If you’re interested in seeing it at work on some unusual formats, this fellow gives a walkthrough<\/a> of using Greaseweazle to read 3\u2033 Amstrad disks. Pretty darn cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nItems you’ll need:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n- GreaseWeazle<\/a> by Decromancer – the plug-in USB board that makes it all possible. Plug in 3.5″, 5.25″ and 8″ drives and read\/write the flux data for hordes of different formats.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Floppy drive – any 5.25″, 3.5″ or 8″ floppy that uses the Shugart interface<\/a>. This is almost all old PC drives. Even better, GreaseWeazle can use these older DOS drives to read and write Apple, Amiga, ST, and a host of other formats.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Floppy disk cable – CablesOnline<\/a> (ebay store<\/a>) has a universal floppy cable Item # FF-002<\/a> for $9.99\n
\n- IEC.net<\/a> also has a selection of floppy cables<\/a>, and can custom-make floppy cables for you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Power supply with Molex connectors for the floppy drive. Either using a PC power supply with a Molex connector, or a stand-alone power supply with Molex connector<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- USB A to B cable (commonly known as a “USB printer cable”) to connect the GreaseWeazle to your PC<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Setup:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Your floppy drive won’t show up in a command prompt like they did back in the old DOS days or like modern USB plug-in 3.5″ drives. Instead, you have to load and write whole images to the drive in one go. This means you need to work with floppy disk images<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- Set up your physical floppy drive to be used with GreaseWeazle.\n
\n- Attach the power cable to a power supply<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Attach the data cable to the floppy drive and the GreaseWeazle<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Follow the instructions on GreaseWeazle setup <\/a>and software setup guide. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Plug in the GreaseWeazle to your computer’s USB port<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Install and run GreaseWeazle GUI to format a disk, read a disk image, write a disk image, etc. Again, this only works on whole disk images. You can’t browse at a command prompt or read\/write individual files\/directories.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
Optional but helpful tools: <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- IEC.net<\/a> also has a selection of floppy cables<\/a>, and can custom-make floppy cables for you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Power supply with Molex connectors for the floppy drive. Either using a PC power supply with a Molex connector, or a stand-alone power supply with Molex connector<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- USB A to B cable (commonly known as a “USB printer cable”) to connect the GreaseWeazle to your PC<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Setup:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Your floppy drive won’t show up in a command prompt like they did back in the old DOS days or like modern USB plug-in 3.5″ drives. Instead, you have to load and write whole images to the drive in one go. This means you need to work with floppy disk images<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Set up your physical floppy drive to be used with GreaseWeazle.\n
- \n
- Attach the power cable to a power supply<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Attach the data cable to the floppy drive and the GreaseWeazle<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Follow the instructions on GreaseWeazle setup <\/a>and software setup guide. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Plug in the GreaseWeazle to your computer’s USB port<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Install and run GreaseWeazle GUI to format a disk, read a disk image, write a disk image, etc. Again, this only works on whole disk images. You can’t browse at a command prompt or read\/write individual files\/directories.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
Optional but helpful tools: <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
- Power supply with Molex connectors for the floppy drive. Either using a PC power supply with a Molex connector, or a stand-alone power supply with Molex connector<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
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