Speed up a 3.5" floppy drive?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

I hate having a 3.5" floppy drive, especially the slow read/write
access, and I hate the clutter of the disks themselves. (I hate to
admit that I still have a 5.25" floppy drive in one system and a few
of those disks too...)

However, I have an older Sony Mavica digital camera that writes
directly onto 3.5" floppies. Until I can afford to get rid of that
thing (see OT comments below), I have to continue using my PC's 3.5"
floppy drive to unload photos. That is a slow and troublesome process.

According to the documentation, the Mavica uses a sped-up "4X" floppy
drive inside the camera. So if the technology exists inside a
camera, maybe it's available for a regular drive in a PC... Does
anyone have any info about either speeding up an existing floppy
drive, such as by tweaking some (unknown-to-me) configuration
options, or about 4X (or faster) drives for PC use?

<ot: topic="camera-prattling">
I'm really hoping to buy a Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7D to go with my
existing Maxxum 7, but at ~$1600 it's well out of my price range for
now. I'm also trying to "win" a Canon PowerShot S1 IS through one of
those sites where you complete an offer and get friends to do the
same, like the free IPod sites, but that's been a dead end because
I've completed *two* offers and not received credit for either one...
{sigh}
</ot>

--
Stuart Whitmore (usenet-bounce@just-stuart.com, sans -bounce)
Science fiction, politics, pretty models, & more:
http://www.just-stuart.com/

 

[Philo]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"S. Whitmore" <usenet-bounce@just-stuart.com> wrote in message
news:aD9Pd.23085$Dc.8354@trnddc06...
>I hate having a 3.5" floppy drive, especially the slow read/write access,
>and I hate the clutter of the disks themselves. (I hate to admit that I
>still have a 5.25" floppy drive in one system and a few of those disks
>too...)
>
> However, I have an older Sony Mavica digital camera that writes directly
> onto 3.5" floppies. Until I can afford to get rid of that thing (see OT
> comments below), I have to continue using my PC's 3.5" floppy drive to
> unload photos. That is a slow and troublesome process.
>
> According to the documentation, the Mavica uses a sped-up "4X" floppy
> drive inside the camera. So if the technology exists inside a camera,
> maybe it's available for a regular drive in a PC... Does anyone have any
> info about either speeding up an existing floppy drive, such as by
> tweaking some (unknown-to-me) configuration options, or about 4X (or
> faster) drives for PC use?
>
> <ot: topic="camera-prattling">
> I'm really hoping to buy a Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7D to go with my existing
> Maxxum 7, but at ~$1600 it's well out of my price range for now. I'm also
> trying to "win" a Canon PowerShot S1 IS through one of those sites where
> you complete an offer and get friends to do the same, like the free IPod
> sites, but that's been a dead end because I've completed *two* offers and
> not received credit for either one...
> {sigh}
> </ot>


yep those floppies are slow...
but even a 4x increase would still be slow...
you really need a compact flash type camera...
i use a canon eos digital rebel...
the price is right and it does a great job for me

btw: my backup machine stil has a 5.25 floppy drive...
just in case i need it

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"S. Whitmore" <usenet-bounce@just-stuart.com> wrote:

>I hate having a 3.5" floppy drive, especially the slow read/write
>access, and I hate the clutter of the disks themselves. (I hate to
>admit that I still have a 5.25" floppy drive in one system and a few
>of those disks too...)
>
>However, I have an older Sony Mavica digital camera that writes
>directly onto 3.5" floppies. Until I can afford to get rid of that
>thing (see OT comments below), I have to continue using my PC's 3.5"
>floppy drive to unload photos. That is a slow and troublesome process.
>
>According to the documentation, the Mavica uses a sped-up "4X" floppy
>drive inside the camera. So if the technology exists inside a
>camera, maybe it's available for a regular drive in a PC... Does
>anyone have any info about either speeding up an existing floppy
>drive, such as by tweaking some (unknown-to-me) configuration
>options, or about 4X (or faster) drives for PC use?
>

Back when backups were small, there was the 120mb LS120 "Super Disk"
that did a terrible job of competing with Zip drives. The advantage
the LS120 drive had was that it also wrote to 1.44 floppies, and did
it at a faster speed than normal.

If you can find one of the drives cheap it may be worth a try. They
came as IDE internal or USB. The USB had a small following from iMac
users that could not let go of the floppy - they were offered in the
matching iFruit colors.

Panasonic had a digital camera that used the LS120, too.
--
"A Sound Mind. A Healthy Body. Pick One" Mr. Hedge

 

[papa]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Forget speed. Floppy drives are simply slow. If you want to deal with
digital photography, and do it efficiently, you need to upgrade your
equipment.

