I read some specifications about floppy controllers, and found out that they are really simple to interface as they consists only a motor drivers and head amplifiers with signal shape circuitry.įirst goal is to make a RAW byte copy of any inserted floppy. So, my idea is to make a true RAW floppy drive copier that doesnt care about filesystem, format, data density etc. I asked one engineer who used to have these machines and he told me I need computer with 486 or older CPU with specific floppy controller and special DOS utility in order to make a copy of these floppies.
Systems see floppy as unformatted or even not present.
They cannot be read on modern OS / modern floppy controllers. Floppy may even not be formatted with any standart FS, as these machines are driven with simple MC68000 microprocessors. Problem is that floppies are 720kb and they are formated with HFSLIF (not 100% confirmed, but highly possible). These devices are still perfect for laboratory using even now (one of them is multichannel 100Mhz oscilloscope with logic analyser), but are limited because of proprietary floppy drives format. I am using some old (1989) HP data aquisition and measurement equipment that uses 3,5" 720kb floppy drives.
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