VOGONS

Strange USB Floppy behavior....

Topic actions

First post, by FeedingDragon

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Wasn't sure how to categorize this. It isn't exactly a bug, it's just a little strange (to me at least.) I just got a USB floppy drive (well a couple of weeks ago,) so I could take the some of the disk images I made years ago of some of my collection and put them back on floppy for use in my new (can I call it new?) vintage system. Also, so I could continue archiving the disks I didn't get to before the floppy on my main system stopped working (haven't had a working internal floppy drive on my main system for about 10 years now.) I'll have to find, unpack, and set up my Kryoflux to get the 5.25" disks archived, but that's another subject.

Now, some of my images are 720k floppies, which isn't a problem as I actually have more 720k disks than I do 1.44M disks. The first disk I put in immediately popped a message up about it needing to be formatted (I found this strange as it didn't do it with my 1.44M disks, even the ones that were Amiga formatted.) So I try to format it, only to receive a message that windows cannot format that type of disk. No problem, grew up on DOS, open a DOS window and use the format command. Disk formats, WinImage writes the image, it works just fine.

Here is where things start to get a little different. That particular game had 1 720K disk and several 1.44M disks. There wasn't a problem. Only, the next game was all 720k disks. This time, when windows said "need to format" I just clicked cancel and went straight to a command prompt, only to be told that the device doesn't support that format. WinImage says the same thing. After messing around with it, I put that first disk back in, only to get the same responses about the already formatted disk. Several disks later, along with several re-boots, several removing and plugging the drive back in, I finally click ok to windows "this disk needs to be formatted" pop-up on inserting the disk. Of course, I get the windows can't format that type of disk message. Only now, the drive is formatting and writing 720k disks without issue.

So, it only works with 1.44M disks until I insert a disk and "try" to format in windows. After that it handles 720k disks without a problem until I use it on a 1.44M disk (which it handles without an issue.) At this point, it refuses to work with 720k disks again until I try to let windows format one. Etc....

So, anyone who has a USB floppy drive. Is this behavior normal?? Is there a faster way than waiting as windows tries over and over to do what it apparently isn't designed to do to switch the drive to 720k mode? Mainly just curious as I find this behavior a little odd.

**edit** Addendum - Something I forgot. WinImage will only write to the disk if I have just formatted it and haven't actually removed it from the drive. Once I've removed it and re-inserted it, WinImage will start saying that the drive doesn't support that format again. This is for writing or comparing, not for reading a new image. Found that out by accident when I removed a just written disk and had forgotten to verify it with "compare." Slipped it back in and hit compare only to get the "not supported" message. Tried a write later (formatted, ejected, inserted, open WinImage & click write,) and got the same message.

Feeding Dragon

Reply 2 of 4, by FeedingDragon

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Because I screwed up and clicked "new" on the wrong tab... sorry 🙁

** I can't delete it now ** Would it be a problem to wait for it to get moved?

Feeding Dragon

Reply 3 of 4, by Zup

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Most USB floppy disk only allows "standard" 1.44Mb, and some other also allows "standard" 720Kb disks. And by "standard", I mean 80 tracks, 9 or 18 sectors per track, 512 bytes per sector and sectors numbered from 0 onwards... that means that most protections won't work on a USB disk.

Your drive seems to be the worst case, with only 1.44Mb disks supported. Maybe you could find another drive that supports 720Kb disks, but remember that most protected disks won't work.

I have traveled across the universe and through the years to find Her.
Sometimes going all the way is just a start...

I'm selling some stuff!

Reply 4 of 4, by FeedingDragon

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I'm really not all that worried about it. What's getting to me is the on again/off again support. I'm happy with just 1.44 - that will allow me to copy the 1.2M or less images between my main system (for archival or restore,) and my vintage system without burning entire CD's at a time. But the drive is supposed to support 720K as well (that's what the pamphlet says anyway,) so I tried to skip a step and just write some 720K disks directly (I haven't found an original floppy yet that it won't "read".) But it keeps flipping from "Yes I do" to "No I don't" without apparent rhyme or reason (the pattern I thought I noticed before seems to be inaccurate.)

What it does....

insert disk: drive spins and Windows 7 pops up (like an autorun - which I have disabled btw,) and says it needs formatting.
.....Hit OK, about 5 minutes later Windows reports it cannot format 720K disks. CMD Prompt format works fine. WinImage writes it and all is well.
.....Hit OK, about 5 minutes later Windows reports it cannot format 720K disks. CMD Prompt says device doesn't support 720K. WinImage works fine.
.....Hit OK, about 5..... CMD Prompt fails.... WinImage reports device doesn't support 720K.
.....Hit Cancel, same as the last 3 without the 5 minute wait (I've started hitting cancel when it pops up.)

Next Disk: Drive doesn't spin up, no "must format" message. The basic 3 routes listed above still exist.

Here's the part that really frustrating me. Put in a disk and it fails (path 3 above.) I can remove and insert that disk 100 times and it will follow the exact same path every time. However, I eject the disk, put in a different disk, and don't do "anything", just immediately eject it. Now the first disk may do something different. Also, while I've read many 1.44M original disks, and a few 720K original disks without issue, if I format the floppy on my Vintage system, it goes through the same process as above. Though, I imagine that is due to slightly off alignments.

If there was a pattern, like it does it with the same disks, or some such, it wouldn't bother me as much. As I said, I'm not really "worried" about it. I'm just trying to track down what exactly is going on.... Is it basing it off the time of day? Does it depend on how many times I blinked in the last 30 seconds? What??

Now it's starting to do this with my 1.44M disks. Since when is a 1.44M drive not support 1.44M disks?? One or two disks, even a handful I could accept, disks go bad. But I have 40-50 that are all now acting this way 🙁 I'm starting to think I got a sucky drive.....

While I was typing this, I was fighting with my drive. Turns out, it's now reading 720K disks without a quam or quibble. Just went through 15 disks without a single hiccup. However, its saying it doesn't support 1.44M disks now.... mad0228.gif

Feeding Dragon

Go to top of page Go to top of page
Back to General Old Hardware
Close window
Close window