Q-emulator floppy problem

[roadrash]

I have been pulling my hairs for many hours because of following issue:

I have a registered Q-Emulator licence and all works fine....
There are two problems i have:

1. Many times it will not recognize my floppy drive and gives an error.
i use an USB floppy drive on Windows 11. But also tested on Win10 and it has similar problem.
Then tested another USB floppy drive: same problem.
Sometimes i reboot and it will recognize and work ok

2. My QL cannot read the floppies that Q-Emulator created.
Basic files mostly no problem. But the binaries almost always are a problem.
Copying binaries in Q-emulator from Ram1_ to FLP or MDV is also often a problem.
Copying anything from my network to ram works just perfect. Never a glitch.
But then copy to FLP is a problem again.

In a very rare occosion I managed to get some binaries to my QL.
Mostly it is a big problem.
No problem connecting my network files, etcetera. It is just the floppies.

May there be some issue ?
Hope someone can shine a light.

Because i got my QL running fine and just want to use Unzip and also Lauchpad on my QL.

If anyone has an alternative way to download the QL files from the web and get them to my QL, I would be gratefull for the info.
I prefer to use my Linux PC as i am not a big Windows fan.

[M68008]

In case you need to format a floppy, do it on the QL to maximize the chance that it can read it.

In Q-emuLator, attach the ZIP file to slot#1 ('ZIP/QLPAK Archive' menu item) and the floppy to slot#2 ('QDOS Floppy DIsk'), then use "WCOPY flp1_,flp2_" to copy the files. This should work for ZIP files that don't contain subdirectories, like launchpad.

As an alternative, attach an empty floppy image to slot#2 instead of the actual floppy, then you should be able to use dd on Linux to transfer the image to a real floppy.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

I used to use a QXL card on a MSDOS PC, which the SMSQ and SMSQ/E software required the floppy disk in the disk drive to be formatted to MSDIS format. Then the SMSQ FORMAT command would convert the existing DOS disk to QDOS format.

QPC2 uses the Windows operating systrm to format disks, but Microsoft took floppy disk support after Windows 7.

I have ne er ysed Windows 11, but I would guess that there is no floppy disk support, which might be the problem with Q-emulator formating disks.

I use a registered copy of Q-emulator in Linux system, it can generate new FLP images, which are read/writable on other QL emulators.

It would be nice to have direct floppy disk access, but I guess this getting obsolete.

[Pr0f]

I am able to read and write Floppies using a USB floppy drive on Windows 11 Pro.

Always worked on Windows 7, and XP and Windows 2000 and NT4 and 98/95 too.

I keep a couple of old Windows machines just in case of such compatibility issues - as my 2 large programmers only support upto XP, and ZIP drive support also not available after XP.

[RalfR]

I am able to read and write Floppies using a USB floppy drive on Windows 11 Pro.

Same here, but for me it just works, if the USB floppy has an NEC chipset inside.

[roadrash]

Thank you all for the replies. Very helpfull.
I found out that Microsoft no longer natively supports floppies since win10...
So i took an old Win8.1 system from the attic, installed Q-Emulator, and the floppies just work great now.. No longer strange noises and errors from the floppy drive anymore.

On to my problem #2:
I will be considering all mentioned tips above. Will let you know how it goes.
Thanks.
It will keep me busy

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

Glad you have found a solution.

I am grateful to the correction to Floppy DIsk support removed in WIndows 10, looks like nothing works in WIndows 10.

I have Lenovo M72e Core i5 Mini PC that is running Windows 7, so I will get my USB Floppy disk drives out and use them with Q-emulator and QPC2.

[bwinkel67]

I found out that Microsoft no longer natively supports floppies since win10...

So I think this refers to internal floppy drives, but USB ones will still work.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 0f166b112d

Also, I have Imation, Toshiba, and Dell USB floppy drives, and all three work with Q-Emulator (as well as other emulators such as Basilisk II and I believe WinUAE).

[dilwyn]

Googling this issue of USB floppy drives versus Windows 11 gives contradicting results.

Some people say that separate drivers need to be downloaded for Windows 11. Others say it can work, but is invisible in File Explorer. This is one of the more helpful posts I saw on the Micro$oft site about the issue:

FIXED!

My newly-purchased USB floppy disk drive does not appear in Windows Explorer BUT, if you type A: in the search bar, there it is!
In Device Manager look under the heading "Floppy Disk drives" to see the automatically-inserted driver for your FDD.
If the driver exists there, then Windows found your legacy drive and installed a driver. However, since nobody uses drive A: and B: any more, they seem to have seen fit to remove any reference to them in Windows Explorer, and you have to go looking for yourself.

A couple of separate issue I've run into with USB drives in Windows 10 are:

• Some chipsets (Ralf mentioned one of them) seem to cause a problem.
  
  Some USB floppy drives have no 'density' sensor. I have two USB floppy drives here, both basically work with HD disks on Windows 10 but trying to use a DD disk in one of them (the unbranded model number FD-05PUB one) causes untold problems. It tries and tries to read or write and only gives up after a long time, sometimes corrupting the floppy disc, presumably it assumes it's HD and can't tell the difference. The other, a Proxima Direct USFPI-ESV, handles both DD and HD discs.

Probably worth establishing if it's a DD or HD drive before anything else in case, like one of mine, it has no sensor.

I found this out the hard way, formatting DD discs on a DD drive on a QL, which in turn confused the USB floppy drive with no density sensor on the PC.

[Pr0f]

My TEAC Chipset USB floppy has problems with some DD disks, but to be fair, some of them were also 'foreign' disk formats - not DOS FAT12