Yamaha MDF2 and Windows floopy disks

[Keys'n'Stix]

Hi all,

I've got a Yamaha MDF2 which I'n using live to play my MIDI files with. It's
a real pain trying to back-up the data disks on this machine - constantly
swapping target and source disk a million times for each disk.

It tells me in the instruction manual that I can use a PC to do this - well
I can't! Windows 2000 Pro will not read these disks at all, even in MS-DOS
mode!

Can anyone shed any light on this for me please, before I go even more
insane!

Keys'n'Stix

[Parke J. Shissler]

Post by Keys'n'Stix
Hi all,
I've got a Yamaha MDF2 which I'n using live to play my MIDI files with. It's
a real pain trying to back-up the data disks on this machine - constantly
swapping target and source disk a million times for each disk.
It tells me in the instruction manual that I can use a PC to do this - well
I can't! Windows 2000 Pro will not read these disks at all, even in MS-DOS
mode!
Can anyone shed any light on this for me please, before I go even more
insane!
Keys'n'Stix

How were the original floppies created? The Yamaha may be copying disks
without having them formatted. The MDF2 uses 720K floppies...under
Windows2K you would have to format blank disk with the command:
format a: /F:720

The problem I had was getting midi files in a certain order...which
means copying one by one...or doing it in a batch file from DOS.

[Jeffery S. Jones]

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 10:17:52 -0000, "Keys'n'Stix"

Post by Keys'n'Stix
Hi all,
I've got a Yamaha MDF2 which I'n using live to play my MIDI files with. It's
a real pain trying to back-up the data disks on this machine - constantly
swapping target and source disk a million times for each disk.
It tells me in the instruction manual that I can use a PC to do this - well
I can't! Windows 2000 Pro will not read these disks at all, even in MS-DOS
mode!
Can anyone shed any light on this for me please, before I go even more
insane!

It might be the 720k format on the 1440k disk problem. Some floppy
drives refuse to read 720k format, unless the disk sensor hole for
720k is filled (it is the open hole opposite the write protect
slider). Try covering that hole with a piece of tape (opaque, it
might have optical sensors).

[Keys'n'Stix]

Post by Keys'n'Stix
Hi all,
I've got a Yamaha MDF2 which I'n using live to play my MIDI files with. It's
a real pain trying to back-up the data disks on this machine - constantly
swapping target and source disk a million times for each disk.
It tells me in the instruction manual that I can use a PC to do this - well
I can't! Windows 2000 Pro will not read these disks at all, even in MS-DOS
mode!
Can anyone shed any light on this for me please, before I go even more
insane!
Keys'n'Stix

Hi Parke and Jeffery,

Thanks for the replies. I've formatted the original floppies using the MDF2
utility. I tried to format new ones under Win2K with the command you mention
(after running cmd of course) in DOS mode. I was told that firstly it
couldn't be mounted, then it was bad media or boot sector!! This happened
for around 6 disks in all!! I even tried covering the HDD hole as suggested
by you Jeffrey. Still no joy!

With the HDD hole covered however, Win2K will display the disk contents (as
will DOS mode from cmd), but cannot read the source disk to copy the
contents to anywhere!!!

Any further suggestions?

Many, many thanks for your help guys.

Keys'n'Stix

[Leo Dean]

Post by Keys'n'Stix
Hi all,
I've got a Yamaha MDF2 which I'n using live to play my MIDI files with. It's
a real pain trying to back-up the data disks on this machine - constantly
swapping target and source disk a million times for each disk.
It tells me in the instruction manual that I can use a PC to do this - well
I can't! Windows 2000 Pro will not read these disks at all, even in MS-DOS
mode!
Can anyone shed any light on this for me please, before I go even more
insane!
Keys'n'Stix
Do you have the manual for it? If you don't, I still have mine. Also if

you need another MDF2 you can have this one extra cheap. Nothing wrong with
it but I'll never use it again. I'm sure you know this, but are you are
using DD disks?

Leo
www.leodean.com

[Keys'n'Stix]

Post by Leo Dean

Post by Keys'n'Stix
Hi all,
I've got a Yamaha MDF2 which I'n using live to play my MIDI files with.

It's

Post by Keys'n'Stix
a real pain trying to back-up the data disks on this machine - constantly
swapping target and source disk a million times for each disk.
It tells me in the instruction manual that I can use a PC to do this -

well

Post by Keys'n'Stix
I can't! Windows 2000 Pro will not read these disks at all, even in MS-DOS
mode!
Can anyone shed any light on this for me please, before I go even more
insane!
Keys'n'Stix
Do you have the manual for it? If you don't, I still have mine. Also if

you need another MDF2 you can have this one extra cheap. Nothing wrong with
it but I'll never use it again. I'm sure you know this, but are you are
using DD disks?
Leo
www.leodean.com

Many thanks for your reply Leo,

I do have the manual for mine. I'm using HD disks, because I can't find
anyone who stocks DD disks anymore! With a lot of trial and error, I've
managed to sort out my problem.

Win 2K is very fussy as to how to format a HD disk as a 720k disk. It's
better NOT to use MS-DOS mode, but to perservere with the formatting utility
from Windows Explorer..

I think I will soon move on to another hardware sequencer, as the MDF2 is
now starting to show it's lack of technology!!

Jan (Keys'n'Stix)