Extracting MIDI Files from a Yamaha Floppy Disk with APS MIDI Prep Tool

This guide walks through a very specific job: Taking a Yamaha floppy disk, reading it with APS MIDI Prep Tool, converting the contents to standard MIDI files when necessary, and saving those files into a folder on your computer.

This is especially useful if you have old Yamaha Disklavier, PianoSoft, or personal-recording disks and want a modern folder of files you can inspect, back up, organize, or prepare for another player system.

Important: If your computer says the floppy disk needs to be formatted, cancel. Do not format the disk. Many Yamaha disks will look strange or unreadable to a normal computer, even when the disk itself is perfectly usable.

What this workflow does

APS MIDI Prep Tool can read a floppy, show the songs it finds, and let you save copies into a normal folder. If the disk contains Yamaha E-SEQ files, the tool can convert those files to standard MIDI files first. That way, the end result is a folder of .MID files rather than a disk full of older Yamaha-specific files.

This is the workflow:

1. Insert the Yamaha floppy disk.
2. Open APS MIDI Prep Tool.
3. Use Read Floppy.
4. Review the files that appear in the list.
5. Use E-SEQ -> MIDI if the disk contains Yamaha E-SEQ files.
6. Use Save As to place the finished MIDI files into a folder.

Before you start

You will need:

• A Yamaha floppy disk you legally own or are responsible for preserving.
• A working floppy drive, such as a USB floppy drive or a Greaseweazle-connected drive.
• APS MIDI Prep Tool installed and ready to run.
• An empty folder on your computer where the extracted MIDI files will go.

I recommend making a folder with a clear name before you start. For example:

Yamaha Disk 01 - Extracted MIDI

That makes it much easier to keep albums, disks, and customer projects separated.

Step 1: Insert the floppy disk

Insert the Yamaha floppy disk into your floppy drive.

If Windows, macOS, or Linux asks whether you want to format the disk, say no. That message does not necessarily mean the disk is blank or bad. It often just means the computer does not understand the format Yamaha used.

Step 2: Open APS MIDI Prep Tool

Launch APS MIDI Prep Tool. Across the top of the window you see options such as Open MIDI Folder, Open Image, and Read Floppy.

For this job, use Read Floppy. We are starting from a physical disk, not from a folder of files that has already been copied.

Note about floppy drives: Direct USB floppy reading is most straightforward on Windows and Linux. If you are using macOS, you may need to work from a floppy disk image instead, or use a Greaseweazle-based setup. If you are not sure which method applies to your computer, start with Read Floppy; if that does not work, the image-based workflow may be the better path.

Step 3: Click Read Floppy

Click Read Floppy. The tool will read the disk from the floppy drive and load the contents into the table. If you’re using a USB floppy disk drive, select that option. You’ll then be offered a list of detected floppy disk drives. For most people, this will be a single option. Click OK, and it will then read the floppy disk.

Note that the floppy disk reader attempts to read the floppy disk in “fast” mode first, but if it fails, it will attempt to image the entire disk. Make sure to give it time. Floppy disks are not very fast media, and it may take as much as a minute to read the disk.

Depending on your setup, you may be reading from a USB floppy drive or from a Greaseweazle-connected drive. The important thing is that APS MIDI Prep Tool is doing the reading, not your computer’s normal file explorer.

Once the disk is loaded, you should see a list of files. The important columns for this workflow are usually:

• Filename – the file name stored on the disk.
• Title – the internal song title or metadata, when available.
• Type – the file type or MIDI format information the tool can detect.

Step 4: Check whether the disk contains MIDI or E-SEQ

Some Yamaha disks contain standard MIDI files. Others contain Yamaha E-SEQ files, usually with a .FIL extension. E-SEQ is a Yamaha format used by many older Disklaviers. It is not the same thing as a normal .MID file, even though the musical information may be similar.

If the files already show up as MIDI files, you can skip the conversion step below and go straight to Save As.

If the files show up as E-SEQ or .FIL files, use the next step to convert them to MIDI before saving them into your folder.

You may also see PIANODIR.FIL. That file is the Yamaha song directory/index. It is not one of the songs. APS MIDI Prep Tool treats it separately so you can see what is going on without confusing it with the actual music files.

