Kubbi
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Norway

Hello Atari people heart

Trying to write maxYMiser on to some 720kb DD floppies. I bought myself a usb floppy disk driver, which I later learned didn't work for this use. Apparently most usb FDDs have weird limitations and can't do a lot of the imaging/formatting work that internal FDDs can (which I don't own).
Anyone know of a USB Floppy Disk Driver that can actually write .st images and use the fdrawcmd.sys driver? If not, what would you say is the best alternative?

I used the HDE External USB Floppy Disk Drive
Tried both Windows Vista, 7 and 8.
Also tried both blank 720kb DD and 1.44mb HD floppies.
I have an Atari 1040STE.

I very much appreciate any help at all

fedepede04
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i have a Toshiba and i work perfectly.
i think the problem lies in the new cheap drive, so i would advise you to find a older drive (known brand) on EBay.

Kubbi
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Norway
fedepede04 wrote:

i have a Toshiba and i work perfectly.
i think the problem lies in the new cheap drive, so i would advise you to find a older drive (known brand) on EBay.


Alright, ordered a new drive. I'll hopefully have more luck with this one.

fedepede04
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like you i also first bought a cheap usb floppy-disk and it did not work either,
when i got my hand on the Toshiba  and that work and it work beautifully..

so good luck with it, i hope it also work for you smile

AdamGetsAwesome
Offline
Boulder, CO

How are you formatting the floppies? Should be using "FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9"

I've never had issues with usb floppies formatting 720kb disks, but maybe I'm lucky.

Kubbi
Offline
Norway
AdamGetsAwesome wrote:

How are you formatting the floppies? Should be using "FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9"

I've never had issues with usb floppies formatting 720kb disks, but maybe I'm lucky.

Yeah that's what I tried but I just got this message:

Parameters not supported by drive,

jefftheworld
Offline
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I'll admit that I have a cheap no-name USB floppy drive (running under both Windows 8 and Debian) and I suppose I got lucky as it has no issues formatting disks for the ST.

It might be a random chance sort of thing but I suppose it's worth mentioning that not all cheap drives are going to be unable to do this.

XyNo
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Joliette, QC, Canada

Maybe the 720kb floppy you have is defect and did you cover the hole of your 2HD with some scotchtape ?

fedepede04
Offline

many of the usb floppy drive does not support 720k disk...

stress_tn
Offline
Russia

Anybody link a good usb floppy drive for working with atari.

fedepede04
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the one i have is an older Toshiba . Model NO. PA2109U-1FDD

jefftheworld
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Just wanted to add, my drive has no external markings but identifies itself as "NEC USB UF000x USB Device". It worked instantly on both windows and Linux.

Kubbi
Offline
Norway

Ok cool. It feels kinda like gambling when buying these cheap usb drives. The product descriptions tend to be lacking some pretty relevant info. I can't even find any info about the producer or the model on the one I bought.

Trying this one next
Sandberg USB Floppy Mini Reader
They specifically say it runs with both 1.44 and 720. Twice as expensive though. Will post if it works when it arrives.

XyNo wrote:

Maybe the 720kb floppy you have is defect and did you cover the hole of your 2HD with some scotchtape ?

I did try on 3-4 720kb DD disks as well as 3-4 1.44mb 2HD disks. Had the same results. Also tried the tape method. Pretty sure it's the driver.

stress_tn
Offline
Russia

off-topic: is it work with atari? Link

Kubbi
Offline
Norway
Kubbi wrote:

Trying this one next
Sandberg USB Floppy Mini Reader
They specifically say it runs with both 1.44 and 720. Twice as expensive though. Will post if it works when it arrives.

Didn't work. Exactly the same results ¬¬

Fuck it, I'll look for an old Toshiba drive then.
Wish it wasn't the 3rd one I had to buy haha.

kometbomb
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I wanted to image some old Atari floppies and I didn't want to blindly buy a USB drive that might work so I got a KryoFlux (which was quite expensive compared to a USB drive, around 100 euros) and a 1.44 M floppy drive from a recycling center (which was practically free). Worked perfectly. As a bonus you can also connect a 5,25" drive for your C64 needs. Of course, if you only need to write DD floppies, this is overkill.