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Idea: LS-120 Firmware Hack to Add 400K/800K Support

olePigeon

Well-known member
Just an idea to throw out there. And I'd be willing to donate an LS-120 to anyone who'd be interested in poking around the firmware to see if it's possible.

The LS-120 drive (aka the Imation SuperDisk drive) is a floptical drive. It uses lasers to guide the magnetic head. It's a very accurate drive. The LS-240 drive can even format high density disks to 10MBs.

So do you guys think it would be possible to add MFM support into the firmware?

That would make the LS-120 the only external USB floppy drive that supports Macintosh 400K and 800K disks. The added benefit is that the Imation SuperDisk drive is really good at reading data off bad sectors since (from what I understand) it can read 1/2 a sector at a time. I've had absolutely phenomenal success reading troublesome HD disks on my Imation drive. Would love to have the capability for 400K and 800K disks.
 
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