Hi, I have an old 40mb hard drive a bit bigger than the size of a DVD rom,
the only info I can get from it is:

Bauart Gepruft
51MB (40MB)
MFG Number: TH66590
Model DEM-200TK
Lot 3B732403
Magnetic disk drive Type TD5046 Tokico LTD Japan

It looks like it has an old floppy cable plug into it and theres another one
next to it that is smnaller plus the 4 pin power. It hasnt got an IDE
connector.

Im going to put it on ebay but Ide like to know what these are woth
nowerdays, I have no way to test if it still works.

Thanks
GK.

Gabriel Knight <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Hi, I have an old 40mb hard drive a bit bigger than the size of a DVD rom,
> the only info I can get from it is:

> Bauart Gepruft
> 51MB (40MB)
> MFG Number: TH66590
> Model DEM-200TK
> Lot 3B732403
> Magnetic disk drive Type TD5046 Tokico LTD Japan

> It looks like it has an old floppy cable plug into it and theres another one
> next to it that is smnaller plus the 4 pin power. It hasnt got an IDE
> connector.

> Im going to put it on ebay but Ide like to know what these are woth
> nowerdays, I have no way to test if it still works.

> Thanks
> GK.

Worth is zero to negative (disposal fee), depending on where you are.

Arno
--
Arno Wagner, Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform., CISSP -- Email: (E-Mail Removed)
GnuPG: ID: 1E25338F FP: 0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F
----
Cuddly UI's are the manifestation of wishful thinking. -- Dylan Evans

Gabriel Knight wrote:
>
> Hi, I have an old 40mb hard drive a bit bigger than the size of a DVD rom,
> the only info I can get from it is:
>
> Bauart Gepruft
> 51MB (40MB)
> MFG Number: TH66590
> Model DEM-200TK
> Lot 3B732403
> Magnetic disk drive Type TD5046 Tokico LTD Japan
>
> It looks like it has an old floppy cable plug into it and theres another one
> next to it that is smaller plus the 4 pin power. It hasnt got an IDE
> connector.

Can you post some pics at a place like ImageShack.us or
PhotoBucket.com ?

That's either ST-506 interface (often called MFM or RLL) or ESDI
interface. They use the same connectors but different signals.

There's a chance somebody at RedHill.net.au will know, where there's
lots of information about old PC hardware. Another place is
HardwareHell.com.

I don't know about ESDI, but with ST-506 there's a good chance you
won't be able to read any data unless you have the same kind of
controller card that was originally used to low level format that
drive, and sometimes even the BIOS of the controller has to be
identical. I've never seen any of those controllers for PCI bus, only
ISA bus.

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Arno <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>Gabriel Knight <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> Hi, I have an old 40mb hard drive a bit bigger than the size of a DVD rom,
>> the only info I can get from it is:
>
>> Bauart Gepruft
>> 51MB (40MB)
>> MFG Number: TH66590
>> Model DEM-200TK
>> Lot 3B732403
>> Magnetic disk drive Type TD5046 Tokico LTD Japan
>
>> It looks like it has an old floppy cable plug into it and theres another one
>> next to it that is smnaller plus the 4 pin power. It hasnt got an IDE
>> connector.
>
>> Im going to put it on ebay but Ide like to know what these are woth
>> nowerdays, I have no way to test if it still works.
>
>> Thanks
>> GK.
>
>Worth is zero to negative (disposal fee), depending on where you are.
>
>Arno
The magnets are cool in those things. Thats about it.

On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:59:35 +1000, "Gabriel Knight" <(E-Mail Removed)>
put finger to keyboard and composed:

>Hi, I have an old 40mb hard drive

>Model DEM-200TK

>Magnetic disk drive Type TD5046 Tokico LTD Japan

It doesn't answer your question, but the following manual has some
detailed information about a Tokico model DK503-2 5.25" HDD with a
ST412/506 interface:

http://www.1000bit.it/support/manual...x10/QX16HD.pdf

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

David Brown wrote
> Gabriel Knight wrote

>> Hi, I have an old 40mb hard drive a bit bigger than the size of a DVD rom, the only info I can get from it is:

>> Bauart Gepruft
>> 51MB (40MB)
>> MFG Number: TH66590
>> Model DEM-200TK
>> Lot 3B732403
>> Magnetic disk drive Type TD5046 Tokico LTD Japan

>> It looks like it has an old floppy cable plug into it and theres
>> another one next to it that is smnaller plus the 4 pin power. It
>> hasnt got an IDE connector.

