Floppy Diskette's Fading Away...

[astroidmist]

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/04/ ... oppy-disk/

if you're still buying and using floppy diskettes, you might want to read this.

[meatballfulton]

Hey, that was a year ago.

You can still buy 1.44MB floppies from suppliers other than Sony (Staples stocks Imation and their own house brand floppies, for example), it's the 720K floppies that are really tough to locate.

[astroidmist]

oops, my bad. thanks.

[phoenix224]

Speaking of floppy disks, can someone recommend a good supplier that sells good quality floppy disks in bulk?

I have an Ensoniq ASR10, Akai S900, and possibly an Ensoniq EPS on the way. I'm really not even sure if these machines can all use the current HD 1.44MB disks.

Also, should I buy unformatted disks for these machines?

Thanks.

[meatballfulton]

I have an Ensoniq ASR10, Akai S900, and possibly an Ensoniq EPS on the way. I'm really not even sure if these machines can all use the current HD 1.44MB disks.

EPS uses 720K discs

Also, should I buy unformatted disks for these machines?

Doesn't matter, you'll have to reformat anyway. Only unless unformatted is cheaper (usually not)

Here's a few places that came up on my first Google search

http://www.westnc.com/floppy.html (they have 720K as well as 1.44MB)
http://www.aec-media.com/2ddcolunbulp.html
http://www.compuvest.com/Search.jsp?Sea ... C:1511:0:0:

[D-Collector]

You can format a 1.44 mb disk to 720 kb no problem, just have to cover the hole with some tape (not the write protect hole, the other one). Some say you shouldn't, some say it's fine. I have never had any problems with my drives.

I guess my local shops have a large stock because they still sell Sony disks. I still buy them for my MPC2K and S-330. Also have a box full of old disks for our Commodore PC-45 286, both 720 kb and 1.44 mb so I wont be running out in some time.

[Jabberwalky]

D-Collector is exactly right. Just cover up the damn hole and you can use any new disks. I use them with my EPS16+ everyday, with no corruption problems ever.

[phoenix224]

Thanks for the replies.

[Ashe37]

Before i built my first PC, I was an Amiga user. My Amiga 2000 only had a double density floppy drive (what people call 720k floppies, which on the Amiga formatted to 880 KB) and i used high density floppies often because DD floppies were difficult to get locally. they weren't very reliable, and if used alot, with alot of rewrite cycles, would tend to self-corrupt after awhile and lose their data.

[nishkp]

I am a former service center for Ensoniq. I have all of the o.s. for Ensoniq products avail for sale. I also have betteries and sequencer disks. I offer replacement floppy drives for EPS, EPS-16+, ASR-10, ASR-88, VFX-SD, SQ80, MIRAGE, AND NOW FOR SD-1 email me @ [email protected] or go to www.wasatchauctions.com

[piRoN]

Just a note on the whole formatting 1.44MB disks to 720KB...

The success of it depends on the drive in the synth/sampler - DD and HD disks use a different magnetic film formulation and the HD disks require a much stronger magnetic field to write to them. Certain DD drives seem to have no problems with HD disks (the EPS for example), but I've found that other units like the Roland S-50 and the SCI Prophet 2000 won't write the data strongly enough and it starts to rot within a week or two. Although I've got some cool sounds off the Prophet from partially-rotten data...

Of course if you want to worry about failing, unreliable media then you should buy something with a QuickDisk drive.

[Virgule]

I got about 100 360/720k diskettes a few years ago for my Ensoniq Mirage (old Softworx, Kmuse series etc) and I was flabbergasted that they all still worked..not one of them corrupt. They hold out much better than 1,44mb I believe.

[nuketifromorbit]

Of course if you want to worry about failing, unreliable media then you should buy something with a QuickDisk drive.

Why the h**l did roland and akai ever decide to use this horrible formant? Its like the smart media card of the 80's except much worse.