Problems with Win98(SE) and HxC software

HxC Floppy Emulator on IBM PC and compatible support
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MikeModified
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Problems with Win98(SE) and HxC software

Post by MikeModified »

Using a Celeron 300 w/~200MB memory & a large hd with smallish partions. The floppy controller is an Adaptec which writes good (bootable) 8" TRS-80 Mod II disks via a dbit adapter.

The Lotharek is correctly cabled to the win98 machine showing dska0000.hfe. The contents of the drive are correctly displayed in DOS and Windows "My Computer."

Using Filezilla and the mtcp suite, I ftp the hxcfloppyemulator suite (latest version, just downloaded) to subdir HxC on the win98 machine (long-name to short-name to long-name).

When I run hxcfloppyemulator.exe via the win98 run menu, the arrow/hour-glass cursor shows for perhaps 10 seconds then disappears. Nothing else happens.

When I run hxcfe.exe in a DOS window, many of the command line options result is strange results (this is of no matter, as the programs doesn't seem to be very useful for everyday use)>

Any help appreciated. I'd really like to get the software running so I can use the Lotharek on my Model II.

Thanks in advance.

Mike

Jeff
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Re: Problems with Win98(SE) and HxC software

Post by Jeff »

which floppy emulator are you talking about exactly ?

MikeModified
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Re: Problems with Win98(SE) and HxC software

Post by MikeModified »

http://www.ebay.com/itm/182071772453?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

It seems to work properly. I can write a text file to it (drive "a") from DOS and then start windows and read the file from windows.

Mike

Jeff
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Re: Problems with Win98(SE) and HxC software

Post by Jeff »

Ok so you have just to convert DMK/DSK/JV3 images to HFE format with the hxc software.

MikeModified
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Re: Problems with Win98(SE) and HxC software

Post by MikeModified »

Jeff, what hxc software do you suggest? hxcfloppyemulator.exe does not work with win98se on my computer (see the first entry in this thread).

The problem is and has been the software.

Mike

Jeff
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Re: Problems with Win98(SE) and HxC software

Post by Jeff »

which machine are you using to post on this forum ?

MikeModified
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Re: Problems with Win98(SE) and HxC software

Post by MikeModified »

A core i7 Windows 10 machine.

Mike

Jeff
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Re: Problems with Win98(SE) and HxC software

Post by Jeff »

So, why you don't use this machine to fill up the sdcard ?

MikeModified
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Re: Problems with Win98(SE) and HxC software

Post by MikeModified »

It would be so much more convenient if it worked as advertised:
- Operating systems supported :

-> Windows 98 / 2000 / XP / Vista / Seven.
-> Mac OS X.
-> Linux.
Thank you for your support.

Mike

Jeff
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Re: Problems with Win98(SE) and HxC software

Post by Jeff »

Yes i need to remove it. Anyway the 1.6.X.X should work.

ddick76@gmail.com
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Re: Problems with Win98(SE) and HxC software

Post by ddick76@gmail.com »

So, the software will not work on a Windows 98 machine? That's not cool. I have a bunch of old Ensoniq SD1 disks I just started trying to copy and the software is acting as described in the original post (hour glass spinning, shows up in running programs but no user interface). It's the only computer I have with a floppy drive. Will the software run under Puppy Linux? Or, does it still work on Windows XP? I have a floppy drive I could install in an old XP machine. This is being sent from my phone.

mondo1976
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Re: Problems with Win98(SE) and HxC software

Post by mondo1976 »

I think you guys should go a little bit easier on someone who is a major player in making floppy controlled devices viable for future use. Even the worst case scenario of having to do a little bit of research or come up with some small workaround is little inconvenience compared to living and dying by the floppy disk... which is exactly what 95% of people with such devices would be doing if it wasn't for all of Jeff's hard work.

Having said that, here's the legacy version of the HxC software (v1.6.11.16):

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3OQk ... XEyTmVNbGs

See where that gets you.

As far as Ensoniq meets Windows 98 goes, I have a special bootable floppy disk image I will share which can read/write SD-1, VFX, EPS16, ASR10, TS-10/12, and Mirage disks on such computers. Once you've ripped the disks then you can use the newest HxC software to do whatever you want from there.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3OQk ... 1FpNG85UXc

It's just a standard 3.5" 1.44MB IBM/DOS floppy image, so it can be written by anything that can write a raw disk image to a floppy.

http://www.filewatcher.com/m/rwwrtwin.zip.261448-0.html, http://www.chrysocome.net/downloads/rawwritewin-0.7.zip, or http://www.shlock.co.uk/Utils/OmniDisk/OmniDisk.htm should get you where you need to go. Booting to Linux would likely provide a slew of alternate methods of creating a 3.5" DOS floppy from an image.

ddick76@gmail.com
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Re: Problems with Win98(SE) and HxC software

Post by ddick76@gmail.com »

I do sincerely appreciate what Jeff is doing. Thank you Jeff for keeping this old data alive and accessible. However, I can understand the frustration (especially if you've already purchased and installed an emulator, etc.) of suddenly having your plans changed because you thought something would work (for example in windows 98) and then suddenly find out it doesn't. Anyway, I just wanted to add that while version 1.16.x runs fine under windows 98, it does need a driver (fdrawcmd, I think) that seems to only work under windows XP or higher. The joys of trying to work with 20+ year old technology.

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