Writing to 5.25 inch floppy disks?

[AlexTsiatric]

I realize there's no easy way of writing to 5.25 floppy disks, like an external USB drive. I have scoured forums, and found many vague descriptions of how to do it, but none consistent. What is the best way to accomplish this, so that I can run software on my vintage Apple ][ and Commodore computers? It doesn't have to be through a modern computer, I am willing to invest in an older machine if it would be easier. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Christoffer]

The biggest problem i'd say would be formatting. It varies from system to system, and I don't think you can get software to make e.g. Commodore disks on a PC.

Think the best bet would be to transfer the data to your vintage system of choice by other means, like serial, or creating a ROM cartridge with the code and then using the actual system to write the floppies.

 

[SomeGuy]

Exactly, there is currently no one single great way to do all of this.

There is a comparison of current archival tools here: https://winworldpc.com/winboards/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7877

Going forwards for the moment, your best bet is probably a Kryoflux. Although the downside is it is designed for reading disks, and writing them was sort of an afterthought. A SuperCard Pro would be a good second choice.

With Apple IIs, and C64s you can't just use an IBM PC compatible with a real floppy controller to write disks because the low-level encoding scheme is completely different.

At least with the Apple II, you have an easy option to transfer disk images directly to an Apple II via serial port using ADT Pro software.

 

[smp]

At least with the Apple II, you have an easy option to transfer disk images directly to an Apple II via serial port using ADT Pro software.

Exactly. You took the words right out of my mind. I've used ADT Pro for my Apple IIc+ and IIGS. It's a really great product. It can work if you have no disk drives at all, but by the sound of it you already have disk drives and are looking for the real floppy disk experience. ADT Pro allows you to pull in the disk image and write it to disk right on your Apple, and then you can work from there. The difference is creating the disk on the Apple, rather than your PC. And, you can use ADT Pro via a USB connection by using a USB-to-RS232 converter.

smp

 

[glitch]

ADT Pro is great stuff, I use it not only for making/archiving software for my IIe, but it's so quick and convenient I often just make entire disk images instead of backing files up over XMODEM or something. Runs on anything that runs Java -- Linux, OS X, Windows, *BSD, Solaris, et c.

 

[Dwight Elvey]

Other than an apple II, what other machines do you
need to create floppies for. Each machine can be different.
Dwight

 

[AlexTsiatric]

Other than an apple II, what other machines do you
need to create floppies for. Each machine can be different.
Dwight

Only other machine I have at the moment is a Commodore 64. ADT pro does sound like a good option, it's probably the one I'm going to go with.

 

[Chromedome45]

I vaguely remember a means where you hook up a pc up via parallel port to a din connector and transfer images by that means to a commodore 64 computer.
But would need software. I remember doing it a long time ago.

Like this page explains how: http://www.root.org/~nate/c64/x1541.html

 

[ClassicHasClass]

An xum1541 like a ZoomFloppy will easily handle that. OpenCBM is very portable. I use it on a G5.

 

[rittwage]

Only other machine I have at the moment is a Commodore 64. ADT pro does sound like a good option, it's probably the one I'm going to go with.

OK, something might have gotten confused. ADT Pro is only capable of writing Apple II disks.

To write C64 disks, you need one of these:
1) ZoomFloppy to attach a drive directly to USB and write disks
2) an sd2iec device. You can use this by itself for a lot of software, but not all... However, you can write image files to disk from it also.
3) Easyflash 3 can also transfer disk images directly through a USB connection to the cartridge to a disk.