How to back-up MPC 60 3.5 floppy disks on Macbook/Mac???

This is my first post. A n00b post. I am very new at production and have been collecting hardware and trying to get my first set-up up and running the last 2 months. Going all hardware (no DAW), main sequencer is MPC 60 which I got a month ago along with a Juno, Ensoniq as keys controller and also some other old synths and old drum machines.

The MPC 60 I have all it has is expended memory, going to upgrade to OS 3 in the future. But, NOT planning to upgrade to ZIP/SCSI as it is too pricey for me (I'd rather spend the money elsewhere, like effects racks, synths, drum machines) and I also prefer using a a floppy or two per project/song.

So my question is, how can I back up (and also make fresh disk copies as when needed) my MPC 60 floppy disk files onto a computer? My computer is a Macbook Pro, and I also have a Lacie external USB 3.5 floppy reader/write/drive coming in the mail soon that I got from ebay.

Is this a simple "drag n drop" into a folder on my macbook desktop operation? ...or is it more complex than that and I need to have some sort of specialized program/app/plug-in for me to do so?

Can I do this with my Macbook? ...or is a PC required?

note: I am just interested in dragging, dropping, backing-up, making fresh copies of MPC 60 floppys, NOT asking about apps/programs that let you edit/dump sound/etc. inside a computer/mac/pc (not just yet anyways )

...any help appreciated.

fooddude wrote:My computer is a Macbook Pro, and I also have a Lacie external USB 3.5 floppy reader/write/drive

just drop and drag, nice and easy

working up to 1.4mb, not so easy.

have fun.

chrishayter wrote:

fooddude wrote:My computer is a Macbook Pro, and I also have a Lacie external USB 3.5 floppy reader/write/drive

just drop and drag, nice and easy

working up to 1.4mb, not so easy.

have fun.

Awesome...what about the other way around (ie: making fresh copies of my old floppies from the backed-up files on my macbook desktop)?

I read I may need a special program, like Omniflop ...for sure I need omniflop for backing up and writing Ensoniq Mirage DD disks (i think they even might be the smaller SD 480kb flopys)

Just got my Lacie USB driver in the mail. Connected to my Macbook Pro and put an MPC60 disk in. And, nothing...

Also tried to put in a Mirage disk in there (even though I already know it won't work), and as expected, nothing...



So how do you back-up &/or make fresh copies of MPC 60 3.5 DD/DS floppy disks anyways???

Is an old PC with an internal floppy drive + OmniFlop the only answer??

You'll need a PC with a old fashioned floppy. The USB drive controllers are not capable of the operations needed to read/write older formats. The omniflop docs give a little more detail on this.
There is another way developing though... http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/
Once this supports the 60 you could replace the floppy with this and us SD cards. I might get one too just because I'm a geek like that.

mikedean wrote:You'll need a PC with a old fashioned floppy. The USB drive controllers are not capable of the operations needed to read/write older formats. The omniflop docs give a little more detail on this.
There is another way developing though... http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/
Once this supports the 60 you could replace the floppy with this and us SD cards. I might get one too just because I'm a geek like that.

Ya, I saw that HxC thing mentioned here & there a few times... but one would still need OmniFlop to extract old MPC & Mirage disks and put them back onto an SD card, yes? ...and also a PC, since HxC is PC only.

This may be an option to read old disks when it matures... http://kryoflux.org/

mikedean wrote:This may be an option to read old disks when it matures... http://kryoflux.org/

Cool! USB too.... Searched "mac" in their forums and I think they are planning to develop a Mac compatible one soon. If so, that would be a game changer! ...there's like absolutely nothing to run alien formats on modern macs/macbooks ever. I wonder why no one has ever made a program/plug-in/interface to work with a mac yet.. probably difficulty in programming.