Problem converting EPS disk

[Jakkz]

1. I have ripped Ensoniq EPS floppydisk using OmniFlop, using settings "80/2/10x512 (Ensoniq EPS 16+/Classic DD) 800kB"
2. I get a img file with size 819 200 byte
3. Using HxC Floppy Emulator Software I have created a .HFE

When I try to access the file from within the sampler the system says "BAD DEVICE"

I noticed that the filesize of my created .HFE are slightly smaller than the one I found in the QuickInstall_FloppyDiskImages.zip
My created file has size 2 008 064 byte while the .HFE containing the EPS OS 2.49 is 2 049 024 byte, so I guess that this is the problem but I just can't figure out what I am doing wrong when I create my .HFE...

Please help! I really want this to work

/Jakk

[mondo1976]

When you picked "Load RAW Image" in the HxC software then it should have a drop-down that lets you pick a predefined disk layout. Did you pick "Ensoniq EPS 3.5 HD" by mistake? Because you want the one that says DD, obviously.

[Jakkz]

Now I got it working, I don't know what I did different but it works! Fantastic solution, so quiet!!!
/Jakk

[J Hellums]

I have an EPS and I am having some problems opening img files. When I pick one that should open I get the Null sized DOS image! Invalid disk! I have set the disk browser to 3"5 800KB DSDD FAT 12. I also unchecked the auto on the USB settings. I have set the format on the raw file load page to Ensoniq EPS 3"5 floppy. I have no idea why I can't load and display what is on the disks. HELP PLEASE!
J Hellums

[J Hellums]

I have an EPS and I am having some problems opening hfe files. When I pick one that should open I get the Null sized DOS image! Invalid disk! I have set the disk browser to 3"5 800KB DSDD FAT 12. I also unchecked the auto on the USB settings. I have set the format on the raw file load page to Ensoniq EPS 3"5 floppy. I have no idea why I can't load and display what is on the disks. HELP PLEASE!
J Hellums

Hey Mondo or Jeff
UPDATE: I can open the hfe files that I create but I cannot open the files that I saved to the thumb drive. I can't even open the empty hfe files from the quick download. I did not have a floppy drive in any computer that worked so I loaded the EPS with all the sounds I had and then hot-swapped the drives and saved them to the thumb drive. The ones that I put on the thumb drive work perfectly and the ones I created with the software give me a BAD DEVICE ID! I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I've spent 2 days so far and I'm still bewildered! Please, please HELP!

[mondo1976]

UPDATE: I can open the hfe files that I create but I cannot open the files that I saved to the thumb drive. I can't even open the empty hfe files from the quick download. I did not have a floppy drive in any computer that worked so I loaded the EPS with all the sounds I had and then hot-swapped the drives and saved them to the thumb drive. The ones that I put on the thumb drive work perfectly and the ones I created with the software give me a BAD DEVICE ID! I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I've spent 2 days so far and I'm still bewildered! Please, please HELP!

If the HFEs from the quickstart aren't working for you then what are you saving your original floppies to? In other words, in order to save the memory contents back to the USB drive then there has to be a valid HFE to save to. I would assume that you've put empty HFEs on the drive and then are loading the original floppy and saving the contents back to a previously empty HFE. If that works then there shouldn't be anything wrong with the empty HFEs you have.

Please clarify.

[J Hellums]

I did not have a floppy drive so I loaded the EPS with instruments and hot swapped the drives and then saved them to the USB. Took 2 days to do it. They work fine! I have made some hfe disks with some efe files that I had on my computer and renamed them as DSKA0001.hfe to DSKA0011.hfe which the software will open and I can see what files I have on there. I thought that I should be able to view the ones that I took directly off of the EPS but maybe that won't work because when I try to open them the software shows Null sized dos image. Invalid disk. When I try the disks that I made and renamed, I get a bad device ID on the EPS. I hope that explains what I'm trying to do.Thanks

[mondo1976]

I think I understand a bit more of what you're doing, but my question still stands. It's neither here-nor-there though as I don't think it's fundamental to your problems.

As far as I know, EFE images cannot just be renamed and converted to HFE as they aren't a RAW disk image type but rather a file. You'll have to use a special procedure to convert those. I believe you can pack them into an EDE with EPSDisk or Jeff has a utility for converting EFE to HFE. As a general rule, Ensoniq items in Giebler format do not tend to play well with other software including HxC. It's possible to get them to work without writing them to a real floppy and reading them back, but it's extra work.

And as far as being able to browse the contents of the HFEs you manually created, they aren't DOS format disks so the disk browser won't work like that. Ensoniq disks are proprietary and require specific software made for exploring Ensoniq disks. A few samplers like the Yamaha TX16W use normal DOS format disks and can be used with the disk browser, but most cannot.

[J Hellums]

Thanks Mondo! I guess it is apparent that you are dealing with a musician and not a computer whiz!
My problem was that I thought that the software made the disks from efe files and all you had to do was add them to the disk by the create disk on the browser page. I had the raw file format set to Ensoniq EPS 3.5 DD floppy so I assumed that I was creating a hfe disk. I had the browser set on 800 kb and I could never load a hfe disk file. I could not figure out how a 2021 kb file would fit on an 800 kb disk. I did think it should open the blank ones but they are about 2000 kb also. All my computers have Windows 7 so almost all of the converting programs won't even start! Thanks again! I sure miss my XP!

[mondo1976]

If you send me your files then I can likely convert them to HFEs for you. But as a point of clarification, the size of an HFE doesn't reflect the size of the original disk format. In other words, the EPS uses a double-sided, double-density format akin to IBM 720K which ends up being 800K because of Ensoniq's proprietary format. Converting those disks to HFE will add an overhead which makes them 2MB or so, but the Ensoniq EPS will still see the proper disk size it is expecting because the HxC strips the HFE back down to the correct size when it serves it back to the sampler.

Contact me at "mondomailer1976@gmail.com" if you desire.