CPCWiki forum

Marry christmas to all!
I bought recently an external 3.5 drive for amstrad, with the intention to write 3.5 disks from my pc and then play.

The problem is that I thought I could write the disks using a USB  floppy, but I cant, and from many threads or articles I didnt get a clear picture of if it can be done or not and how. Most say that it cant be done.

I have here

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10vYHThTuStkgeRe_RNSCOl874-UKYTyU?usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10vYHThTuStkgeRe_RNSCOl874-UKYTyU?usp=sharing)  a photo of the floppy disk i use (covered tape in 1 hole) and a video showing the problems.I receive only errors in writing the disk, and also I cant install the low level driver (fdinstall), as it  cannot be installed if you use a usb floppy. So I cant even format a disk.

Any ideas or solutions? or other programs to write the disk?
Thx

@skylas (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2543)


Please get some Double density disks as HD disks are NOT suitable for this application


Keep Safe


Ray

@skylas (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2543) , USB drives are limited to standard MS-DOS formats, so there's no way you can write a CPC disk image.


Now, if you want just to copy files over to the CPC, there's an option to format the floppy as a sort of IBM compatible format and then you can tell CPCDiskXP to insert your files into it.

@skylas (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2543)


I've been down this route as well - it's a waste of precious time and money >:(


Follow @robcfg (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=4) 's advice or buy a Gotek.


Merry Xmas!

Hello @skylas (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2543),

I assume that the PC you have will not take a 'normal' 3.5" drive - there seem to be a lot of modern PCs that will not do so, either they do not have a proper FDC, or the 'slots', or the BIOS does not support any sort of floppy.   This may be why you were trying the USB floppy drive, which apart from the problems already mentioned here have the problem that much of the internal workings are fragile plastic things and the drive quickly ceases to work properly at all.

If you want to keep some sort of link with floppy disks (which can be useful, even in this age) then you may need to try and find an old PC which will take a physical drive, and has a proper FDC so that the drive can be manipulated for CP/M format.   Of course, the additional problem then is that you need to be able to transfer data between this machine and your main PC.

As already mentioned, you DO need to find some DD floppy disks.   You might get HD disks to work, but this working may be very temporary, and very unreliable.   The DD and HD disks have slightly different magnetic properties, and the drives can adjust to suit.  Covering the sensor hole will result in the drive making a DD type recording OK, but onto a HD medium which will be FAR from ideal.  Hold a DD disk and a HD disk up to the light so you can see the magnetic material, note how much thinner the HD disk is, almost transparent.

So, the first question is - can your PC take a standard 3.5" drive?   If there are any computer shops about in your neck of the woods they might have 'salvaged' ones from trade-up computers for a few euros.  If you cannot do anything like that then there may be no way CPCDiskXP can help, as I suspect that needs to do something directly with the physical drive/FDC.

Geoff

Further to the above, I've just looked at CPCDiskXP - version 2.5.1 - and this says that the prog CAN write to a USB floppy drive (maybe using some sort of low-level driver built in?).   The catch (?) is that you must format the disk using the PC first, using the 80 track 9 sector format override.   The notes refer to using HD disks, but this is highly suspect as noted above.   Depending on the drive, and the specific disks, it may APPEAR to work, but it will be highly suspect, and I would not advise it except for temporary, emergency use.   I would add that if you do this with a disk that's been HD formatted before, you should use a magnet to wipe the disk 100% first.

Geoff

In order to work, you HAVE to install the low level driver. I have succesfully written 3,5'' 2HD disks with cpcdiskxp and loaded without problems in cpc. But I had a classic floppy drive. Not a usb one.


Have you tried this? Its from the cpcdiskxp 2.5 changelog


USB Floppy Usage:

   
• You need a formatted disk from windows. Once covered the "high density" tab on the floppy, you have to format it in FAT 720Kb using the windows command line "FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9".

   
• Start CPCDiskXP, press 'DSK Editor' button.

   
• 'New', select IBM format (last in the list).

   
• Now Add the files you want to write

   
• Press 'Write USB Floppy' button to write the Dsk.

   
• Test/Load on your real CPC...

   

Thank you all for your answers.When I use "FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9", i get an error about IOCTL.I will see if I can find from any friend an old pc to test its floppy, but i think that it may was a wrong choice of me to try a 3.5 floppy and not a usb gotek.Maybe it has to do with the usb floppy, maybe with the disks, but I cant invest more in this solution.
Thx again!

Just for the reference. Which usb drive are you using and what windows?

Quote from: vasilisk on 12:01, 27 December 20
Just for the reference. Which usb drive are you using and what windows?

Windows 7 and it is probably OEM slim usb floppy https://www.techville.gr/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=2455&ref=bestprice.gr

After a quick search, your only solution is a real floppy drive. As the other mentioned before.

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/emulators/cpcdiskxp-and-usb-floppy-drives/ (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/emulators/cpcdiskxp-and-usb-floppy-drives/)

Thank you! I think I agree

Finally, i installed a GOTEK usb!
So happy that my AMSTRAD is active again!