Writing .ipf files to real disks in 2021

[VegaVegas]

Is there anything viable to write .ipf images to real floppy disks in 2021?? I've read several debates speculating whether there will be any sort of low level disk drive interface for that but all of those topics I found on google were from 2006 which is kinda ridiculous. I'm curious if there appeared anything good 15 years later then

[big-ted]

Check out greaseweazle by kier Fraser.

https://github.com/keirf/Greaseweazle

I use the f1 cheap board works well.

Check out his Facebook page for more info.

[fryguy]

Kryoflux works too but its more expensive than Greaseweazle

[VegaVegas]

Greaseweazle seems interesting. Why haven't I heard of it before?? Does F1 board read and write original full images just successfully and is there a big benefit to get F7 instead?? Thank goodness it is open source

[VegaVegas]

Another, most important question- does greaseweazle work on 2000s floppy drives?? I can see a lot of floppy drives made in 2003-2006 for a price of beer each so this will be very easy to achieve but if it is very highly hardware agnostic then I need more info on what sort of specific 3.5" drives it supports

[Jope]

Blind flux copying does not work very well, so it is important to do a bit of research on the subject before getting one of these miracle tools.

If you create flux images from ADF or IPF, these can be written successfully.

If you just read flux, then write flux without converting it to ADF in the meanwhile, you will have a bad time. Naturally copy protected disks can't be successfully represented as ADF.

Homebrew IPFs from copy protected disks you have read in are much more difficult to make, there are no publically available tools for reliable IPF creation currently.

Early 2000s PC floppy drives are a perfect match for the KryoFlux and GreaseWeazle. If you have a wide choice, go for a drive with a cast aluminium body instead of 100% pressed steel.

When writing disks, it would be beneficial to be able to calibrate the drive with a calibration disk, but if the drive is in good shape and these are for your own consumption, a good clean + lubricating the drive's rails is enough.

[VegaVegas]

Commercial disk images made to year 2000 are in my highest interest. Looks like greaseweazle is in my highest interest and I will definitely attempt building/buying the adapter as I'm not interested in buying any sort of different "dedicated" adapter from any other company for high $$$ that wants to hold some sort of stupid and non-existent monopoly on that and thinks all people dumping and writing floppies are idiots lol. Open source projects are the best, provide full documentation on subject and tend to be updated all the time :-)

[BarryB]

Originally Posted by Jope

Homebrew IPFs from copy protected disks you have read in are much more difficult to make, there are no publically available tools for reliable IPF creation currently.

Think you missed kaffer/Keir Frasers Linux tool: Disk-Utilities. Supports a wide range of copy protected Amiga disks and uses Greaseweazle / Kryoflux / Super Card Pro dumps to create IPF images! Did I mention it's publically available too?

[btp]

Keir Fraser has done a remarkable job with Greaseweazle. He created a low-cost & open-source tool that allows almost everyone to read/write at the flux level a great variety of floppy disk formats and he keeps improving it with each release. He certainly deserves praise and our thanks!

[BarryB]

Don't forget FlashFloppy for Gotek!! Now you can mount and run those Homebrew IPF's

[solarmon]

Greaseweazle.

This is the way.

[theq]

Originally Posted by BarryB

Don't forget FlashFloppy for Gotek!! Now you can mount and run those Homebrew IPF's

Didn't think FlashFloppy did .ipf's. When did this happen? That and .scp support would be great, though

[solarmon]

FlashFloppy doesn't support IPF directly. You need to first convert to IPF to HFE v3 format.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by BarryB

Think you missed kaffer/Keir Frasers Linux tool: Disk-Utilities. Supports a wide range of copy protected Amiga disks and uses Greaseweazle / Kryoflux / Super Card Pro dumps to create IPF images! Did I mention it's publically available too?

Nice, seems it has a lot of presets from disk formats that someone (Keir himself?) has pre-analysed.

However if your disk is not in the list, then you better git gud at looking at that flux, else you will be disappointed (either heavily or moderately or perhaps not at all if you're lucky).

Thanks for the update!

[BarryB]

Originally Posted by solarmon

FlashFloppy doesn't support IPF directly. You need to first convert to IPF to HFE v3 format.

Correct! I converted some IPFs to ADF with HxC and put them on a USB stick, turns out HxC leaves the IPF in the file name! So, game.ipf > HxC > game_ipf.adf, I just saw IPF and wrongly thought it was supported!

Originally Posted by Jope

Nice, seems it has a lot of presets from disk formats that someone (Keir himself?) has pre-analysed.

However if your disk is not in the list, then you better git gud at looking at that flux, else you will be disappointed (either heavily or moderately or perhaps not at all if you're lucky).

Thanks for the update!

Yes, the format has to be supported, but the most common ones are! Keir has added most formats while Abaddon has also contributed formats to the list! You could always edit your own format into the list and use raw_dd on unknown tracks and 'hope' the IPF works