Floppy Disk Support

Starting with Version 2.9 Build 109, Translator Windows introduces proprietary floppy support. The OmniFLop replacement floppy driver must be installed for this feature to work.

Most proprietary floppy formats show up under SCSI-ATAPI Drives on the left, and behave like normal volumes of that sort. If you use this features, you MUST install the OmniFlop driver. You can download and license it here: www.shlock.co.uk/Utils/OmniFlop/OmniFlop.htm When licensing, please choose the Translator option in the Licensing menu; this will give you access to all formats.

Please note that the OmniFLopy replacement floppy driver DOES NOT work with USB floppy drives. USB floppy drives use their own controller that the computer does not have access to. (It's actually possible, but no USB floppy manufacturer that we know of has allowed access into their controller.)

For completeness, for use with WIn98 or the WIn98 Boot Disk, we also include in the Translator package FOUR DOS PC programs that can read several different formats of floppy disks. These DO NOT work on any Windows NT operating system (NT, 2000, XP, or Vista).

These programs come unsupported, so the only information you get is the stuff provided here. Please do not ask any questions of support on these products - the documentation contained within are substantive enough to answer basic questions. They are not our products - they are just included for your convenience, and we do not have the resources to support them with phone or web instruction.

Again, these DOS programs DO NOT work on Win NT operating systems -Windows NT, Windows2000, Windows XP, or Windows Vista. An acceptable workaround is to use the Win98 Boot Disk, provided with Translator, to boot your computer up in Win98 and operate the program within that operating system. Please see the instructions with the boot disk (win98bootdisk.zip) for further instructions.

Note: the floppy programs only work with standard floppy controller-floppy drive configs. They do not support USB floppy drives.

• EPSDisk
  This reads and writes Ensoniq floppies. The file is epsdisk.exe, and can be accessed from the floppy icon on the Toolbar. Information on use can be found in the epsdisk.txt file in the Application directory.
• AkaiDisk
  This reads Akai floppies. The file is akaidisk.exe, and can be accessed from the floppy icon on the Toolbar. Information on use can be found in the Help file accessible from the program.
• SDisk
  This reads Roland S-50/550/W30/S330 floppies. The file is sdisk.exe, and can be accessed from the floppy icon on the Toolbar. Information on use can be found in the sdisk.txt file in the Application directory. IMPORTANT NOTE: SDisk seems to react better run in DOS-only mode and not run within a shell in Windows. If you have problems running this program, try it outside of Windows.
• EMX
  This reads Emax floppies. The file is emx.exe, and can be accessed from the floppy icon on the Toolbar. Information on use can be found in the emx.txt file in the Application directory.

Macintosh Floppy Support
On the Mac, generally you are out of luck. The Mac is not designed to read non-standard floppy disks. There are a couple programs publicly available, but they have fucitonal and compatibility problems, plus they don't really solve the problem comprehensively. Having a floppy SuperDrive nor a USB floppy helps.

EPSm is a commercial OS7/8/9 program that can read special types of Ensoniq disks (and you need an Ensoniq itself to help), and SMac reads Roland floppies. Do a web search for these to find them.