Original drive
The EII uses a 5.25" DS/DD half-height Shugart SA465 (~500 KB/disk). In dual-drive units the two drives are not identical: Drive 1 has the terminating resistor pack, Drive 2 does not — don't swap them blindly.
Modern replacement (HxC / Gotek)
The HxC floppy emulator has officially supported the Emulator I & II since 2010. Key points:
- Set the drive jumper: S0 = Drive 1, S1 = Drive 2.
- Use a straight, non-twisted 34-pin ribbon cable. A standard PC (twisted) cable causes a continuous whine.
- HxC uses native .HFE images. The OS image must sit in the SD-card folder alongside the bank images (each original EII library disk was bootable with the OS aboard) — see emxp.net/HXC.htm.
- Alternatives: SamplerZone "Gotek II" (pre-configured), Gotek + FlashFloppy, or the EII-specific Nalbantov N-Drive 100.
The HxC/Gotek route is the recommended long-term fix — original 40-year-old drives and media are increasingly unreliable.