---
title: "A&J Micro Drive"
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type: "company"
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url: "http://localhost/company/a-j-micro-drive/"
markdown_url: "http://localhost/company/a-j-micro-drive.md"
published_at: "2019-06-19T14:18:19+00:00"
modified_at: "2024-03-21T00:59:30+00:00"
author: "David Anderson"
featured_image:
  url: "http://localhost/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/20230604-070815.jpg"
excerpt: "A&J Micro Drive was a spin-off of Exatron, the company that manufactured and marketed the Exatron Stringy Floppy (ESF). The Exatron Stringy Floppy was a continuous loop tape cartridge (“wafer”) that had some advantages over traditional cassette tapes. Exatron also manufactured the tape drive mechanism and sold it via mail order to home computer owners.…"
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  - name: "Jim Howell"
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address: "1050 East Duane Ave., Suite I, Sunnyvale, CA 94086"
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    title: "Stringy Floppy for Timex/Sinclair"
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archiveorg_url: "https://archive.org/details/a-j-microdrive"
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    title: "A TS1500 A&J Microdrive Problem and Solution"
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    title: "A&J Micro Drive System"
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  - id: 44034
    title: "A&J Microdrive 2000"
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    url: "http://localhost/article/aj-microdrive-2000/"
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    title: "A&J Notes"
    type: "article"
    url: "http://localhost/article/aj-notes/"
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    title: "Adapting Your Programs for the A&J Microdrive"
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    title: "Alpha Strings$"
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    title: "Catalog Your A&J Wafers"
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  - id: 19872
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    title: "The A&J Microdrive"
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    title: "TS1500 A&J Microdrive Problem and Solution"
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    title: "Vendor Report"
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  - id: 46604
    title: "Verifying MScript 5T on A&J Microdrive"
    type: "article"
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  - id: 64166
    title: "A & J Microdrive Review"
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  - id: 11676
    title: "A&J Micro Drive"
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  - id: 11677
    title: "A&J Micro Drive Model 2000"
    type: "product"
    url: "http://localhost/product/aj-microdrive/"
  - id: 12493
    title: "ESF Drive 2"
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    url: "http://localhost/product/esf-drive-2/"
  - id: 13157
    title: "ESF/81 Monitor Program"
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    title: "Microwafer"
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---

# A&J Micro Drive

A&J Micro Drive was a spin-off of Exatron, the company that manufactured and marketed the Exatron Stringy Floppy (ESF). The Exatron Stringy Floppy was a continuous loop tape cartridge (“wafer”) that had some advantages over traditional cassette tapes.

Exatron also manufactured the tape drive mechanism and sold it via mail order to home computer owners. The first ESF drives were made for the TRS-80 Model I. Wafers were available in several lengths, from 5 feet (which could store 4K of data) to 75 feet (up to 64K).

By 1983, Exatron needed additional capital to improve the overall performance and quality of the wafer drives and wafers. With new investors came the name change to Entrepo (a word close to the French word for warehouse). Exatron focused on large OEM accounts and Jim Howell, son of the Exatron founder, took over the mail-order stringy floppy business with his company, A&J Micro Drive.

One investor, BSR Ltd., the Hong Kong-based electronic components and consumer electronics company, acquired a third of the equity in Entrepo. BSR finalized the R&D on the wafer drive which it also manufactured. The BSR drive was used in the [Rototronics Wafadrive](http://localhost/product/rotronics-wafadrive/).