Frequently Asked Questions
Warranties and Repairs
Q: What is the warranty on your products?
A: Based on our experience from our sales history, we have extended the warranty on all of our products to 12 months from the date of shipment. In addition, we offer a 30 day "worry free" guarantee. If you are not 100% pleased with your purchase, return it to BitBinders within 30 days of receipt for a refund of the purchase price less shipping. Return shipping is the customer’s responsibility.
Q: What is covered by your warranty?
A: We have a very transparent and simple warranty policy. If at any time during the warranty period you experience performance issues with your product, you may return the product to us and we will repair or replace it at no cost. The sole exception is that floppy drive problems related to contaminated read/write heads is not covered. We have this exception because the condition of old diskettes can be an issue.
Q: I'm having a problem with my product. What should I do?
A: The first step is to contact us regarding the problem and give us all the details of the problem. We typical reply quickly, and always within 24-48 hours. There are many variations of the hardware we have in old setups and we can often diagnose the issue and perhaps provide a solution without a return of the product. If not, we will provide information for returning the product to us for further investigation.
Q: Do you offer repair services for out-of-warranty products or other Commodore products?
A: We certainly can repair any of our products. Contact us for more information. As for other Commodore (non-BitBinders) products, we would be happy to discuss your problem and, based on that discussion, we may be able to help you.
Shipping and Tariffs or Import Duties
Q: Are tariffs or import duties included in your prices?
A: No, they are not. There are no tariffs for shipment with the US. Otherwise, please consult your local customs laws for the tariffs for your country.
Q: Why is shipping to non-North America countries so expensive?
A: Great question! Shipping to EU, UK, South America, Australia, etc. is expensive. Unfortunately, our products are niche products and shipping a container load, for example, is not practical. We'd love that to change!
Technical Information
Q: Are your floppy disk drive products made with all new components?
A: Unfortunately, the custom Commodore and Western Digital chips and the floppy drive mechanisms themselves are no longer produced. These components are purchased from various sources as used or NOS components. These components undergo extensive refurbishment and testing to ensure proper functioning.
Q: What is JiffyDOS and why is supplied in for 1581 disk drive products?
A: JiffyDOS is a Disk Operating System (DOS) enhancement which gives your C-64 or C-128 and disk drive much faster disk access speed. It also makes work with floppy drives much, much easier to work with by providing greatly simplified commands for common disk functions. We supply all of our drives with a licensed ROM containing JiffyDOS since it is such a wonderful enhancement. Please note that your computer must also have a JiffyDOS ROM installed for it to be functional. If your computer does not have JiffyDOS installed then the drive will behave as a normal 1581 drive and you will never see the difference. JiffyDOS is licensed from Retro Innovations at https://www.go4retro.com
Q: Can I use HD (High Density) floppy disks in my BitBinders drives?
A: Yes. All BitBinders drives have been modified to accept HD disks without the need to change anything about the disk itself. The HD disk will be treated as a double density disk and will format to 880kb of space. The disk will not be used as high density and will not store more information than a regular double density disk.
Q: Do your disk drives us WD1770 or WD 1772 drive controller chips?
A: This is a question that we have received a few times and it shows the level of expertise our customers can have. Our drives use the upgraded WD1772 chip. The 1772 is functionally identical to the 1770 except that it adds additional step rates that generally result in faster and quieter head seeks. Commodore used the 1770 in early production 1581’s but upgraded to the 1772 to after a bad batch of 1770’s made it into the wild, and to improve drive performance. There’s a myth in the Commodore world that 1772’s can be buggy, but exactly the opposite is true: