOU recently pick up a fancy new drive to your collection? Mention it here!

I'll go first, I just won an eBay auction (highly unusual for me) for an AReal A85 2.5" glass platter laptop hard drive, total $17. We shall see how it shows up. Listed untested, so who knows what state it's in.

VCSMaster · Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2026 12:35 am Post subject:

Well looks like I lucked out, a friend of mine was able to help import another drive for me, a Fujitsu M2235NS aka NPL (Nippon Peripherals Limited) NP02-26S coming from Germany. Hopefully it is not destroyed in shipping or by customs. I have had good luck getting things intact from Germany this year, this will be the third so far. Knock on wood.

Half height stepper drive from the mid 80s, my bread and butter. One that doesn't appear to be well documented either. Lucky me and fingers crossed!

VCSMaster · Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2026 1:40 am Post subject:

Looks like the Fujitsu M2235NS will be shipped out to me either tomorrow or Monday. Fingers crossed it makes it through customs and here in one piece.

VCSMaster · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2026 5:41 pm Post subject:

That Fujitsu M2235NS is indeed on the way via DHL, but I've got another drive on the way now as well. Just bought the earliest CMI I've seen yet on eBay, a 5616 with a date code of 46th week 1981. It's got a visually distinct PCB with the CMI logo silkscreened near the edge connectors, the label on the drive is different, and most notably, it has a black stepper motor.

My 5616 has a silver stepper, as do all of my CMI CM5000s, and I'm aware that some shipped with a green plastic encased Step-Syn motor, but I've never seen a black stepper on one of these.

I'm excited to get it in hand and dump the ROM.

VCSMaster · Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2026 12:44 am Post subject:

The Fujitsu M2235NS arrived safe and sound today. Outwardly it is spotless, the spindle is quiet, and it seems to have initialized no problem first try.

The CMI CM5616 I mentioned also showed up today, every screw on the chassis is loose, the faceplate is cracked, and when I tried to spin it up, it really seemed to be having some trouble. Upon disassembly, I found a washer stuck to the hub motor.

Speaking of the hub motor, holy smokes! It's like a 1/8th horsepower 4 pole motor, it's absolutely gigantic, much much larger than the later 3 phase spindles CMI used. It even looks like the core might be exposed, or that maybe they just added a ton of giant cooling fins all the way around. It sounds incredible spinning up, I've never heard anything like it. At just 3600RPM it sounds like some modern 7200RPM drives and the initial spin up has some crazy harmonics. I took video for a short but the phone mic doesn't do it justice.

When I get my proper setup back together in a few weeks I hope to demo both drives and the Areal all together. Maybe the Yeti Nano will do it more justice?