Tasked with testing this adapter from work experience to add to the future museum

Posted by LaundryMan2008@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 14 comments

I have this Sony disk adapter which I found the drivers for, I had an install issue where it complained about multiprocessor systems despite my system only having one CPU (presumably counting cores?) so I went into the .INI file and changed the setup to accept multiprocessor systems and it installed without an issue except for a monitor error. I then put some fresh batteries into the disk adapter, the format utility works and formats the disk/card but when I go to read the disk/card it gives me the usual unformatted disk error asking to format, watching some videos shows that you are meant to have a little icon next to the clock showing the utility which it doesn’t show, I do know that the highest OS it can be run on is 2000 but Windows XP should have backwards compatibility. The memory card works on its own on a memory card reader, it’s a Sony 64MB card, tried the write protect switch on both positions and removed and reinserted the card a few times. [Format successful](https://preview.redd.it/ruiw51f1nyde1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2010f9e12269b0d0120f16e4ccc12a3d487a4ecd) [Format utility, above shows that my floppy drive is A:\/](https://preview.redd.it/jrxezbk3nyde1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=23f7827af1002041e1b4960207814e3ec495192f) [The thing I had to change to make the installer work is the very bottom one](https://preview.redd.it/kmw7pyz7nyde1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53c588db4f834fedef0c0011103ac5cde72a3630) [The adaptor \(MSAC-FD2M\)](https://preview.redd.it/14hzoaibnyde1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8fdd2c2cdb7689a74f7b596f08b80b96b8e7a2d3) [The memory card](https://preview.redd.it/zq0svu7enyde1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0a850eac4d333be32518482e97307930b3b48bba)

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14 Comments

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RealJustHumanThings@reddit

I really needed that part to fix the multi processor issue. Thank you! I have also found that there actually is an XP driver for this. The download link on Sony's site no longer works but you can find downloads for it elsewhere, with this fix to the .ini file still needed. I'm getting a pop up now that says the drive couldn't be accessed when I try to format so I assume I may need to put in some new batteries like you did. Hopefully I can get this working!

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LaundryMan2008@reddit (OP)

I never got it to work and I had to relinquish the memory cards back to my work experience, I got to keep the disk adapter though and if I find a very cheap camera with a memory stick in it I will buy it to try again. It would format just fine but after that I couldn’t see it in the file manager because I didn’t have the button to lock the heads on the floppy drive next to the clock in the bottom right like others had their videos demonstrating the product. I’m pretty good at modifying programs to get around limits and free trials for piracy so I jumped right in the .ini file and had a poke around, I also managed to get other pieces of software working by poking around in the files to get it to play nice.

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RealJustHumanThings@reddit

I still couldn't get mine to format even after changing the batteries, it just couldn't detect the floppy drive for whatever reason, and I don't think the floppy drive was an issue cuz it could read normal floppys just fine. I feel like maybe some drivers weren't properly installing or something. Luckily tho, changing the batteries did help me in the end cuz my Sony Mavicas that support the memory stick adapter could finally detect it and read and write to it. My VAIO desktop also has a memory stick reader in it, so if I ever need to format it, I could just use another Sony software I found on Internet Archive, MSAC-EX1 (as opposed to FD1/FD2). It works with just the memory stick slot rather than having to use a floppy adapter.

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LaundryMan2008@reddit (OP)

The floppy adapter nowadays is a gimmick that doesn’t really work, I have multiple options of reading it so not having the floppy adapter working is fine as it’s going on my wall of data storage mediums

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No_Abrocoma_711@reddit

That adaptor is supposed to fit inside a Sony Mavica camera so it writes to the Memory Stick rather than a floppy disk. You pull the stick and read the memory card in a reader. There is a similar Smart Media adaptor that works the other way around, with the SM card pulled from the camera, and inserted into the floppy adaptor, which is then read by a FDD.

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LaundryMan2008@reddit (OP)

I have read that it should work in a computer with some drivers but these drivers say for Windows 2000 and below but I know that Windows XP should be able to run most Windows 2000 software which I have ran some other pieces of software on my computer without issue. I watched a video about someone who looked at the adapter and there should have been an adaptor icon which I could click on to enable the adapter mode on the floppy drive but the only icon was the PowerISO software that you can see next to the clock with a cross too when clicked would show a monitor error as mentioned above.

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No_Abrocoma_711@reddit

This is the one I was discussing. You might want to go over to the r/Mavica subredit and ask questions. [SmartMedia adaptor ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Mavica/s/9KPqCHCW3y)

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Holiday-Plum-8054@reddit

Sounds like you're going to have some fun.

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LaundryMan2008@reddit (OP)

Any advice? I’ll probably tell them on Tuesday when I come in that further testing will be needed and another hard drive to install Windows 2000 onto (hopefully a cheetah 15.7k if they have another SAS card).

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Holiday-Plum-8054@reddit

This isn't quite my area of expertise, sorry.

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LaundryMan2008@reddit (OP)

That’s ok I have lots of expertise in old media, drives and anything else surrounding them and still got stumped with the software, I remember getting frustrated trying to find free software that supported tape backup as a destination for free for my LTO drives. I can understand why people went to cloud long ago with some computers being fully cloud based and a nand big enough to hold only windows but I find old media to be lots of fun.

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Holiday-Plum-8054@reddit

Thanks for understanding.

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Jdjfjshbeee@reddit

Bro that adapter is sick.

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LaundryMan2008@reddit (OP)

Don’t get to keep it unfortunately but they have an eye out for another one for me but if it’s a different memory card instead of memory stick then they keep it and then a second one of the same card I can keep