"S. Whitmore" <usenet-bounce@just-stuart.com> wrote in message
news:aD9Pd.23085$Dc.8354@trnddc06...
>I hate having a 3.5" floppy drive, especially the slow read/write access,
>and I hate the clutter of the disks themselves. (I hate to admit that I
>still have a 5.25" floppy drive in one system and a few of those disks
>too...)
>
> However, I have an older Sony Mavica digital camera that writes directly
> onto 3.5" floppies. Until I can afford to get rid of that thing (see OT
> comments below), I have to continue using my PC's 3.5" floppy drive to
> unload photos. That is a slow and troublesome process.
>
> According to the documentation, the Mavica uses a sped-up "4X" floppy
> drive inside the camera. So if the technology exists inside a camera,
> maybe it's available for a regular drive in a PC... Does anyone have any
> info about either speeding up an existing floppy drive, such as by
> tweaking some (unknown-to-me) configuration options, or about 4X (or
> faster) drives for PC use?
>
> <ot: topic="camera-prattling">
> I'm really hoping to buy a Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7D to go with my existing
> Maxxum 7, but at ~$1600 it's well out of my price range for now. I'm also
> trying to "win" a Canon PowerShot S1 IS through one of those sites where
> you complete an offer and get friends to do the same, like the free IPod
> sites, but that's been a dead end because I've completed *two* offers and
> not received credit for either one...
> {sigh}
> </ot>
>
> --
> Stuart Whitmore (usenet-bounce@just-stuart.com, sans -bounce)
> Science fiction, politics, pretty models, & more:
> http://www.just-stuart.com/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Papa wrote:
> Forget speed. Floppy drives are simply slow. If you want to deal with
> digital photography, and do it efficiently, you need to upgrade your
> equipment.

No argument there, but as I said in my original post, I can't do that
yet. (Not on my personal budget, at least.) So if there's a way to
make life a little easier until I *can* upgrade, then I'd like to do
so. Writing a Perl script that semi-automated offloading the disks
was one (free) step that has paid off. Increasing the PC floppy
drive speed would be another step, thus my inquiry about whether it's
possible. I didn't say it was a "good" option or even an alternative
to upgrading. (It's only a 1.3MP camera anyway, with a fixed lens,
so an upgrade is overdue even without the slow transfer. Not
surprisingly, though, advances in technology don't imply advances in
my financial condition.)

--
Stuart Whitmore (usenet-bounce@just-stuart.com, sans -bounce)
Science fiction, politics, pretty models, & more:
http://www.just-stuart.com/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Justice Gustine wrote:
> Back when backups were small, there was the 120mb LS120 "Super Disk"
> that did a terrible job of competing with Zip drives. The advantage
> the LS120 drive had was that it also wrote to 1.44 floppies, and did
> it at a faster speed than normal.

Interesting, I had forgotten about those drives. That might be worth
a try, thanks for the idea!

--
Stuart Whitmore (usenet-bounce@just-stuart.com, sans -bounce)
Science fiction, politics, pretty models, & more:
http://www.just-stuart.com/

 

[Phisherman]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Floppy drives are not in demand anymore. I would transfer all data to
CDs or DVDs, and just use floppies for the camera. I assume you
typically have several floppies to transfer to your PC after using
your camera. You could install another floppy drive (~$10) to get 2X
the transfer rate.

On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 21:40:22 GMT, "S. Whitmore"
<usenet-bounce@just-stuart.com> wrote:

>I hate having a 3.5" floppy drive, especially the slow read/write
>access, and I hate the clutter of the disks themselves. (I hate to
>admit that I still have a 5.25" floppy drive in one system and a few
>of those disks too...)
>
>However, I have an older Sony Mavica digital camera that writes
>directly onto 3.5" floppies. Until I can afford to get rid of that
>thing (see OT comments below), I have to continue using my PC's 3.5"
>floppy drive to unload photos. That is a slow and troublesome process.
>
>According to the documentation, the Mavica uses a sped-up "4X" floppy
>drive inside the camera. So if the technology exists inside a
>camera, maybe it's available for a regular drive in a PC... Does
>anyone have any info about either speeding up an existing floppy
>drive, such as by tweaking some (unknown-to-me) configuration
>options, or about 4X (or faster) drives for PC use?
>
><ot: topic="camera-prattling">
>I'm really hoping to buy a Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7D to go with my
>existing Maxxum 7, but at ~$1600 it's well out of my price range for
>now. I'm also trying to "win" a Canon PowerShot S1 IS through one of
>those sites where you complete an offer and get friends to do the
>same, like the free IPod sites, but that's been a dead end because
>I've completed *two* offers and not received credit for either one...
>{sigh}
></ot>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

S. Whitmore wrote:
> Papa wrote:
>> Forget speed. Floppy drives are simply slow. If you want to deal with
>> digital photography, and do it efficiently, you need to upgrade your
>> equipment.
>
> No argument there, but as I said in my original post, I can't do that
> yet. (Not on my personal budget, at least.) So if there's a way to
> make life a little easier until I *can* upgrade, then I'd like to do
> so. Writing a Perl script that semi-automated offloading the disks
> was one (free) step that has paid off. Increasing the PC floppy
> drive speed would be another step, thus my inquiry about whether it's
> possible. I didn't say it was a "good" option or even an alternative
> to upgrading. (It's only a 1.3MP camera anyway, with a fixed lens,
> so an upgrade is overdue even without the slow transfer. Not
> surprisingly, though, advances in technology don't imply advances in
> my financial condition.)

price of a superdisk etc etc probably isn't far off that of a cheap digi
camera that writes to smart media.
however, there used to exist a device that looked like a floppy with a smart
media card inside it. camera writes to this "floppy" and then you can take
the card out and put it in a normal PC cardreader. It might have been fuji
that made it, try ebay...
ric

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Ric wrote:
> price of a superdisk etc etc probably isn't far off that of a cheap digi
> camera that writes to smart media.

