I have an Apple IIGS with only a 3.5" drive and a BOOTI card. Looking for a solution for primarily 5.25" disk images, but also 3.5" disk images. What are people's thoughts on both units? Some Pros/Cons I've come across:
- wDrive seems to have Nox Archaist compatibility issues while Floppy Emu does not - applies to HDV image in SmartPort mode - see https://www.6502workshop.com/p/playing-nox-archaist-on-real-hardware.html
- I saw a post from a year ago that wDrive can't eject/swap 3.5" disk images in GS/OS - they appear as hard drive in GS/OS, not sure if this has been addressed in newer firmware.
- Floppy Emu is read-only for newer disk image formats NIB/WOZ
- Floppy Emu can mount four HDV smartport hard drive images at once (can't find any info if wDrive can do more than 1)
They are both similarly priced as the wDrive will require a separate smartport adapter to use on IIGS, which brings price closer to Floppy Emu, which is on sale at the moment. The adapter comes with the Floppy Emu.
Depending on how you plan on using the FE in conjunction with real drives on your IIgs, you may want to consider adding the daisy chain adaptor to give you the most flexibility. That will add to the price. Or you can always add it later. I personally chose to get it for my IIgs so I can set my drives up any way I want.
The wDrive also seems to be perpetually out of stock with small restock windows here and there. The FE seems to be much more reliably in stock.
The lack of write support for WOZ/NIB is a shortfall of the FE. But not enough to impact it IMHO. Thanks to people like 4am, there are plenty of cracked DSK images to fill the gap.
Also, the creator of the FE has been open to feedback on issues and features. A few months ago I worked on testing a bunch of WOZ images and greatly boosted the compatibility, as some images weren't booting. He said maybe in the future he may add write support for some WOZ images with simplistic copy protections. But has ruled out write support across the table due to the design of the FE. I don't know how open to feedback or changes the wDrive creator is.
Just because i am a vintage computer collector.. And the floppy emu works on my apple ii, classic Mac, and my Lisa systems is worth it alone! Since i bought version b.. The version c is out with even more options. Yes i own a cffa 3000.. And i just bought a booti.. But i barely use them. I use the floppy emu all the time...
Use a Floppy Emu for disk images and a MicroDrive/Turbo for hard drive images.
...and Ciderpress to manage your images, both hard drive and floppy.
That combination of components and software covers most of the bases and is inexpensive enough for us plebes.
What is there to manage? Isn't it just copying image files onto CF or SD cards depending on device? Thanks!
May I have suggestions on how should I use boh Floppy EMU and wDrive at the same time? I have a Drive/Turbo card in slot 7 right now, should I add a Disk II Controller Card in slot 6 or should I use daisy chain?
If anyone else comes across this thread, just get the Floppy Emu - follow up story regarding my wDrive experience can be found here: https://www.applefritter.com/content/wdrive-not-working-teardown