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General Category => Technical support - Hardware related => Topic started by: Juggler on 12:35, 21 December 21

Title: How to read original 3.5" + 5.25" CPC discs via emulators?
Post by: Juggler on 12:35, 21 December 21
I have boxes full of 5.25" and 3.5" discs, which I used in the 90s on the 2nd drives of my CPC 6128. The drives don't work anymore, but I wanna take a look at these discs again. The easiest way I think would be to be able to convert them to images so that I can load them into an emulator, right?

Well, finding a 5.25" and 3.5" drive is a challenge on its own nowadays, also I have no glue about:

- Is there a current emulator for Mac which can read discs and convert them into an dsk image?
- Does this emulator recognise a standard 3.5" USB drive like this (https://www.ebay.de/itm/353792200859) attached to the Mac?
- Or do I need to prepare such a drive with the READY signal such as mentioned on https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Modify_PC_floppy_drives ?

cheers
Juggler

Title: Re: How to read original 3.5" + 5.25" CPC discs via emulators?
Post by: GeoffB17 on 15:27, 21 December 21
Regarding your specific questions, the problem with the external (usb ?) drives is that they 'fake' too many things, and they are sort of 'emulating' things within themselves.   You need a machine with a proper FDC which can access the disk drive (and thence the disk) directly.  Maybe if everything can be done with certain levels of emulation, but finding such a thing?

The usual way around this sort of thing (as many others have had to resort to) is to find an old PC (old enough to have a proper FDC) with 5.25 and 3.5" drives, and use that to access the disks and create the images.   Or at least extract the files and transfer to something that CAN create the images.

What type of disk formats are you needing to access?  I can access both the 3.5" and 5.25" disks as I've got a PC which can do those things.   Maybe I could also do something with my PCW but only re 360k 5.25" or 720k 3.5".   But sounds like you've got too many disks for anything to be viable, but a few could be done to make sure the disks are still viable (I'd expect they should be).

Geoff
Title: Re: How to read original 3.5" + 5.25" CPC discs via emulators?
Post by: GeoffB17 on 17:13, 21 December 21
Actually, the 'easiest' way to solve your problem would be to fix the drives that you have.   You say they don't work.   In what way?  What happend when you try to use them.   Floppy drives may just have some dust where dust shouldn't be, like on some sensors.   Maybe they need a blow!

Although you mention glue.   Why?  Is something actually broken/damaged?

My drives may well be older than your's, so if they're not working, this might be investigated.

Geoff
Title: Re: How to read original 3.5" + 5.25" CPC discs via emulators?
Post by: GUNHED on 18:21, 21 December 21
Hi Juggler!

Also, da braucht's einen PC mit dem entsprechenden Laufwerk drin. USB Laufis tun's so gut wie nicht, ausser für Data Format.

Selber hab ich noch einen PC mit 3,5" Laufwerk, da lese ich die 3,5" Disks mit CPCDiskXP ein und schwups ist das DSK fertig. Das DSK kann dann in jedem Emulator genutzt werden.

Für 5,25" Disketten: Da kopiere ich die 5,25" Disk am CPC auf 3,5" und dann lese ich die im PC ein.

Falls ich helfen kann, bitte PM an mich
TFM aka Gunhead(nur hier im Forum)
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