QPC2 on Windows 10

[dilwyn]

Simon Foster let me know that he has QPC2 (and, plug plug, Launchpad) up and running well on his Windows 10 system. He says he's uploaded a photo onto his Facebook site, although I only got a blank page when I went to look, probably I'm not one of the group of friends on there.

[Mr_Navigator]

Yes Sirreee

Windows 10 up and running, the most painless installation yet from Microsoft
Cleaner interface on how I have it anyway.
QPC2 Works fine.
as does Launchpad.
QemuLator works just as well and looks better around the edges of the window, a 10 improvement.
System sounds on Windows 10 are gentler too.
Icons appear slightly smaller on the taskbar.
File Explorer defaults to full screen on mine anyway
SQMulator works as well and looks slightly different (see pic)

[ql_freak]

I can proove that QPC2 runs perfectly under Windows 10.

BUT: At least with the most current version (October/November 2016) there seems to be no floppy disk support in Windows 10 any more, at least not for standard floppy disk connector on the mainboard. Perhaps it will work with USB floppy drives (if the manufacturer provides a driver - MS doesn't anymore).

My floppy drive is working correctly on my Fuijitsu Esprimo PC (Core 2 Duo), I have testet it with Menuet (a 32 [64-bit available] operating system for PC, written completely in Assembler and fits on one floppy disk, with Internet access, e-mail, browser, ...), which starts perfectly from disk. On Windows 10 the disk is not seen, if it is not set as first boot device (as in former PCs). If set as first boot device, you can access one disk, but afterwards it seems cached and disk changes are not detected (i. e. you always see the directory/contents of the first disk accessed). If anyone finds a way to access floppies in windows 10, I am highly interested, as I want to copy my disks into the QPC2 WIN-device.

[RWAP]

I run Windows 10 Pro - I have a USB floppy disk drive, and it works fine with q-emulator (not tried it with QPC2). I can also access PC disks in the A drive.

One thing which might be affecting you is the lack of official support for DDSD disks - this was not present after Windows XP. If your system recognises PC formatted HD disks, then you are part way there. For DD support, you might (only might) have to first force DOS to try and format a DD disk, then it should work...

To force DOS to format a DD disk, use the command:

FORMAT A: /t:80 /n:9

[ql_freak]

RWAP> I run Windows 10 Pro - I have a USB floppy disk drive, and it works fine with q-emulator (not tried it with QPC2). I can also access PC disks in the A drive.

[ S E E ___ B E L O W ]

I also have Win10 Pro (Enterprise is unfortunately not available for private persons :-()

RWAP> One thing which might be affecting you is the lack of official support for DDSD disks - this was not present after Windows XP. If your system

No, I have of course tried HD-Disks. BTW: How can I obtain a 2.8 GByte drive (3.2 GByte on QL)? My Mainboard supports it, and I have a lot of 3.2 GByte QL-Disks, which I want to transfer to the PC

H E R E ___ I S ___ B E L O W :

Are you sure, you can access a floppy disk from Windows 10 on the "A:"-drive, if it is connected (HARDWARE) to the floppy port of the mainboard? Ore are you meaning a USB drive which is "mounted" as A: in Windows 10?

[RWAP]

a) I only have a USB floppy drive (see the other topic you asked about compatible USB drives). It is a Toshiba and works fine. When I upgraded my PC I ordered a motherboard with floppy drive connectors, but the version supplied didn't have the floppy drive circuit soldered - it was just easier to get a USB floppy and hope. THe only downside is that the disk imaging software does not work.

b) As for 3.2MB Disk drives. I have some bare ED floppy disk drives here (as well as a couple of boxed external drives for the QL). However, I have no idea if QPC2 or q-emulator can read ED floppy disks through a drive connected to a PC as the last PC I had which supported 2.88MB (ED) drives failed about 10 years ago...

[janbredenbeek]

I ran into the same problem when trying to copy DD diskettes to QPC - didn't work unless I used Windows XP. Also, my newest PC doesn't have a floppy drive .
I solved this by making image files of all QL floppies using the linux dd command, i.e. dd if=/dev/fd0 of=qlfloppy.flp. This way you can mount them in QPC (and other emulators) as a flp device.

If you don't have Linux on your PC you can prepare a bootable linux distribution like Ubuntu or Linux Mint on a dvd or USB stick and run the dd command from there. (of course there are probably also Windows tools around that do the same).

Most of my QL diskettes are DD and a few of them ED (which my PC cannot handle so I had to copy them to DD diskettes first - thankfully my Gold Card and ED drives still work ). For some reason HD diskettes never worked reliably on my QL ED drives...

later, Jan.

[ql_freak]

@Rich Mellor: That are good news, then I will buy such a drive, cause I'm too lazy to make disk images of all my disks. ED drives are not so important, as I have just a few.