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Hi, I have a Oric Atmos Delux floppy drive (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Oric-Atmos-Delu ... 1199269809), which lets the Oric read 3.5" floppies.
Does anyone here know how to transfer an Oric .dsk image from the PC (windows 7) to a 3.5" floppy, that the Atmos Delux floppy drive can read?
Do I have to use OmniFlop or another tool? Any help and advice would be great!

Never tried Omniflop. I am using the usual writedsk to create Oric discs. However it is a DOS tool that won't work in windows from version 2000 upwards. Does box won't fix the problem, so you'd better boot a real DOS environment. In addition I could only use real 720 disks, so it is a bit difficult process.

You can find writedsk in the osdk, or in http://oric.free.fr/TOOLS/

Thanks for the reply. I will find my old PC and try it out
What is the difference between writedsk and writedsk2 in the TOOLS folder?

No idea. I am using writedsk, which prints it's version number as 2.1 I think.

What I am doing is:

1 Get a 720K disk and format it within the Oric, using the init command in Sedoric.
2 Prepare a floppy with a copy of writedsk and cwsdpmi (DOS extender needed for writedsk to work) and with the disk image I want to prepare.
3 Boot my laptop into DOS with a floppy.
4 Change floppies and insert the one with writedsk. Run it and wait for the message that asks if you are sure because all the data in the disk will be erased.
5 Insert the 720K disk formatted in the Oric and proceed. When finished you'll get an error message because you exchanged disks (sector not found, with the usual ignore/abort/retry). Ignore it.
6 Enjoy in my Oric

Thank you!

The problem of this setup is the need for an old pc with a real FDC (some recent PC with floppy connector on the mother board are unfortunately not compatible..)

On other option is to use an HxC to copy a "virutal" floppy to a real one, or we clearly need a real (cheap) tool to write floppy on real floppy drive, and this is not a simple task..

Sure. PCs with compatible floppy drives are hard to find. It is good to have a laptop which boots to win98 for instance, so you can use the disk tools, bit that is not forever. Floppies degrade, those old computers fail...

That is why an SD card-based solution is the best way to go. HxC is a good option, though a bit cumbersome (you need to convert your dsk images) and also a bit expensive. Cumulus is the best solution so far, despite not being a real controller and even if it has some minor issues.

Chema wrote:Sure. PCs with compatible floppy drives are hard to find. It is good to have a laptop which boots to win98 for instance, so you can use the disk tools, bit that is not forever. Floppies degrade, those old computers fail...

That is why an SD card-based solution is the best way to go. HxC is a good option, though a bit cumbersome (you need to convert your dsk images) and also a bit expensive. Cumulus is the best solution so far, despite not being a real controller and even if it has some minor issues.

The only problem the cumulus does not solve is to read old floppy..

I hope to propose a solution for the StratoCumulus

I wish I had more time to work on my disk transfer tool thru tape port.
Stupid track reading routine that doesn't seem to work properly on real hardware!

Tried Omniflop today, no success with a Jasmin disk.

Anyway, although I have five 3" drives and four PCs able to connect them, I ususally get a disk transfer failure of around 90-95%.
Each time I try, feels like a higway to hell. And ends in hell indeed.

@Symoon: 3" or 3.5" floppies? In case of 3.5" did you cover the media density hole? (definitely you know this, but I don't have other idea).
I had the same problem to produce working Sedoric 3.5" disk on PC, until I found really good 720k disks. Although my floppy drives are good I had permanent fails with 3.5" disks.

I have an Amstrad CPC 664 which came with a bunch of 3 inch disks. Most of them are unreadable, some give random read errors... but I can format and copy new data and they work quite reliably.

Maybe time simply did its job and damaged the data on them...

Thanks, but I'm just trying to read a bunch of old 3" disks
I'm afraid they haven't been stored in good conditions

And before that, I had to face so many problems with my old PCs that it seemed to be a joke (fried PC, fried USB ports, dying 3.5" floppy (used to transfer files), unexpected startup passwords, didn't manage to run HxC, fried 3" floppy drive, disk ejection system locked on the 3" drive, and of course impossible or random readings).

Chema wrote: ↑Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:37 pm I have an Amstrad CPC 664 which came with a bunch of 3 inch disks. Most of them are unreadable, some give random read errors... but I can format and copy new data and they work quite reliably.

Maybe time simply did its job and damaged the data on them...

Or maybe there's a problematic speed gap from one drive to another?
Sounds like tapes, that one could use without problem on his own tape recorder... But that failed with others.