A few questions from a new user...
#1
Question 
Hello, I am a computer historian and collector who is currently collecting old DOS software for the IBM PC, and was looking at your product since I would like to be able to read and duplicate disks for old machines under more modern platforms.

Before I purchase it, though, I have a few questions to ask:
1. Does this product work as a disk controller? As in, when you set it up, will you actually be able to access old IBM PC-formatted disks live from the Windows Explorer like you can with a USB floppy disk drive?

The reason for why this is an absolute requirement for me is that my goals are not only towards preserving media but also for emulation purposes, and to recreate the effect of actually using an old computer, I would much prefer to actually be able to set up old floppy disk drives with a newer PC and set up the emulator to access the disks from there, yet your site doesn't seem to be all that clear as to whether this thing works like an actual floppy disk controller or not, so I thought that I would ask it here first.

2. If it DOES infact work as a disk controller, does it work this way under Windows, and if so, would it work under a modern operating system such as Windows 8.1? This is yet another requirement for me, since newer versions of Windows are what I happen to be running on my machines.

I hope to hear from you all soon, thanks.
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#2
SuperCard Pro is a disk archiving/duplication system. It is not a disk controller. If someone wanted to write a file system handler then it could be. I have no idea how that is accomplished under Windows.
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#3
(05-29-2015, 08:48 PM)admin Wrote: SuperCard Pro is a disk archiving/duplication system.  It is not a disk controller.  If someone wanted to write a file system handler then it could be.  I have no idea how that is accomplished under Windows.

So basically, if you plug in a floppy disk drive, you'll be able to archive disks, but you won't actually be able to access the floppy disk drive from your PC otherwise?
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#4
There are commercially available USB 3.5" floppy drives that can read standard DOS formatted 1.44mb and 720K disk (check the specs as some lack 720k support)...

But when you get in to the realm of 5.25" disks, things get really hairy really quickly. There are lots of copy protected disks, disks formatted for DOS 1.x (lacks boot sector info used my most file system drivers), and non-DOS disks.

Also, modern file system drivers don't *really* know how to talk to DOS disks of this vintage. They usually assume you want to add long file names, last access dates, and hidden volume tracker junk, and they do some other things differently. This ocasionally causes problems.

Now, that said, it would still be nice if there were easy GUI tools for extracting and writing files. As it is, you will find yourself shuffling image files back and forth between different, sometimes incomplete and buggy, third party tools.

Do keep in mind the SuperCard Pro is designed to read/copy ANY floppy disk, and there are thousands of different non-PC disk and file system formats out there.

In case you are investigating other options, the situation is almost identical for the Kroflux.

Additionally, I'm not aware of too many emulators that can access floppy disks directly. The few that do can't handle copy protection.
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#5
SomeGuy Wrote:In case you are investigating other options, the situation is almost identical for the Kroflux.
I thought that the KryoFlux works as a floppy disk controller and can access the disks from the operating system itself. Or was I somehow incorrect about that?

Also, in case anyone was wondering, the emulator that I was referring to is MESS.
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#6
No, Kryoflux is a copier only as well.
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