>> Im going to put it on ebay but Ide like to know what these are woth
>> nowerdays, I have no way to test if it still works.

> It's worth nothing to almost everybody - but to the guy trying to
> breath more life into a critical machine that uses one of these disks
> from before, it is priceless. You need to identify the interface
> type pretty exactly, and figure out appropriate keywords to help
> people find it on ebay. Then it's just a matter of luck - if someone
> needs one of these things as a replacement in an existing system,
> they will pay dearly for it.

No they wont, because its not that critical with dinosaurs like that.

David Brown wrote
> Rod Speed wrote
>> David Brown wrote
>>> Gabriel Knight wrote

>>>> Hi, I have an old 40mb hard drive a bit bigger than the size of a DVD rom, the only info I can get from it is:

>>>> Bauart Gepruft 51MB (40MB) MFG Number: TH66590 Model DEM-200TK
>>>> Lot 3B732403 Magnetic disk drive Type TD5046 Tokico LTD Japan

>>>> It looks like it has an old floppy cable plug into it and theres
>>>> another one next to it that is smnaller plus the 4 pin power. It hasnt got an IDE connector.

>>>> Im going to put it on ebay but Ide like to know what these are woth nowerdays, I have no way to test if it still
>>>> works.

>>> It's worth nothing to almost everybody - but to the guy trying to
>>> breath more life into a critical machine that uses one of these
>>> disks from before, it is priceless. You need to identify the
>>> interface type pretty exactly, and figure out appropriate keywords
>>> to help people find it on ebay. Then it's just a matter of luck -
>>> if someone needs one of these things as a replacement in an
>>> existing system, they will pay dearly for it.

>> No they wont, because its not that critical with dinosaurs like that.

> Do you mean that computers using such old disks are not in use in critical systems,

No, I didnt mean that.

> or that it is not a problem because such disks are easily available?

I didnt mean that either.

I meant that if there is a system which needs a replacement
hard drive, it doesnt have to be exactly that drive, any other
drive of the same technology, MFM/RLL/EDSI. and the same
size can be used and that there are plenty of those around
so that they wont be paying dearly for it.

The only situation where it might be the only approach possible
is where the logic card has failed on an identical drive that has
data on it that is irreplaceable, but thats very very unlikely with
a drive as obscure as that particular one.

> You can be very sure that for any given age of computer, there /will/
> be systems out there of that age, that are important to some infrastructure.

But they wont have to have that particular drive, any drive of the
same technology and size will be fine if the original has died.

> There are a great number of factories that have ancient machines as part of their production or testing systems.

But they wont have to have that particular drive, any drive of the
same technology and size will be fine if the original has died.

> Many of these have peculiar hardware that will only work with these
> machines, and in many cases there is little or no documentation and
> the original developers have long since retired.

But they wont have to have that particular drive, any drive of the
same technology and size will be fine if the original has died.

> It can be worth a /lot/ of money to the owners to keep these machines going, and people are willing to pay for spare
> parts.

Yes, but there are plenty of drives of that size and technology around.

> The challenge, of course, is to connect the customer with the seller in these rare circumstances.

Nope, because they can use almost any drive of the same
technology and size if the system has been designed so
crudely that the replacement drive has to be of the same sise.

> It is not that long ago when I heard from a potential customer who needed a replacement CGI monitor for such as
> system.

Any of the older multisynch monitors will work fine in that situation.

> It was infeasible to replace the system with a new machine - so if necessary they would pay us to develop a CGI to VGA
> converter card (we found them an existing converter card).

And you could have used one of the older multisych monitors
or any GCI monitor.

> So I fully expect there will be people out there who have use of such a hard disk,

Yes.

> and are willing to pay plenty of money for one.

Nope, because any drive of the same technology and size will work fine.

> Whether there is someone looking for one now, and whether it is worth the effort trying to find such rare buyers, is
> another question.

