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Re: [emax] RE: Resurrecting an Emax HD rack - Issues keep mounting

2014-02-05 by Windrum Scoggin

Problem with people getting rid of their spare hard drives is the fact that the Emax tries to boot off it first and if it doesn't see the FDD and is a SCSI HD model will then go to look for the SCSI HD. If neither or present, it won't boot. If it is a NON SCSI HD model it has to have an FDD or it just won't boot. Its a moot point but I have no idea why EMU NEVER opted to have the OS on flash rom so the damned machine would load off the internal Flash ROM like all their later units did. Ensoniq did the same stupid thing. No FDD with OS on it, NO Load. Machine useless. Stupid.
Anyway, that's neither hear nor there. If I were you, I would go HxC Floppy emulator then use your laptop running EMXP and load your stuff onto an SD card via EMXP and screw the the FDD. I am eventually going to do the same. Plus, you are in Europe and the HxC is made there by Lotharek, who is in Poland. Check out this youtube link and I am sure our buddy RetroSound could steer you the rest of the way in making this happen. I certainly am going this route, even if I keep SCSI HD and PCD-50B's in my Emax cause I am just sick of the FDD nightmare on these machines.


On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 9:50 AM, <picabostreets@...> wrote:

I got it to boot again and it successfully sampled and played back via midi... then it eventually failed again, prompting me to insert a disk. The OS will sometimes load successfully on start up, but it will work for a given period, then suddenly the HD's access to the OS will fail. When it is loaded, it seems to have full functionality.


So it sounds like Ted is right... both the HD and floppy drive have to be replaced. If I understand correctly, I have 3 options... 1) install a replacement HD that is formatted with the emax hd pre-se 1.1 OS and not replace the floppy... 2) install a floppy drive replacement and slim floppy and load the OS from there, 3) replace both. I'm on a student budget so money is a concern...


Would anybody out there have a spare hard drive they could sell me? Or for that matter, a spare floppy drive? ;I'm located in London (Canada), but I'm near the US border and could pick up there...


Again, any tips or advice is greatly appreciated. I don't want the emax to sit in my closet anymore...




--
Le Sociere Des Oscillateurs Mystere

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