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PPFBU Back-up Disk Utility for Windows 7 and 8

2013-07-05 by Carol Beigel

PPFBU aka Player Piano Floppy Backup Utility is Mark Fontana’s new, as of March 2013, utility for backing up your floppy disks and converting those Yamaha files to MIDI files. The program and instructions can be found at: http://www.kinura.net/ppfbu/

The program will convert PianoSoft, PianoSoftPlus and PianoDisc files to standard MIDI files.

He is also the creator of the marvelous MID2PianoCD that also converts the floppy files to MP3. His new website is: http://www.kinura.net/mid2pianocd/

There is some urgency for owners of this music to back up their disks. Floppy disk medium is aging. These programs that allow conversion of proprietary formats to standard MIDI files enable people to be able to use their older Disklaviers with new hardware like smart phones and tablets.

I spent the afternoon playing with this software and find it works beautifully. Unfortunately for me, I have several Pianosoft discs that work fine in my Disklavier but cannot be seen by any of the four different computers I used for these tests. The one utility that was able to make a new copy of these pranged disks was the Giebler Utility on the Windows XP computer. I used some new DS/DD diskettes (1 hole, 720k) to make new copies identical to the originals. Fortunately, both PPFBU and YamPlayer saw the new copies and conversions to MIDI files were made.

Thank you so much Mark Fontana for facilitating the preservation of this music!

Carol Beigel

Re: [disklavier] PPFBU Back-up Disk Utility for Windows 7 and 8

2013-07-05 by Mark Fontana

Thanks Carol!\ufffd Although there are several other programs that are compatible with Yamaha diskettes, there's not much besides this utility and the Giebler software that can handle PianoDisc diskettes.

A limitation of the currently-posted version of PPFBU is that it expects only 720 KB Disklavier diskettes, leading to "unsupported diskette" errors on 1.44 MB diskettes (homemade diskettes, some Pianosoft Plus disks, and commercial disks downloaded via yamahamusicsoft.com).\ufffd I've been testing an updated version adding support for 1.44 MB Disklavier disks and will post it to the website soon.

Mark

On 07/05/2013 02:46 PM, Carol Beigel wrote:

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PPFBU aka Player Piano Floppy Backup Utility is Mark Fontana\ufffds new, as of March 2013, utility for backing up your floppy disks and converting those Yamaha files to MIDI files.\ufffd The program and instructions can be found at:\ufffd http://www.kinura.net/ppfbu/

The program will convert PianoSoft, PianoSoftPlus and PianoDisc files to standard MIDI files.

RE: [disklavier] PPFBU Back-up Disk Utility for Windows 7 and 8

2013-07-05 by Geoff Ward

I'm sure that both Mark and Carol are aware of this, but for those who
aren't, it is very easy to create a 720K floppy diskette, as follows:

 

Formatting a 720kB floppy disk with Windows XP

 

1) Cover the square hole in the corner of the 1.44M floppy with a piece of
tape
(there should be two holes - you want to cover the one WITHOUT the
write-protect shutter). If you hold the disk parallel to the floor, with
the label side up and the metal shutter away from you, it will be the hole
on the right.

2) Open a DOS window.  (select "Run" in Windows 7 from the Start menu, type
cmd into the box and press enter to open up a DOS box.

3) Type in the DOS command "FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9" and press enter and follow
the prompts.

(Windows XP doesn't even support the /F:720 switch anymore, but explicitly
defining the number of sectors and tracks works just fine.)

 

4) This works with Windows 7 as well.

 

Geoff

 

 

  _____

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From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Mark Fontana
Sent: Saturday, 6 July 2013 6:58 AM
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [disklavier] PPFBU Back-up Disk Utility for Windows 7 and 8

Thanks Carol!  Although there are several other programs that are compatible
with Yamaha diskettes, there's not much besides this utility and the Giebler
software that can handle PianoDisc diskettes.

A limitation of the currently-posted version of PPFBU is that it expects
only 720 KB Disklavier diskettes, leading to "unsupported diskette" errors
on 1.44 MB diskettes (homemade diskettes, some Pianosoft Plus disks, and
commercial disks downloaded via yamahamusicsoft.com).  I've been testing an
updated version adding support for 1.44 MB Disklavier disks and will post it
to the website soon.

Mark

On 07/05/2013 02:46 PM, Carol Beigel wrote:

PPFBU aka Player Piano Floppy Backup Utility is Mark Fontana's new, as of
March 2013, utility for backing up your floppy disks and converting those
Yamaha files to MIDI files.  The program and instructions can be found at:
<http://www.kinura.net/ppfbu/> http://www.kinura.net/ppfbu/

The program will convert PianoSoft, PianoSoftPlus and PianoDisc files to
standard MIDI files.