Nope, we know that plenty are offering drives of the same technology and
size so we know that no one with a clue will pay much for one of those drives.

David Brown <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
[...]
> It is not that long ago when I heard from a potential customer who
> needed a replacement CGI monitor for such as system. It was infeasible
> to replace the system with a new machine - so if necessary they would
> pay us to develop a CGI to VGA converter card (we found them an existing
> converter card).

I assume this was a CGA monitor? They do run at televison frequencies,
so a HF-modulator and a TV provides an emergency fallback. Turns out
you can buy them new as well:

http://choiceprinters.com/video/TTL-LCD-touch.html

There is indeed a market for these.

Same for ESDI/MFM disks and floppies:

http://www.datexdsm.com/emulator/specificities.html#M5

The market seems to be significant, if people go to the
trouble of creating these emulators.

Arno
--
Arno Wagner, Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform., CISSP -- Email: (E-Mail Removed)
GnuPG: ID: 1E25338F FP: 0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F
----
Cuddly UI's are the manifestation of wishful thinking. -- Dylan Evans

David Brown wrote
> Rod Speed wrote
>> David Brown wrote
>>> Rod Speed wrote
>>>> David Brown wrote
>>>>> Gabriel Knight wrote

>>>>>> Hi, I have an old 40mb hard drive a bit bigger than the size of a DVD rom, the only info I can get from it is:

>>>>>> Bauart Gepruft 51MB (40MB) MFG Number: TH66590 Model DEM-200TK Lot 3B732403 Magnetic disk drive Type TD5046
>>>>>> Tokico LTD Japan

>>>>>> It looks like it has an old floppy cable plug into it and
>>>>>> theres another one next to it that is smnaller plus the 4 pin power. It hasnt got an IDE connector.

>>>>>> Im going to put it on ebay but Ide like to know what these
>>>>>> are woth nowerdays, I have no way to test if it still works.

>>>>> It's worth nothing to almost everybody - but to the guy trying
>>>>> to breath more life into a critical machine that uses one of
>>>>> these disks from before, it is priceless. You need to identify
>>>>> the interface type pretty exactly, and figure out appropriate
>>>>> keywords to help people find it on ebay. Then it's just a
>>>>> matter of luck - if someone needs one of these things as a
>>>>> replacement in an existing system, they will pay dearly for it.

>>>> No they wont, because its not that critical with dinosaurs like that.

>>> Do you mean that computers using such old disks are not in use in critical systems,

>> No, I didnt mean that.

>>> or that it is not a problem because such disks are easily available?

>> I didnt mean that either.

>> I meant that if there is a system which needs a replacement hard
>> drive, it doesnt have to be exactly that drive, any other drive of
>> the same technology, MFM/RLL/EDSI. and the same size can be used and
>> that there are plenty of those around so that they wont be paying dearly for it.

> OK, I accept that. That's why I said he had to make sure he found out
> the exact interface type.

It can only be MFM, RLL or ESDI.

> And if it is the case that disks with that interface are easily available,

They are.

> then the resale value is much lower.

Close to zero in fact.

>> The only situation where it might be the only approach possible is where the logic card has failed on an identical
>> drive that has data on it that is irreplaceable, but thats very very unlikely with a drive as obscure as that
>> particular one.

> Agreed. And swapping logic cards on a disk is not something many
> people are happy doing - that's for more specialised companies.

Not with those drives, its completely trivial for anyone to do.

>>> You can be very sure that for any given age of computer, there /will/ be systems out there of that age, that are
>>> important to some infrastructure.

>> But they wont have to have that particular drive, any drive of the
>> same technology and size will be fine if the original has died.

>>> There are a great number of factories that have ancient machines as part of their production or testing systems.

>> But they wont have to have that particular drive, any drive of the
>> same technology and size will be fine if the original has died.

>>> Many of these have peculiar hardware that will only work with
>>> these machines, and in many cases there is little or no
>>> documentation and the original developers have long since retired.

>> But they wont have to have that particular drive, any drive of the
>> same technology and size will be fine if the original has died.

>>> It can be worth a /lot/ of money to the owners to keep these
>>> machines going, and people are willing to pay for spare parts.

