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Floppy disk emulator : (Price question aside) .....GOTEX or Lotharek's?

D

DaCiRo

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Jan 13, 2014
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Japan
Planning to get a floppy emulator by Xmas, and having some issues deciding whether to go for the GOTEX or Lotharek's.
The GOTEX is definitively cheaper but seems like Lotharex's is capable to manage more disk image formats (3.5'" and 5.25") and more capacities (360K, 720K, 1.2mb, and 1,44mb), however most of the screen images I have seen from Lotharek's are Windows based so not entirely sure if it DOS compatible. At the end of the day this is form an IBM XT machine with and XT-IDE Rev.1 card, so it has to be able to emulate under DOS.

Setting the price aside; What would be your choice and why?

Regard
Dani
 
Neither--I'd use a real drive. But having said that, you may want to cut a compromise and check out the Gotek with the HxC firmware installed. The firmware for the Gotek is quite old, but many have found it satisfactory. Of course there's the regular HxC emulator, which appears to surpass everyone else.
 
ropersonline said:
I can't really answer for the OP, but maybe because someone wants to run PC booter software and doesn't know about Flopper?
Click to expand...
And... what's wrong with using a with a floppy drive for this? :)

Besides... Flopper requires:

* 386 or higher CPU

* 2 MB or more RAM

Good luck finding that on your XT! :) :)
 
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I use the Lotharek SD-card HxC emulator, but mainly because I have it hooked to machines that does not used PC-compatible disk formats, for example things with 10-sector tracks. It makes cross-platform development and file transfer pretty easy for said machines.

For PC/XT development, it would problably be easier to use DOSBox for rough testing, but I get the point that it might be easier to tansfer files to the XT using a floppy emulator.
 
Stone said:
And... what's wrong with using a with a floppy drive for this? :smile:
Click to expand...

Nothing "wrong", but NAND storage seems to be more reliable (by and large), and people may operate PCs/XTs in dusty, vibration-heavy industrial environments, and you often may not have to play disk-jockey as much with a floppy emulator (keypresses instead of actual manual labour), and people might find that e.g. a USB-based floppy emulator or similar solves data transfer problems too, and it's getting harder to source the right floppies, though someone on these forums offers them– oh, wait...

Stone said:
☞ If you're looking for DS/DD or DS/HD 3½" or 5¼" floppy disks, PM me. I've got some new, used and over-labeled disks for sale. ☆

☞ There is a crack in everything; that's how the light gets in. -- Leonard Cohen ☆
☞ Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana. ☆
Click to expand...

Do I smell a tiny little conflict of interest here? ;):p:D

Stone said:
Besides... Flopper requires:

* 386 or higher CPU

* 2 MB or more RAM

Good luck finding that on your XT! :smile: :smile:
Click to expand...

Ah, thank you! I missed that. Didn't pay attention to the sysreqs.
 
Both Floppy emulators are supporting the same number of diskformats. For HxC and and Gotek (with this firmware. The point is that HxC for all, and Gotek (with that firmware for most) needs you to convert your disk image to generic HFE format. There is software to do that, for both emulators it's the same. Original HxC can only use this generic HFE format. HFE format is a conversion of the native disk image format (ADF, ST, IMG, ...) to MFM/FM coded format as HxC has not enough computing power to do that on the fly. Gotek has more computig power so it can recode some special image formats (ADF, ST) on the fly to MFM.
 
I had issues with 1.44mb and 1.2mb disk becoming corrupt or failing, even after formatting them these became not re-usable.
I actually love using original media, however I am looking for a more reliable solution hence my new search.
Flopper seems an interesting one. Should be able to run it one of the XTs where I have installed the Inboard 386(486 Cyrix upgrade) and the AboveBoard 286 with 2mb.... Might be a bit spec borderline but will definitively give it a try.
 
I see.
Do you know if both support Read and Write? And if possible to Write is it for all formats or just limited to 1.44mb?
 
If price is no object, the HxC hardware is the best, no contest.
It's proven across multiple platforms and has some nice features, like an LCD and the ability to emulate both A and B at the same time.

As a cheaper solution, the Gotek hardware with HxC firmware is also very good.
I have one installed in my XT 5160.

Both HxC and Gotek w/HxC support all formats, read and write.
You need a SD card or USB stick with good write speed.

The file selector software for DOS allows you to assign different disk images to the "slots".
Video demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfovFoMaL54

Here's a pic of the Gotek in my 5160. I think it looks OK.
 
Thanks! this is very useful... nice looking PC too :)
Have you tried booting from it?. (is it possible?)
 
DaCiRo said:
I see.
Didn't you have any conflict/issues with the XT-IDE BIOS?
Click to expand...

No, as this is just a floppy drive as far as the XT is concerned.
However, bear in mind that if you want 1.44MB support you will need a different floppy controller and floppy BIOS.
The XT supports 720k max with the IBM floppy controller and BIOS.
 
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