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Is there a "driverless" high-capacity floppy? (Flash, Sony Stick, etc)

CZroe

CZroe

Lifer
I've seen the "FlashPath" adapters and Memory Stick adapters for various flash memory types, but they all require drivers to operate. I need a large bootable floppy for diagnostic purposes on older systems, even if it can only access data in 1.44MB chunks. Is this possible? Why doesn't it exist? I may also want to use it to store SNES games for those SNES game copiers (To avoid excessive disk-swaps) 😀
 
Keep in mind Flash memory has a limitation in that it can only be rewritten to so many times. Even though it is very high now(like 10000 times), Emulators which are almost constantly writing and rewriting(Most emulator save features do this, I remember from past experience) will eat that up farily quickly. A HD will last longer w/o wearing out and will have a faster transfer rate for that.
 
For the diagnostic disk, use a boot CD. You can make it full size - using HD emulation, and fit everything in it. If you need to add and subtract files, use a CD-RW.

As far as not requiring drivers, compactflash is detected as an IDE device on laptops and PC's with PCCard readers... but on PC's without these readers, you'd need a USB or other type of reader and those will want drivers - although they are probably built-in for older readers on newer OS's like XP.
 
The technology MUST exist. I have an Olympus c-700 digital camera, and you don't need drivers for it, you plug it into the usb, windows pops up a box saying new hardware, and it's done. It just adds a new removable harddrive icon and you drag and drop. I'd imagine that there must be other devices in a smaller format that do that.
 
i take the compact flash card from my digital camera and put it into a sandisk CF reader, no drivers required.
 
aka1nas: I'm not talking about emulators, I'm talking abou t*REAL* SNES hardware. The games are loaded ontot floppy disks and copied to a computer. Whe you want to play them, you copy them back to as many disks as it takes and load them 1 by 1 into the backup unit's DRAM. Once in DRAM, it does not read or write to the flash memory (It even saves the save data to a real cartridge). Only 1 unit has the capability to use a hard drive, and it's out of the question...

pm: A boot CD will NOT work. I run into systems every day that can't boot to a CD-ROM. On top of that, I can never find the correct boot floppy to get anything working (ie, you can't install Windows 95 with a 98 Boot floppy, "Incorrect DOS version") Also, you'd be surpirsed how many modern systems have trouble booting to one...

stonecold3169: Yes, there are many Flash devices that do not require drivers (Many of those "USB Thumb drives" are now driverless). But the kind of computers that need a large utility disk have not USB ports. NO standard floppy drives require drivers, and virtually every old computer has one (And if it's not bootable to CD, it must have one anyway).

yg17: Except that that reader will not be bootable or have a way to connect to older machines. I'm *NOT* trying to find a Flash memory adapter, only a "large reverse-compatable floppy" that perhaps uses Flash memory...
 
I have a 128MB USB Pen Drive thats driverless for Win ME, 2K, XP and Mac OS 9, 10. However you need drivers for Win 98. thats almost driverless. It pretty sweet.. you just plug it in and it uses the next available drive letter🙂
 
But it' not USB-less...
I can't boot to USB and any computer with USB should be capable of booting to CD anyway.
Also, remember I'm planning uses that don't involve a PC.
Thnx anyway though!
 
Why don't you carry around an older small (3 to 5 gb) hd w/ DOS installed on it. put Win 98 setup files in one of the directories, put whatever utilities you need on it and voila.

you don't need drivers, all you need to do is open up the system and plug the HD in. 🙂
 
I remember a device that worked like a floppy for embedded systems. You connected it to the floppy connector as drive B and it had a 1.44 capacity. you needed to write to it once and then it would boot the system without user intervention I beleive it came in larger sizes but it was VERY expensive I mean EXPENSIVE! 250+ dollars. Writing to it requied a driver, but once "programed" it looked and acted like a write protected floppy. Hmmm, it was sold for industrial uses but don't remember anything else.

 
PlatinumGold: Glad you asked... The last 4 times I've been working on old laptops... I'm surprised that this last person's Thinkpad couldn't boot to CD even after the BIOS updated...
mikable: Yes, I've see a company that can probably do this w/ flash memory 🙂 (I'll link to it when I get home)
 
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