6BQ5 Posted January 5, 2019 Share Posted January 5, 2019 What kind of external floppy drive options are available for the STe? Is there a possibility to add an external 1.44MB floppy drive that can create MS-DOS compatible floppies? I'm not interested in modifying mt freshly acquired STe. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted January 5, 2019 Share Posted January 5, 2019 If you are not interested in modding STE then it is not possible. It can handle only 720 K (DD) floppies. Why creating MS-DOS c. floppies in 2019 ? Get USB floppy drive for PC ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dma Posted January 5, 2019 Share Posted January 5, 2019 (edited) Yes, as Peter said, with an USB floppy drive you can format 720KB floppies on PC, compatible with Atari ST(e). Although it seems not all floppy drives can format 720KB disks these days, according to this S.O. thread? -> https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/5733/formatting-a-720k-floppy-disk-over-usb-fails-with-windows-10 I guess you can read the floppy drive specification to see if it does, before buying it. ...but it seems some updates of Windows 10 make it problematic as well. Also, when using a Windows PC (starting from XP i guess), the 720KB option is not directly available in right click format menu. But you can force it with a command line: format A: /T:80 /N:9 Edited January 5, 2019 by dma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted January 5, 2019 Share Posted January 5, 2019 OP talked about 1.44 MB . And only that makes sense, since there is internal 720 K drive in STE, and there is Atari ST SW what can format MS DOS format 720 K . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dma Posted January 5, 2019 Share Posted January 5, 2019 Indeed, i focused on the "MS-DOS compatible" aspect of the demand. Thinking the point was file transfer between ST and PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6BQ5 Posted January 6, 2019 Author Share Posted January 6, 2019 Thanks for the replies, everyone! Good info! OK, so no 1.44 MB floppy drive for me. No big deal. Yes, I wanted to create MS-DOS floppies with the idea that I can transfer programs and games from my Win 10 PC. I have a USB floppy drive from a local thrift store. It cost $2. But, I do not have any 720k floppies. Only 1.44 MB floppies. My shopping list gets bigger every day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dma Posted January 6, 2019 Share Posted January 6, 2019 (edited) Concerning HD/DD floppy types, there's the old trick of covering the "HD hole" on HD floppies, as discussed here: http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=13318 Edited January 6, 2019 by dma 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted January 6, 2019 Share Posted January 6, 2019 Yes, covering will make it work. But that will be not much reliable - better using real DD (720 K) floppies. And transferring to what ? Other floppy inserted in internal drive ? That can be problem with lot of SW, games. First is capacity of 720 KB. Many Atari SW, games are on 800 K format, or even more. Maybe forget whole floppy bothering and get some HxC, Gotek, or better mass storage like UltraSatan. There is plenty of SW working from hard disk. And no need to open STE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dma Posted January 6, 2019 Share Posted January 6, 2019 (edited) UltraSatan (or previous SatanDisk) mass storage devices plug on the ST external ASCI port,and are indeed great suggestions for someone willing to exchange files with a PC (these devices use SD Cards) without opening/modifying his computer. But HxC or Gotek, as floppy hardware emulators, replace the ST internal floppy drive, and then require opening of the machine. Edited January 6, 2019 by dma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted January 6, 2019 Share Posted January 6, 2019 There are ways to use HxC and Gotek as external floppy. even in case of STFM (built in floppy drive), STE . But that would be then floppy B. However, you must not replacing internal drive to make them A: - it is enough to replace cable with longer, and swap some lines for that. Even may set that internal drive become B instead A: . Many people did exactly that. Because lot of SW must be started from drive A: Yes, that's modifying, but really simple and small. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jefffulton Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 Concerning HD/DD floppy types, there's the old trick of covering the "HD hole" on HD floppies, as discussed here: http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=13318 This works fine. You should use thin black tape (or any color that doesn't let much light through). The ticker the tape the more likely that it will get stuck in the drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Hefner Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 They are currently sold out, but if you're considering a Gotek, get one of these when they go back in stock: https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/36062 They attach between the existing floppy cable and the drive, and you can run the cables needed out the back of the machine for the display, rotary encoder switch and usb port. It allows you to swap the gotek and internal floppy A/B. Just put one in my Mega STE with an upgraded 1.44 floppy (easier to mod the Mega STE for 1.44 than the 1040STE), and it barely clears the metal support inside for the VME card slot. If I had the stock drive in that machine it wouldn't fit, but fits fine in all other format ST's (ST/STF/STFM/1040STE). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfollowell Posted January 21, 2019 Share Posted January 21, 2019 Get USB floppy drive for PC ... Unless you guys have had a lot more luck than I have, I wouldn't put much faith in USB floppy drives. I've tried four different versions and had nothing but bad luck on my Windows 10 64-bit system. Most disks, disks that read good in other systems mind you, are lucky to read at all. Even in those instances, I've found it impossible to copy from/to these disks or to format one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted January 21, 2019 Share Posted January 21, 2019 Unless you guys have had a lot more luck than I have, I wouldn't put much faith in USB floppy drives. I've tried four different versions and had nothing but bad luck on my Windows 10 64-bit system. Most disks, disks that read good in other systems mind you, are lucky to read at all. Even in those instances, I've found it impossible to copy from/to these disks or to format one. What I said in my first reply here - 'Get USB floppy drive' was just answer for "1.44MB floppy drive that can create MS-DOS compatible floppies" . But obviously that was wrongly formulated question at thread start. Generally, floppy disks are now very old, new ones are not manufactured, so it may be really lot of unreliable work. And drives getting old too + quality of latest manufactured ones is really not good. But there are special problems with USB drives - work only with strict DOS formats, so 9 sector/track with DD disks = 720 K - if supports at all that format. More chances are that will work only with HD and 18 sector/track = 1.44 MB . That's just not good for Atari, what uses for instance 800 KB (10 sec/tr) a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hunter44102 Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 I use an old Thinkpad with XP and USB Floppy (with 720K disks) if I ever want to move files to ST. works great. I also have Win7 machines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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