Will a USB FDD do for Transferring?

[mancity]

Hi guys,

Im going to transfer some stuff from PC to Amiga using CrossDOS. At the moment, I have an old (and very slow) Sony Vaio laptop which has a built-in FDD, which is very handy. However, as it's ultra-slow and quite painful, im wondering if I can just buy and use a USB FDD on my much newer and better laptop?

The reason im checking is because when I had an Atari ST, you couldn't use a USB FDD to transfer games, it had to be a done via FDD on a FDD controller on the mobo.

Cheers,

[thomas]

With CrossDOS you can read 720k PC floppy disks. So any PC floppy drive which can write 720K floppy disks will do.

If your Amiga has a high density floppy drive it can even read 1440K floppy disks.

[demolition]

I think many newer USB FDDs does not support DSDD disks properly. I have one which unfortunately does not, unless they're already formatted.
I had an Amiga formatted disk which I tried to format in it, but I could only select 1.44MB even though the disk was already inserted. Could also be an issue with Windows 7?

After PC-formatting it on the Amiga, I could read it on the PC and transfer my files.

[mancity]

Originally Posted by demolition

I think many newer USB FDDs does not support DSDD disks properly. I have one which unfortunately does not, unless they're already formatted.
I had an Amiga formatted disk which I tried to format in it, but I could only select 1.44MB even though the disk was already inserted. Could also be an issue with Windows 7?

After PC-formatting it on the Amiga, I could read it on the PC and transfer my files.

You have to format in a DOS prompt to be able to do 720kb, I know that much.

[demolition]

Maybe that's why. In XP you could choose the format from the drop down menu.

[mancity]

Originally Posted by demolition

Maybe that's why. In XP you could choose the format from the drop down menu.

I am using XP and you cannot choose the option from the drop-down box? Maybe they removed it with a later Service Pack or something? I have Service Pack 3 and it's definitely not there mate?

Just read you can format as a 720kb PC floppy from the actual Amiga so i'll probably just to that anyway.

Anybody else know if a USB FDD will work?

[demolition]

The 720kb option only appeared if you inserted a DSDD disk before opening the format window. At least this is how I used to do it in XP x64.

Edit: I read somewhere that some newer USB FDD drives does not have the HD/DD switch so they will not work with DD disks as they're hardwired for HD disks. It's maybe a bit of a gamble as to what you get. Mine does read DD disks and it's a slim IBM floppy drive.

[mancity]

Originally Posted by demolition

The 720kb option only appeared if you inserted a DSDD disk before opening the format window. At least this is how I used to do it in XP x64.

That doesn't work mate, just trying it now.

Im using an original Amiga game and formatting that so it's the correct type of floppy I believe.

[Jeff_HxC2001]

Hi,

Did you noticed that some hardware are available to avoid such problems ?
One example :
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/

[mancity]

Cheers for the link.

That's a very busy page there! But an interesting read none the less.

I would be interested in one of these, but the price put me off to be honest. If I can buy a USB FDD for my Windows 7 PC for £15 that works fine then i'll do that. Otherwise, i'll just keep the very slow laptop I already have.

[Jeff_HxC2001]

Originally Posted by mancity

Cheers for the link.

That's a very busy page there! But an interesting read none the less.

I would be interested in one of these, but the price put me off to be honest. If I can buy a USB FDD for my Windows 7 PC for £15 that works fine then i'll do that. Otherwise, i'll just keep the very slow laptop I already have.

You can get the USB HxC version at a "low price" :
http://www.lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=12
You can also build this device yourself if you want... all is available on the webpage.

Originally Posted by mancity

That's a very busy page there! But an interesting read none the less.

Yes. Less busy there : http://hxc2001.com



EDIT : Please note that these USB floppy emulator will NOT speed up the floppy bus interface : the speed will be the same.

EDIT2 :
Oups ... Some misunderstanding of the topic subject. Sorry

[prowler]

Try formatting a 720K floppy disk on your Windows PC from the command line thus:

FORMAT a: /t:80 /n:9

[mancity]

Originally Posted by prowler

Try formatting a 720K floppy disk on your Windows PC from the command line thus:

FORMAT a: /t:80 /n:9

Yeah that works fine. It's easier to do it from my Amiga though from PC0 .

[demolition]

Also works for me with my USB FDD drive (which on further inspection is a Dell drive, dunno why I thought it was IBM).

As far as I can read, the ability to format DSDD was indeed removed in XP, but I'm sure I used to do it in XP (not using the command-line), so probably in a service pack like mancity writes.

I just tried with XP Mode under Windows 7 and it won't format either (format box just stays blank).

[sneeker]

Format A: /f:720 works as well in a dos prompt.... awnd it still gives the option in windows 7. Just Its years since I had a floppy drive in a pc.

[source]

Go to a DOS shell and type

Format A: /f:720 It will work with a usb floppy drive on PC laptop. As for the USB floppy drive on the amiga, I think even though the drive may be a high density drive, the amiga only recognizes 720 k formated disks.

[Jope]

When did you guys last try /f:720 and what release of the Microsoft OS was it in?

Every time I've tried it with XP and later, I've had to specify the amount of cyls and sectors with /t and /n like in the instructions above.

[mancity]

Cheers guys,

Iv'e ordered a USB FDD now from Amazon for a tenner so i'll let you all know it definitely works etc etc

[Arnie]

Originally Posted by Jope

When did you guys last try /f:720 and what release of the Microsoft OS was it in?

Every time I've tried it with XP and later, I've had to specify the amount of cyls and sectors with /t and /n like in the instructions above.

Works for me in Windows 7.

[demolition]

I don't get the 1.44 option. When I select 'format' with a DSDD disk in the drive, Windows writes 'Windows can't format this type of disk. Insert a different disk and try again.'