Basically it was like one of those faux floppy disks that accept mini-SD cards and require special drivers ... except this one worked in DOS, and in fact contained a generic 720KB floppy drive compatible boot track and a few sectors (enough for a DOS boot apparently), so basically you could stick it in any IBM Compatible that boots 3.5" and it would boot the DOS sector, load some driver, and redirect the boot process to the mini-SD setup now known as drive C:. So essentially you "insert a hard drive" into any darn thing, which would be nice for some ancient laptops that never knew the pleasure of an HDD...
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Last night I dreamt of a floppy disk that worked like an HDD...
- Thread starter southbird
- Start date
DOS Driver Needed
DOS Driver Needed
I too have one of those Flash Path Smart Media reading "Floppy Disk" drive adapters.This thing would be a HUGE help if we could get some DOS drivers.It would in theory be able to replace ALL of those failing hard drives in many old laptops.Is such a thing doable?
I have searched for DOS and Linux drivers and found drivers for Win 3.1,NT,95,98,ME,2000 and XP.In theory wouldn't the Windows 3.1 driver be adaptable to DOS?
I have NO skill at the level needed to write or modify the existing driver,so here is a shout out to a forum member(with skilz) to consider this project.
Thanks!
cgrape2
DOS Driver Needed
I too have one of those Flash Path Smart Media reading "Floppy Disk" drive adapters.This thing would be a HUGE help if we could get some DOS drivers.It would in theory be able to replace ALL of those failing hard drives in many old laptops.Is such a thing doable?
I have searched for DOS and Linux drivers and found drivers for Win 3.1,NT,95,98,ME,2000 and XP.In theory wouldn't the Windows 3.1 driver be adaptable to DOS?
I have NO skill at the level needed to write or modify the existing driver,so here is a shout out to a forum member(with skilz) to consider this project.
Thanks!
cgrape2
Chuck(G)
25k Member
I think I posted about this elsewhere. The Flashpath is pretty simple inside--an AVR microcontroller, some SRAM, a PLD and a little "glue" to interface to the MMC and drive the little electromagnet under the 3.5" floppy head.
The problem is that the flashpath has no way of knowing where the 3.5" head is positioned, nor which head (side 0/side 1) is selected. So, the best it could do unaided is to provide 9K (one track) of data.
DOS drivers would certainly be possible--stick a unit in a drive and run AnaDisk and you'll see that the thing burps out a boot sector periodically. Commands to the uC take the form of disk writes.
The problem is that the flashpath has no way of knowing where the 3.5" head is positioned, nor which head (side 0/side 1) is selected. So, the best it could do unaided is to provide 9K (one track) of data.
DOS drivers would certainly be possible--stick a unit in a drive and run AnaDisk and you'll see that the thing burps out a boot sector periodically. Commands to the uC take the form of disk writes.
So I was basically to the point where it had already been done. But disregarding my "dream" of it, a FlashPath with a DOS driver would in effect be a hard disk for any hard disk-less machine, esp. old dual floppy laptops. That's kind of interesting.
I added to the thread you were probably talking about:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?p=117153#post117153
I added to the thread you were probably talking about:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?p=117153#post117153
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