Solved: Floppy Format for X68000 Compact

[dasfool]

I'm on my third Sony USB external floppy drive (PCGA-UFD5) and I cannot get either of the format commands listed in gamesx to work. I thought there may be something wrong with the drives so I purchased more, but this most recent one formats in Windows 7 fine, I just can't format it with the right x68000 parameters. Any time I use either of the following format parameters I get the message "Parameters not compatible":

• format a: /a:1024 /t:77 /n:8 /u
• format a: /fs:fat /v: /a:1024 /t:77 /n:8 /y

Does this mean the drive is not 3 mode compatible? Do I need to try yet another USB floppy?

[leonk]

not sure what external usb floppy drive you have, but he instructions on the wiki work great for me on my mac.

ok. Windows XP running in VM Ware on my macbook pro.

[dasfool]

not sure what external usb floppy drive you have, but he instructions on the wiki work great for me on my mac.

What external are you using?

[kamiboy]

Mine works too via XP running in VM ware. The type is a generic black USB floppy drive I got from eBay years back for peanuts.

[leonk]

Sony PCGA-UFD5 USB Floppy Disk Drive Sony VAIO 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive

$14 from eBay.

[dasfool]

I'm using the exact same Sony drive. I'll have to try with another OS.

[kendrick]

DF, this might not be relevant to the format command arguments, but it's my recollection that Windows XP still uses the direct hardware access mechanisms carried forward from MS-DOS, whereas Windows 7 and newer abstract all that stuff behind a funky 64-bit compatibility layer. So what's happening is, Windows 7 is trying to do a virtual format in memory before it actually writes to the floppy disk, and it can't do it because the compatibility layer isn't built for anything that's non-FAT.

This is by way of saying, I'm pretty confident that there's nothing wrong with your drives, and that the OS is the primary failure point here. It's almost worth it just to spin up a standalone Windows 95 or XP machine just to be able to do this direct-hardware stuff as the occasion warrants. Or, you know, learn Linux finally.

[dasfool]

Thanks for the assistance: leonk, kamiboy, and kendrick, you all led me to the answer.

Today I set aside some time to spin up a Windows XP VM in VirtualBox on my Macbook, got it connected to the USB floppy drive, and everything worked exactly as it was supposed to! I haven't been able to test on the real device yet (waiting for it to exit Los Angeles customs), but this is definitely more promising than before and I don't foresee any more issues. The reason I kept sticking with Windows 7 before is because this wiki page talks about Windows Vista/7 at the bottom making me think I'd be able to do all of this within Vista or 7. I should probably set aside some time to update that page...