A major release : Image-less mode support! Mount USB stick's FAT12 partitions !
You can now easily exchanges files with fat/dos compatible machines without touching any file image. 😀
31 August 2020 : Firmware STM32 USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.5.1.1a
- Major release : Image-less mode support! Mount USB stick's FAT12 partitions !
The HxC Floppy Emulator firmware for Gotek and clones drives is now able
to emulate floppy disks directly from the USB Stick partitions.
This mean that you can now easily exchange files without the need of
any floppy image with machines supporting the common DOS/FAT file system.
In Image-less mode Windows/Linux/macOs operating systems are able to
mount automatically the floppy disks partitions and let you access to the
floppy disk files.
All floppy disk partitions size is supported : 720KB (DD), 1.2MB (HD),
1.44MB (HD) and even non standard sized disks (2.5MB and more...)
-- How to prepare the USB stick ? --
You need to prepare the USB stick to use the Image-less mode.
Some USB stick files are available in the Image_Less_Mode folder in the
firmware archive.
You can write them with rufus or dd or any other tool.
The firmware is supporting 4 different partition types / usb stick "format" :
- GPT partitioned USB stick :
This format allows you to have up to 128 floppy disks/partitions on
the USB Stick.
This is supported by all current operating systems
(Windows 10 and recent versions of macOs and Linux).
Pre-partitioned USB stick GPT images are available in
the Image_Less_Mode folder.
- MBR partitioned USB stick :
This format allows you to have up to 4 floppy disks/partitions on the USB
Stick. This is only recommended if you are working with old
operating systems. (Windows XP...)
Pre-partitioned USB stick MBR images are available in
the Image_Less_Mode folder.
You can write them with rufus or dd or any similar tool.
- "No partition" USB stick :
This format allows you to have 1 floppy disk per USB Stick.
This is supported by all opertating systems.
You can write any DOS compatible floppy image with rufus or dd or
any similar tool.
- Original Gotek firmware "Batch Manage Tool" formatted stick :
The HxC firmware is now compatible with the original Gotek firmware
tool "Batch Manage Tool". So you can now use this tool to prepare and
access the USB stick partitions.
The firmware recognizes automatically how the USB stick is prepared.
No particular action is needed on the emulator. Please note that the
classic floppy images modes still of course supported.
HXCFEUSB_HFE_beta_firmware.zip
USB_HFE_hxc_floppy_emulator_firmware_release_notes.txt
Custom HxC firmware