Step 5: Convert E-SEQ files to MIDI, if needed

If the disk contains Yamaha E-SEQ files, click E-SEQ -> MIDI.

This converts the listed E-SEQ songs into standard MIDI files. The goal here is simple: instead of ending with a folder of .FIL files, you end with a folder of .MID files that are much easier to inspect, organize, and use with modern software.

If the disk already contains standard MIDI files, you do not need to do this. In that case, leave the files as they are and continue to the next step. If the files are already MIDI files, the E-SEQ -> MIDI button will be grayed out.

Step 6: Clean up titles if you want

This step is optional, but it is one of the reasons I built the tool.

You can click in the Title column to edit song titles before saving the files. This is helpful when the original disk has blank titles, strange characters, or titles that are too long to be useful on older displays.

For older Yamaha systems, I usually keep titles short, plain, and readable. Avoid unusual symbols when possible. A boring title that displays correctly is better than a clever title that turns into gibberish on the piano.

Step 7: Save the MIDI files into a folder

When the files look correct, click Save As.

Choose the empty folder you created at the beginning of the process. APS MIDI Prep Tool will write copies of the listed files into that folder.

For this workflow, use Save As rather than Save. Save As writes copies to a folder. Save is for writing changes back to the original source, which is not what we are trying to do here. In fact, the Save button is disabled by default when in FLOPPY MODE.

Step 8: Check the output folder

Open the folder you selected. You should now see the extracted files. If you converted from E-SEQ, the finished files should be standard MIDI files with a .MID extension.

At this point, I recommend opening a few of the files in a MIDI player or MIDI editor just to confirm that the songs are present and named the way you expect.

Prepare the files for an older player system (optional)

If you are only archiving the songs on your computer, you may be done. If you are preparing the files for an older Disklavier or another legacy player system, there may be a couple of extra steps.

• Use Convert All SMF1 to SMF0 if the piano needs Type 0 MIDI files. You will not have to do this if the original files came from a Yamaha PianoSoft disk.
• Use Rename All to DOS 8.3 if the destination system needs short filenames. You will not have to do this to files from Yamaha PianoSoft disks.
• Keep titles short and avoid unusual characters.

Those steps are not required just to extract MIDI files into a folder, but they can matter a great deal when the files are going back onto older hardware.

Common problems

My computer says the disk is unformatted

Cancel the format prompt. Do not let the computer initialize or format the disk. Open APS MIDI Prep Tool and use Read Floppy instead.

The files are .FIL instead of .MID

That usually means the disk contains Yamaha E-SEQ files. This is true of most Yamaha PianoSoft disks. Use E-SEQ -> MIDI, then use Save As to save the converted files into your folder.

I see PIANODIR.FIL

That is normal on many Yamaha E-SEQ disks. PIANODIR.FIL is the song directory/index, not an individual song. Leave it alone unless you specifically know you need to rebuild or update the directory for a disk you are writing back to a Yamaha system.

The disk will not read

Floppy disks are old, fragile, and very susceptible to damage from age, magnets, sunlight, dirt, and bad drives. Try a known-good floppy drive if you have one. If the disk is important, avoid repeated attempts with questionable hardware.

I offer floppy disk transfer and recovery services if you would rather have me handle the disk.

Quick answers

Can I copy Yamaha floppy disk files with normal File Explorer?

Sometimes, but not reliably. Yamaha PianoSoft disks do not look normal to a modern computer. If your computer asks to format the disk, cancel and use a proper floppy-reading workflow instead, such as the one described above.

Are .FIL files MIDI files?

Not exactly. Many Yamaha .FIL files are E-SEQ files. APS MIDI Prep Tool can convert those E-SEQ files into standard .MID files. The two types of file are, in many respects, very similar.

Should I save back to the original floppy disk?

For extraction, no. Use Save As and save the files into a folder on your computer. That keeps the original disk untouched. I always treat the original floppy disk as irreplaceable source material.

Copyright note

These instructions are intended for preserving and organizing disks you legally own, personal recordings you made, or files you otherwise have the right to use. Please do not use this process to distribute commercial Yamaha disks or other copyrighted music without permission. See my full Disclaimer and DMCA policy.