With recapping of the 30 MB hard drives complete, we have a look at the exterior of each drive including their model numbers and whatnot. Next up we will be recapping the floppy drives in both the model 2 and model 3 TeraDrives.

Well, I’ve finally finished replacing the rather unfortunate radial capacitors that I installed on these drives a few years ago. They’re all looking considerably more respectable now, so I thought it might be interesting to line up the three WDL-330Ps and have a look at the differences.

First up, they’re all IBM drives. The second one is also an IBM, and would you believe it, the third one is an IBM too! What an extraordinary comparison this is turning out to be.

There are some small differences, though. The drives have different labels and revision details, and the mounting arrangements aren’t identical. Two have fittings that remind me of the hardware used in IBM PS/2 systems, while the TeraDrive drive has its own slightly different arrangement.

The rear connectors are particularly interesting. We’ve got an edge-style connection on the TeraDrive-compatible drives, while the way power is provided differs between some of these versions. It seems IBM was quite happy to produce variations of essentially the same hard drive for different machines.

The drives that Sega supplied with the TeraDrive also appear under the WDL-330PS designation, while the spare WDL-330Ps I’ve been using don’t have that final S. Fortunately, they’re still compatible with the TeraDrive setup, which makes having a few spares rather useful.

And then there’s the reason we’re here in the first place: those capacitors. The original boards use small surface-mount electrolytics, including 47 uF and 100 uF values. I’ve now replaced the old components across the three drives, putting an end to the rather questionable radial-capacitor arrangements I installed previously.

The important thing is that the recapping work is finished. I still want to keep an eye on these ageing drives, but at least their circuit boards are looking much closer to how they should.

That completes this part of the TeraDrive hard-drive adventure. Next we move on to the floppy drives, which should be considerably less troublesome. I hope. Famous last words!