For discussion about setting up your studio and advice on the gear and equipment within it.
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By wudsiba Wed Sep 07, 2011 5:46 pm
I think I read somewhere that there's an easy way to make a High density floppy disk work in machines that only work with Double density disks... Anyone know how to do this?
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By tapedeck Wed Sep 07, 2011 5:51 pm
??? never heard of that. i've just always heard (and experienced) that using HD disks in DD drives is totally unreliable.

and fyi, this might do better in 'Studio Environments'.
By fobedafied Wed Sep 07, 2011 5:52 pm
you can tape the hole on the floppy disk... but it will rapidly accelerate the "degeneration" of your floppy drive if it was meant for DD720kb disks... depending on which machine and what floppy drives are compatible, you may need to make your own decision about "if it is worth it or not..."...


an s950 or an mpc60 have rare and expensive replacement drives... it would be much wiser to invest in the correct disks in this case... im not sure about most other machines...



DD disks... well worth the hunt or investment... :D
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By tapedeck Wed Sep 07, 2011 6:01 pm
fobedafied wrote:DD disks... well worth the hunt or investment... :D

well i totally disagree with this.

instead of wasting time / money hunting down obsolete disks, invest in one SD card and an HxC floppy emulator.
search the studio environments forum for 'hxc' and there are a couple really good threads.
By fobedafied Wed Sep 07, 2011 6:10 pm
tapedeck wrote:
fobedafied wrote:DD disks... well worth the hunt or investment... :D

well i totally disagree with this.

instead of wasting time / money hunting down obsolete disks, invest in one SD card and an HxC floppy emulator.
search the studio environments forum for 'hxc' and there are a couple really good threads.




although the emulator sounds nice, it doesnt negate the worth of anything regarding those disks... they arent THAT expensive or hard to locate really... im definitely interested in the emulator, but seems that the full info about the thing isnt there unless ive missed it... i read a couple threads and didnt see a price or website or anything "official"... i assumed it was more in the stage for modder leetdawgs...



years ago i got 50 or 100 DD disks on ebay for like $20 or $30 shipped... prices may have gone up a bit, but i bet its a lot less money for some disks than it is for an emulator and an SD card.... :wink: :twisted: :lol:


optimally id like to have an emulator AND the floppy fully functional... but it doesnt sound like that is possible being that the emulator isnt a SCSI device....
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By wudsiba Wed Sep 07, 2011 6:20 pm
Just looked up the emulater you refered to, and they look very promising. Getting DD disks isn't that much of an issue. I just figured if there was a way to do it with a ton of disks I already have; That would be great. I'm actually asking about my old Roland S-550. I'm not that technically inclined, so for now I'll stick with the floppies. If my disk drive were to go bad, would I still be able to use the emulator? Or does it need a working drive to work?
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By tapedeck Wed Sep 07, 2011 11:40 pm
fobedafied wrote:... im definitely interested in the emulator, but seems that the full info about the thing isnt there unless ive missed it... i read a couple threads and didnt see a price or website or anything "official"...

??? the thread in studio environments has a really long-winded 'full info' on the thing, plus links to the official site. (http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/)

fobedafied wrote:...i assumed it was more in the stage for modder leetdawgs...

this might be true... :wink:

but mainly just in terms of setting up the software. the hardware is literally plug and play. sure some people have taken it further to integrate it into the machine, but it literally just plugs in exactly the same way as a disk drive, no modification needed.

the software side though might be a bit trickier - simplest being to load up an sd card with blank images, most complicated being converting an entire library of disks to hxc format for use on the sd card.

and i still say, financially, it trumps buying disks. one 1gb sd card would replace literally 1000 floppies, and you dont have to worry as much about the drive or the disks failing. i mean yea its a 'long term' payoff, but totally worth it, imo.

anyway, it's just an option if floppies ever start frustrating you. 8)
By Jeff_HxC2001 Thu Sep 08, 2011 8:22 am
tapedeck wrote:
...the software side though might be a bit trickier - simplest being to load up an sd card with blank images, most complicated being converting an entire library of disks to hxc format for use on the sd card....


Just to ask : what do you found tricky with the software side ? (and how can i enhance this point ?)
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By tapedeck Thu Sep 08, 2011 2:22 pm
Jeff_HxC2001 wrote:Just to ask : what do you found tricky with the software side ? (and how can i enhance this point ?)

well, i gotta admit i thought the only way to back up a library was to use omniflop, which meant having to have a computer with a internal (non-usb) disk drive, and also having to configure omniflop + having to configure the hxc software to read the images correctly.

i now realise the hxc software has a 'read real floppy' function...does this require a non-usb floppy drive like omniflop?

i dont want to thread jack so feel free to pm me anything else.