An idea...

9 posts / 0 new
Last post
Offline
Last seen: 10 years 6 months ago
Joined: Jan 18 2011 - 22:38
Posts: 52
An idea...

A self-contained 5-1/4" floppy disk drive with USB.

Software to read or write Apple II (DOS,ProDOS), Commodore, Atari, MS DOS, CP/M, etc using Mac or PC.

Options: Built-in emulators, protected disk copy, disk duplication, disk repair, integration with online archives (asimov, virtual apple, etc.), desktop disk mounting, etc

Any thoughts?
Has it been done?
Who wants to make it? Wink

Offline
Last seen: 9 years 3 weeks ago
Joined: Apr 10 2006 - 20:01
Posts: 1013
Re: An idea...

Has it been done?

I'm not entirely sure I follow what your objectives are. Is it like any of these things:
http://www.thesvd.com/svd/apple.php
http://www.spvhd.org/
http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php

All have USB components, all do image hosting/archiving/mounting in some form, etc.

magnusfalkirk's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 hours 37 min ago
Joined: Feb 18 2007 - 11:46
Posts: 335
Re: An idea...

David,

I think what he is talking about is 5.25 drive that can be plugged into a USB port on a Mac/PC and then used to copy old Apple II, etc software directly to the new computer as a disk image. At least that's what I gathered from what he said.

Offline
Last seen: 9 years 3 weeks ago
Joined: Apr 10 2006 - 20:01
Posts: 1013
Re: An idea...

Oh, ok - then he means one of these:
http://www.willegal.net/appleii/appleii-disk-int.htm

Offline
Last seen: 10 years 6 months ago
Joined: Jan 18 2011 - 22:38
Posts: 52
Re: An idea...

Sort of like that last reply's project, but for many different disk formats, self-contained and well, a finished product.
That project's last entry was almost 4 years ago and it still appeared unfinished.

It just seems kind of silly that there's no turn-key solution available in 2013 for reading and writing legacy disks.
Not enough demand I guess.

Offline
Last seen: 4 years 3 months ago
Joined: Jan 24 2005 - 16:20
Posts: 356
Re: An idea...

Sort of like that last reply's project, but for many different disk formats, self-contained and well, a finished product.
That project's last entry was almost 4 years ago and it still appeared unfinished.

It just seems kind of silly that there's no turn-key solution available in 2013 for reading and writing legacy disks.
Not enough demand I guess.

Reading is one thing, writing is quite another since there were different methods (GCR, MFM, etc.) and formats.

http://www.deviceside.com/
http://www.kryoflux.com/

Offline
Last seen: 10 years 2 months ago
Joined: Feb 3 2013 - 23:38
Posts: 5
Re: An idea...

Are there any that use an SIO port so I can use it with my Atari?

Offline
Last seen: 9 years 3 weeks ago
Joined: Apr 10 2006 - 20:01
Posts: 1013
Re: An idea...

Are there any that use an SIO port so I can use it with my Atari?

Sounds like:
http://afs.atari.org/sio2sd.htm

Offline
Last seen: 9 years 3 weeks ago
Joined: Apr 10 2006 - 20:01
Posts: 1013
Re: An idea...

It just seems kind of silly that there's no turn-key solution available in 2013 for reading and writing legacy disks.
Not enough demand I guess.

Reading is one thing, writing is quite another since there were different methods (GCR, MFM, etc.) and formats.


Exactly so. It's (much) more difficult than one might imagine, especially for some of the things that were cavalierly tossed in - "copy protection," "desktop mounting," etc. And, demand wanes with each passing year - and more and more disks become unreadable.

Solutions exist for much of what you asked about, save for (automatic) Apple II copy protection duplication. But they tend to be point solutions, as opposed to an all-in-one device.

Who wants to make it? ;-)

Get your soldering iron out...

Log in or register to post comments