Floppy Emu Questions

[tjjq44]

Every mac between 1984 and 1996 at least can use Floppy mode, but for HD20 mode only 512k, plus, SE, Classic, Portable, IIci and IIsi are able to

 

[Paralel]

I don't think that list is complete. My Classic II has no trouble.

 

[tjjq44]

Like how you play with words...

To extend, a LC I can use this mode if you plug the emu in the left connector, a LCII works if you solder a wire on the SWIM to enable 2nd drive, even a powerbook 100 with custom HDI-20 cable works

 

[tjjq44]

But this leave a lot of models out!

Mac II, IIx, SE/30, IIcx, IIfx

All powerbooks (except my 100)

LC III, 475, 630, color classic

All quadras/centris

All powermacs...

 

[Paralel]

and the hypermajority of those can't use a Floppy EMU in floppy mode either, so that list really doesn't make much sense, full stop.

 

[tjjq44]

Every mac that owns a 20 pin internal floppy connector or a DB-19 external floppy connector can use it in floppy mode!!! That takes us to the mid/late nineties, so more than 10 years of mac existence

 

[Paralel]

Counting the internal floppy connector is kind of silly.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

As floppy drives start to fail, replacing an internal floppy drive with a Floppy Emu makes sense as an option.  And the Floppy Emu model b was designed specifically to allow for it to replace internal floppy drives.

The only major improvement I'd like to see is for the Floppy Emu to support emulating both a floppy drive and a hard drive (either Smartport on Apple II or HD20 on Mac) at the same time. Then I could 'bootstrap' my Mac 512 using HD20 "boot floppy" without needing to use an actual floppy. Or boot a Smartport image on my IIgs and still use the floppy emulation to load floppy disk images onto the hard drive from within the booted OS.

 

[ktkm]

Each disk image file must be in a contiguous range of sectors on the SD card, in order for the disk emulation to work correctly, otherwise you'll see the warning about a non-contiguous file. This doesn't have anything to do with the file itself, but rather with how the file is stored on the card. Normally this “just works” without any special effort, but if you’ve repeatedly added and deleted files form the SD card, then they may become fragmented across different sections of the card. The easiest fix is to delete all the files on the SD card, and then copy them all back. Or reformat the SD card, and then replace the files. A defragmenting tool should also work, but the other methods are easier.

Thank you for clearing that out! ????

 

[tjjq44]

The only major improvement I'd like to see is for the Floppy Emu to support emulating both a floppy drive and a hard drive (either Smartport on Apple II or HD20 on Mac) at the same time. Then I could 'bootstrap' my Mac 512 using HD20 "boot floppy" without needing to use an actual floppy.

Sadly, I doubt it will ever be possible... The 512k has one internal floppy port and one external. Even if it's able to boot from external floppy drive, I don't even know if the hd20 could be plugged into the internal connector (never tested). But that's not the main issue here. The problem is when you plug (even a real) HD20 to the floppy port, you don't have access to the chained floppy drive until the HD20 init is loaded...... from the other floppy drive (which have to be directly plugged on the other port)! So unless wiring two cables (one from internal floppy port and one from external) and plug them into a new dual ports floppy emu (which doesn't exist of course), I don't see any any way to just plug a "floppy/HD20 emu" in the back of the machine and boot from that with no boot floppy (real or emulated) in the internal drive...

 

[tjjq44]

With any other mac (Plus, SE...) HD20 support is buit in rom so it isn't an issue anymore. Probably one of the reasons I like the 512k so much, is the fact you have to load from a floppy before it swiches to the HD... It makes this mac unique

For apple II I can't answer since I never owned neither used any of these

 

[bdurbrow]

The 128K ROM (as shipped in the Mac 512Ke and Plus) has the HD20 boot routines in it; so a Mac 128K or 512K with an upgraded ROM can boot directly off of an HD20 (or, in this case, a Floppy Emulator in HD20 mode).

According to my copy of The Apple Guide to Macintosh Family Hardware; each connector (be it internal 20 pin IDC or D-sub 19 pin external drive connector) only has the drive enable line for that specific drive on it; so it's not possible for a single Floppy Emulator to emulate two physical drives at the same time. Adding dual emulation would require adding emulation of a pass thru connected drive to HD20 mode (which as I understand it is not seen directly by the IWM, but is a software function of the HD20 drivers and hardware in the HD20 itself); I don't know the details, but it may be possible to do in the firmware for the Floppy Emulator. BMOW would know better than I (seeing as he wrote it!   ).

 

[SlateBlue]

Each disk image file must be in a contiguous range of sectors on the SD card, in order for the disk emulation to work correctly, otherwise you'll see the warning about a non-contiguous file. This doesn't have anything to do with the file itself, but rather with how the file is stored on the card. Normally this “just works” without any special effort, but if you’ve repeatedly added and deleted files form the SD card, then they may become fragmented across different sections of the card. The easiest fix is to delete all the files on the SD card, and then copy them all back. Or reformat the SD card, and then replace the files. A defragmenting tool should also work, but the other methods are easier.

I actually ran into this yesterday. I did as you said: reformatted the SD card, then copied the data back onto the card. I have mounted the SD card under Windows 10, OS X Tiger, and OS 9. I notice OS 9 adds a Resource Fork directory and Windows adds System Volume Information. I'm going to have to research if there is a way to disable the OSes from automatically creating these directories.

As a follow-up to my original problem, what I overlooked was that some of the downloaded disk images contained smaller disk images within. This is what threw me off. The Floppy Emu has worked without error. The user, not so much.

 

[ktkm]

Every mac between 1984 and 1996 at least can use Floppy mode, but for HD20 mode only 512k, plus, SE, Classic, Portable, IIci and IIsi are able to

Unless you get the ROM-inator II … it adds HD20 support. I use it with my IIcx, works great!