Using the Rossum SP1200 reissue is not a solution either, as it allows you to transfer data from a classic SP1200 to the Rossum over MIDI, yet the Rossum saves to .sp12 images, and those are not identical to SP1200 HFEs.
Working options are scant:
– Loading onto the SP1200 using a genuine 3.5″ drive, hot-swapping to a floppy emulator which supports HFE, and then writing the RAM contents to HFE.
This is brute, but highly effective, as the SP1200 provides all the proper CRC checking, and knows exactly what to do with the data.
– Connecting specialty hardware like Kryoflux or Greaseweazle to get a raw read of the disk signals, and then decoding the raw read into a usable binary.
In a way, this is more graceful, but also more error prone. It is also much more technical than the hot-swap method, or the GUI-oriented Omniflop method which works with most other formats, but cannot support the SP1200, unfortunately.
Even with a successful flux read of an SP1200 diskette, getting the data into a form which can be used with a floppy emulator, Isla SP2400, or software tools still provides a challenge.
Assuming one has the requisite Greaseweazle hardware and related sundry, the method to read physical SP1200 3.5″ diskettes to HFE will still not be obvious. The software below will automate the flux reading process, attempt to ensure a perfect read, and also encode to SP1200 HFE.
