Floppy drive replacement...?

So I have a couple of links for you.... I have been researching the idea of replacing the floppy drive in a Hog 2 with some sort of card reader, and I have come across these sites (one is linked from the other) - does anyone have any experience with this, or any comments....?

jimwarholic.com/2009/04/fdd-floppy-disk-drive-emulators.php

www.plrelectronics.com/floppy_to_usb.php

I can see where problems might arise if someone rented the board and only had their show on floppy, but they could (?) just copy the show to a thumb drive first.... Also, there are floppy/flash card reader combo drives available, but these all appear to require the equipment to ALREADY be able to use USB...... Dunno, thoughts?


AJ
Parents
  • I have not used one, but can't fathom how they could fail to work. The floppy interface is a standard, and as long as they adhere to it, the console would not know what the actual hardware device is . . . . I don't, however, think that you would get any additional capacity, though, since the diskette size is pretty much hard coded into the console software. What you *would* get is zero moving parts . . .

    Oh, and god only knows what format the data is stored on the thumb drive/memory card it . . . while it *should* be compatible with another system, who knows? If they are just emulating the floppy electrical interface, and passing the data onto the memory stick/card in MSDOS/VFAT, then all should be golden . . .

    I'll have to keep this in mind if/when my Hog gets a sick floppy . . . of course, $15 to replace the floppy can take you a *LONG* way compared to $275/each . . .

    - Tim
Reply
  • I have not used one, but can't fathom how they could fail to work. The floppy interface is a standard, and as long as they adhere to it, the console would not know what the actual hardware device is . . . . I don't, however, think that you would get any additional capacity, though, since the diskette size is pretty much hard coded into the console software. What you *would* get is zero moving parts . . .

    Oh, and god only knows what format the data is stored on the thumb drive/memory card it . . . while it *should* be compatible with another system, who knows? If they are just emulating the floppy electrical interface, and passing the data onto the memory stick/card in MSDOS/VFAT, then all should be golden . . .

    I'll have to keep this in mind if/when my Hog gets a sick floppy . . . of course, $15 to replace the floppy can take you a *LONG* way compared to $275/each . . .

    - Tim
Children
No Data
Related