>> Yes, but there are plenty of drives of that size and technology around.

> OK, if you say so. I don't know that drive and interface type - I have not come across many pre-IDE hard disk
> interfaces.

I used and installed hordes of them.

>>> The challenge, of course, is to connect the customer with the
>>> seller in these rare circumstances.

>> Nope, because they can use almost any drive of the same technology and size if the system has been designed so
>> crudely that the replacement drive has to be of the same sise.

>>> It is not that long ago when I heard from a potential customer who needed a replacement CGI monitor for such as
>>> system.

>> Any of the older multisynch monitors will work fine in that situation.

> It is conceivable that an old enough multisync monitor could have done the job, but such monitors are also hard to
> find these days.

No they arent.

> The converter card was a better solution.

Not necessarily. You've now got a much rarer
component that wont be that easy to replace if it fails.

>>> It was infeasible to replace the system with a new machine - so if necessary they would pay us to develop a CGI to
>>> VGA converter card (we found them an existing converter card).

>> And you could have used one of the older multisych monitors or any GCI monitor.

>>> So I fully expect there will be people out there who have use of such a hard disk,

>> Yes.

>>> and are willing to pay plenty of money for one.

>> Nope, because any drive of the same technology and size will work fine.

>>> Whether there is someone looking for one now, and whether it is
>>> worth the effort trying to find such rare buyers, is another question.

>> Nope, we know that plenty are offering drives of the same technology and size so we know that no one with a clue will
>> pay much for one of those drives.

David Brown wrote:
>
> > On 26/09/11 22:48, Rod Speed wrote:
> >> David Brown wrote
> >>> Gabriel Knight wrote
> >>>
> >>> Hi, I have an old 40mb hard drive a bit bigger than the size of
> >>> a DVD rom, the only info I can get from it is:
> >>>
> >>> Bauart Gepruft 51MB (40MB) MFG Number: TH66590 Model DEM-200TK
> >>> Lot 3B732403 Magnetic disk drive Type TD5046 Tokico LTD Japan
> >>>
> >>> It looks like it has an old floppy cable plug into it and theres
> >>> another one next to it that is smnaller plus the 4 pin power. It
> >>> hasnt got an IDE connector.
> >>>
> >>> Im going to put it on ebay but Ide like to know what these are
> >>> woth nowerdays, I have no way to test if it still works.
> >>
> >> It's worth nothing to almost everybody - but to the guy trying to
> >> breath more life into a critical machine that uses one of these
> >> disks from before, it is priceless. You need to identify the
> >> interface type pretty exactly, and figure out appropriate keywords
> >> to help people find it on ebay. Then it's just a matter of luck -
> >> if someone needs one of these things as a replacement in an
> >> existing system, they will pay dearly for it.
> >
> > No they wont, because its not that critical with dinosaurs like
> > that.

<edited for brevity>

> So I fully expect there will be people out there who have use of
> such a hard disk, and are willing to pay plenty of money for one.
> Whether there is someone looking for one now, and whether it is
> worth the effort trying to find such rare buyers, is another
> question.


Old "Sharp" electronic organizers can fetch ridiculous prices,
now. These past several of months or so, I've been searching
the Web (eBay, mostly), seeking a reasonable "YO-520" (someone
else wants one, and won't go above $36.00 USD).

Few working specimens are available, under $50.00; the model
was introduced during 2000. He paid $30.00 ($25 + $5 shipping),
in 2002, and has bought several replacements, since.

(The YO-520 isn't very rugged, and is prone to LCD failure,
as are Sharp organizers in general.)

eBay examples are $49.88 (starting bid) and $234.06 ("Buy It
Now"). I've seen "new" items (i.e., still sealed in plastic
"blister packs") at even higer expense (e.g., circa $350.00
or more).

It's all rather shocking, considering that "iPad" and "iPaq"
gadgets (and their ilk) reduced old-fashioned organizers to
"dinosaur" status (as Rod would say), long ago.

Then, again, if a dinosaur-hunter has a pressing need for
such a beast...I guess he may pay through the nose for it.

--
Cordially,
John Turco <(E-Mail Removed)>

Marie's Musings <http://fairiesandtails.blogspot.com>