Floppy Phobia

[TenLeftFingers]

I might be an exception here, but I actually love using floppies on the Amiga (for the time being anyway). But I've recently had a scare after getting an Amiga in the post with about 100 floppies with games on them.

At first there were a lot of read errors so I ordered a new floppy drive. With the new floppy drive things improved, but running X-Copy's checkdisk function on many of those caused the drive to begin giving read errors on all disks - for the same block, even under normal use. So the drive obviously got dirtied and cleaning it fixed it eventually but it looked like the drive was permanently damaged initially because it took two cleanings.

So my question is, as a floppy lover, how can I buy the odd boxed game on eBay, use software on floppy, save documents etc but keep my drive safe?

The only solution I've thought of is writing adf images to brand new disks and thereby keeping all non-new disks away from the system. This means I'll miss out a bit on the old games and software that many of you are using as they were originally intended.

I'm all ears for any thoughts on this. Thank you!

[liviux76]

Have you ever heard about kryoflux?

When I buy a "non working" game I replace the "inner disk" with a good one and burn the IPF file on the original disk. This way I have a new "re-mastered" original copy of the game.

You have to be accurate opening the disks, though, because they are quite delicate and you can damage them if you aren't very careful.

Make practice with old not original disks before doing that on the precious originals!

[TenLeftFingers]

Originally Posted by liviux76

Have you ever heard about kryoflux?

When I buy a "non working" game I replace the "inner disk" with a good one and burn the IPF file on the original disk. This way I have a new "re-mastered" original copy of the game.

You have to be accurate opening the disks, though, because they are quite delicate and you can damage them if you aren't very careful.

Make practice with old not original disks before doing that on the precious originals!

Thank you for introducing me to kryoflux! I didn't know about this.

I had a similar idea to you (see above) except instead of trying to restore the original I was going to write the adf files to brand new floppies using the ADF Floppy tool from amigakit, and then replace the inside of the older disk.

Well, I have plenty of dead disks now and many of them are not originals so I guess I have an opportunity to start practising

[liviux76]

I think that if you spend money buying the original disks it's worth to use the IPF files... and for that you need a kryoflux.

However, if you don't care about the fact that your games almost always will have a cracktro and that they won't be "original" anymore you can use the adf files as you were thinking to do...

In both cases if you want to use the original "shells" you will have to replace the "inner" disks so the more you practice the better you get!

[TenLeftFingers]

Okay, now I understand that IPF files have a different meaning to adf. I'll need to look into these more as I don't really understand. So could I use a GoTek to make the IPF files look like floppies to the kryoflux?

And yes, I agree with you. I prefer originals rather than something with a cracktro on it.

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by liviux76

Have you ever heard about kryoflux?

When I buy a "non working" game I replace the "inner disk" with a good one and burn the IPF file on the original disk. This way I have a new "re-mastered" original copy of the game.

You have to be accurate opening the disks, though, because they are quite delicate and you can damage them if you aren't very careful.

Make practice with old not original disks before doing that on the precious originals!

Hmmm, I don't like this procedure .
I mean: I like it if you'll keep the "restored original" for yourself, never re-selling it.
But if you will - in the future - sell it as original you'll give the buyer something which isn't the original anymore.
Ok, the disk content is bit-by-bit identical, floppy casing/box/instruction manual are original, but the disc's surface has been remastered.

Ok, I'm maniac .

I'm wondering if the SPS Team can tell the difference between a real original and a remastered one...

[Jope]

Originally Posted by TenLeftFingers

Okay, now I understand that IPF files have a different meaning to adf. I'll need to look into these more as I don't really understand. So could I use a GoTek to make the IPF files look like floppies to the kryoflux?

No, not quite. The Gotek has nothing to do with IPFs and you can't make them yourself properly, to make a working IPF needs analysis skills and tools that are not generally available. You must find them online, then you can use a Kryoflux to write IPFs back to floppies.

[liviux76]

Originally Posted by Supamax

Hmmm, I don't like this procedure .
I mean: I like it if you'll keep the "restored original" for yourself, never re-selling it.
But if you will - in the future - sell it as original you'll give the buyer something which isn't the original anymore.
Ok, the disk content is bit-by-bit identical, floppy casing/box/instruction manual are original, but the disc's surface has been remastered.

Ok, I'm maniac .

I'm wondering if the SPS Team can tell the difference between a real original and a remastered one...

I can understand your point of view and I already read similar "debates" here or in other forums.

For me it is perfectly fine since I consider the "original" just a "professionally mastered" copy of the "first disk"... but someone can disagree with this.

However I do this procedure with games I want to keep and if it happens that I decide to sell them I will inform the potential buyer... provided I remind that I "kryofluxed" that specific game since I think that no one can distinguish an original from a "kryofluxed"...

[liviux76]

Originally Posted by Jope

No, not quite. The Gotek has nothing to do with IPFs and you can't make them yourself properly, to make a working IPF needs analysis skills and tools that are not generally available. You must find them online, then you can use a Kryoflux to write IPFs back to floppies.

Coming back On Topic, yes, Gotek has nothing to do with IPF files and I don't think it even can read IPF files.

You can read IPF files on winuae (I use only Linux systems so I tried on e-uae and it works as well) if you download the needed libraries from the SPS website (look in "download") if you want to "test" an IPF file before burning it on a real floppy (as we already said the burning of an IPF file is possible only if you own a kryoflux).

If you are interested, here there is an interesting technical article about kryoflux.

[supaduper]

All disks/games were/are copies they were all made on racks of daisy chained Floppy drives , so I will have no problem with an expertly replaced disk into a floppy case

[Jope]

Now I just have to ask, since when have we started burning magnetic media? You burn CD-Rs or EPROMs or flash chips, but you write to disks.

[liviux76]

Originally Posted by Jope

Now I just have to ask, since when have we started burning magnetic media? You burn CD-Rs or EPROMs or flash chips, but you write to disks.

You're perfectly right, I used the verb "burn" improperly, but I think that the meaning of my sentences was quite clear in any case ...

[Jope]

Originally Posted by liviux76

You're perfectly right, I used the verb "burn" improperly, but I think that the meaning of my sentences was quite clear in any case ...

Absolutely, just had to nip burning in the bud before it's "roms" to mean any image file all over again. :-D

[TenLeftFingers]

Originally Posted by liviux76

Coming back On Topic, yes, Gotek has nothing to do with IPF files and I don't think it even can read IPF files.

You can read IPF files on winuae (I use only Linux systems so I tried on e-uae and it works as well) if you download the needed libraries from the SPS website (look in "download") if you want to "test" an IPF file before burning it on a real floppy (as we already said the burning of an IPF file is possible only if you own a kryoflux).

If you are interested, here there is an interesting technical article about kryoflux.

Thanks liviux76, I'll look into that. Considering how few games I'll be restoring I think it'll be worth it.

If I was selling, I would tell potential buyers what they are buying. But that's standard for any sale so I think it's not an issue.