From what I've seen, a used SuperDisk drive on eBay will be about
the same price as what I paid for my daughter's digital camera, and I
wouldn't buy another of those. The old Mavica has much better
features, better image quality, better user interface, and a more
solid body. The $40-range digital cameras I've seen and used barely
qualify as toys.

> however, there used to exist a device that looked like a floppy with a smart
> media card inside it. camera writes to this "floppy" and then you can take
> the card out and put it in a normal PC cardreader. It might have been fuji
> that made it, try ebay...

Oh yeah, I do vaguely remember those. Hmm, might try that if I can
find one cheap enough...

--
Stuart Whitmore (usenet-bounce@just-stuart.com, sans -bounce)
Science fiction, politics, pretty models, & more:
http://www.just-stuart.com/

 

[traumerei]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

S. Whitmore wrote:
> I hate having a 3.5" floppy drive, especially the slow read/write
> access, and I hate the clutter of the disks themselves. (I hate to
> admit that I still have a 5.25" floppy drive in one system and a few
> of those disks too...)
>
> However, I have an older Sony Mavica digital camera that writes
> directly onto 3.5" floppies. Until I can afford to get rid of that
> thing (see OT comments below), I have to continue using my PC's 3.5"
> floppy drive to unload photos. That is a slow and troublesome
process.
>
> According to the documentation, the Mavica uses a sped-up "4X" floppy

> drive inside the camera. So if the technology exists inside a
> camera, maybe it's available for a regular drive in a PC... Does
> anyone have any info about either speeding up an existing floppy
> drive, such as by tweaking some (unknown-to-me) configuration
> options, or about 4X (or faster) drives for PC use?
>
> <ot: topic="camera-prattling">
> I'm really hoping to buy a Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7D to go with my
> existing Maxxum 7, but at ~$1600 it's well out of my price range for
> now. I'm also trying to "win" a Canon PowerShot S1 IS through one of

> those sites where you complete an offer and get friends to do the
> same, like the free IPod sites, but that's been a dead end because
> I've completed *two* offers and not received credit for either one...
> {sigh}
> </ot>
>
> --
> Stuart Whitmore (usenet-bounce@just-stuart.com, sans -bounce)
> Science fiction, politics, pretty models, & more:
> http://www.just-stuart.com/

Y-E Data makes a USB floppy drive that reads and writes four times
faster than a regular drive. Of course, that implies that you have USB


http://www.yedata.com/products/floppydrives/usb4x.shtml

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

<traumerei@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1109313689.938283.280430@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>
> S. Whitmore wrote:
>> I hate having a 3.5" floppy drive, especially the slow read/write
>> access, and I hate the clutter of the disks themselves. (I hate to
>> admit that I still have a 5.25" floppy drive in one system and a few
>> of those disks too...)
>>
>> However, I have an older Sony Mavica digital camera that writes
>> directly onto 3.5" floppies. Until I can afford to get rid of that
>> thing (see OT comments below), I have to continue using my PC's 3.5"
>> floppy drive to unload photos. That is a slow and troublesome
> process.
>>
>> According to the documentation, the Mavica uses a sped-up "4X" floppy
>
>> drive inside the camera. So if the technology exists inside a
>> camera, maybe it's available for a regular drive in a PC... Does
>> anyone have any info about either speeding up an existing floppy
>> drive, such as by tweaking some (unknown-to-me) configuration
>> options, or about 4X (or faster) drives for PC use?
>>
>> <ot: topic="camera-prattling">
>> I'm really hoping to buy a Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7D to go with my
>> existing Maxxum 7, but at ~$1600 it's well out of my price range for
>> now. I'm also trying to "win" a Canon PowerShot S1 IS through one of
>
>> those sites where you complete an offer and get friends to do the
>> same, like the free IPod sites, but that's been a dead end because
>> I've completed *two* offers and not received credit for either one...
>> {sigh}
>> </ot>
>>
>> --
>> Stuart Whitmore (usenet-bounce@just-stuart.com, sans -bounce)
>> Science fiction, politics, pretty models, & more:
>> http://www.just-stuart.com/
>
> Y-E Data makes a USB floppy drive that reads and writes four times
> faster than a regular drive. Of course, that implies that you have USB
>
>
> http://www.yedata.com/products/floppydrives/usb4x.shtml
>

Or you can try getting your hands on an LS-120 SuperDisk drive