How To Geek article on floppy data recovery
Jeff Brace suggests: https://www.howtogeek.com/669331/how-to-read-a-floppy-disk-on-a-modern-pc-or... A link to a literally geeky article, mostly on using USB devices that happen to operate certain floppy drives. Then it gets to real methods: find an old PC or Mac, read your disks, transfer the results (somehow). The article finishes up its review of USB devices to read common PC 3.5 / 5.25 diskettes and Mac 3.5" diskettes, with this wise advice for REAL floppy diskettes: "Luckily, there are other resources if you require something more complex, like accessing an 8-inch floppy drive that contains CP/M files. http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/s_drives_howto.html Herb Johnson maintains an impressive site full of technical data on various floppy disk systems if you’d like to learn more about how they work." http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/s_drives.html I couldn't have said it better myself. ;) The real meat on floppy drives and diskettes is: http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/drive.html I was going to post a more considered response to the article Jeff linked to. But Jeff only posted a link, why should I post a lecture in reply? I'll just say, that description and the modern items it references, versus the ancient things it references; simply reminds me of the gulf between 21st century consumer-digital-users, and 20th century computer owners and those who restore those systems and objects today. And, the kinds of junk that's sold which pretends to be some kind of "USB to floppy drive" device. I'm glad to find, my Web site still has utility; and why that's so. Regards, Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT info
On Sat, May 2, 2020 at 3:56 PM Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Jeff Brace suggests:
https://www.howtogeek.com/669331/how-to-read-a-floppy-disk-on-a-modern-pc-or...
A link to a literally geeky article, mostly on using USB devices that happen to operate certain floppy drives. Then it gets to real methods: find an old PC or Mac, read your disks, transfer the results (somehow). The article finishes up its review of USB devices to read common PC 3.5 / 5.25 diskettes and Mac 3.5" diskettes, with this wise advice for REAL floppy diskettes:
"Luckily, there are other resources if you require something more complex, like accessing an 8-inch floppy drive that contains CP/M files. http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/s_drives_howto.html
Herb Johnson maintains an impressive site full of technical data on various floppy disk systems if you’d like to learn more about how they work."
http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/s_drives.html
I couldn't have said it better myself. ;) The real meat on floppy drives and diskettes is:
http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/drive.html
I was going to post a more considered response to the article Jeff linked to. But Jeff only posted a link, why should I post a lecture in reply?
Part of my charm is simplicity. It often inspires discussion. One thing I was hoping was for people to chime in on the fact that there are vintage computer enthusiasts that have the original machines and artifacts to retrieve from floppies instead of modern emulators and devices.
I'll just say, that description and the modern items it references, versus the ancient things it references; simply reminds me of the gulf between 21st century consumer-digital-users, and 20th century computer owners and those who restore those systems and objects today. And, the kinds of junk that's sold which pretends to be some kind of "USB to floppy drive" device. I'm glad to find, my Web site still has utility; and why that's so.
Well said Herb!
Regards, Herb
-- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT info
-- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey@vcfed.org
On Sat, 2 May 2020, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Part of my charm is simplicity. It often inspires discussion. One thing I was hoping was for people to chime in on the fact that there are vintage computer enthusiasts that have the original machines and artifacts to retrieve from floppies instead of modern emulators and devices.
In my opinion, any serious vintage computer hobbyist should have a dedicated "media" system for archiving data and creating new media for vintage systems. For my imaging system I'm using an Abit KV8PRO motherboard, with an Athlon CPU, onboard 10/100/1000 ethernet, 1 AGP 8X/4X slot, 5 PCI slots, SATA and IDE drive support, and 4 USB ports. The onboard floppy controller will handle all formats except 128 byte/sector MFM. I haven't run across anything yet that uses that format. I also have a Catweasel MK4+ for things that Dave Dunfields's IMD or the native floppy controller won't handle. I have the motherboard installed in a full size tower case, with lots of places to mount drives. I also installed a SCSI interface for lots of other drive options. For the moment, I have to recable the drives for different media. For 5-1/4", I connect the 360K and 1.2M drives. For 3-1/2" I have a 1.44M drive. For 8" I use a Tandon TM-848 DS drive in an external case, connected via a "D Bit" FDADAP adapter board. http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html On this system I mostly run Linux and FreeDOS. When using Imagedisk (IMD), I'll boot FreeDOS to read and write diskettes. To transfer the images to/from my server, I'll boot into Linux and mount the FreeDOS drive. I suppose I could try to get FreeDOS on the net, but I haven't bothered. I'm not into the older Apple GCR format diskettes, but the Catweasel will handle them if necessary. For my TRS-80 and CP/M work, this system handles just about anything I need. For some of the weird TRS-80 stuff, I can run David Keil's Model 1 or Model 4 emulator under FreeDOS and directly access the floppy drives. My point: use the right tool for the job. It's not difficult to put together a system to handle your media conversion needs, and you won't be dependent on other hobbyists for boot disks. Mike Loewen mloewen@cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
There are a number of newer tools, for imaging of disks, for preservation. I've been closely watching this one: http://cowlark.com/fluxengine/index.html The author is working on support for a lot of common formats, and additionally, a number of the 80s-90s dedicated word processor formats. It's a simple and rather nifty solution. Also, of course, it's 100% opens source hardware and software, which always makes me happy! - Alex On Sun, May 3, 2020 at 1:12 AM Mike Loewen via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
On Sat, 2 May 2020, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Part of my charm is simplicity. It often inspires discussion. One thing I was hoping was for people to chime in on the fact that there are vintage computer enthusiasts that have the original machines and artifacts to retrieve from floppies instead of modern emulators and devices.
In my opinion, any serious vintage computer hobbyist should have a dedicated "media" system for archiving data and creating new media for vintage systems. For my imaging system I'm using an Abit KV8PRO motherboard, with an Athlon CPU, onboard 10/100/1000 ethernet, 1 AGP 8X/4X slot, 5 PCI slots, SATA and IDE drive support, and 4 USB ports. The onboard floppy controller will handle all formats except 128 byte/sector MFM. I haven't run across anything yet that uses that format. I also have a Catweasel MK4+ for things that Dave Dunfields's IMD or the native floppy controller won't handle. I have the motherboard installed in a full size tower case, with lots of places to mount drives. I also installed a SCSI interface for lots of other drive options.
For the moment, I have to recable the drives for different media. For 5-1/4", I connect the 360K and 1.2M drives. For 3-1/2" I have a 1.44M drive. For 8" I use a Tandon TM-848 DS drive in an external case, connected via a "D Bit" FDADAP adapter board.
http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html
On this system I mostly run Linux and FreeDOS. When using Imagedisk (IMD), I'll boot FreeDOS to read and write diskettes. To transfer the images to/from my server, I'll boot into Linux and mount the FreeDOS drive. I suppose I could try to get FreeDOS on the net, but I haven't bothered.
I'm not into the older Apple GCR format diskettes, but the Catweasel will handle them if necessary. For my TRS-80 and CP/M work, this system handles just about anything I need. For some of the weird TRS-80 stuff, I can run David Keil's Model 1 or Model 4 emulator under FreeDOS and directly access the floppy drives.
My point: use the right tool for the job. It's not difficult to put together a system to handle your media conversion needs, and you won't be dependent on other hobbyists for boot disks.
Mike Loewen mloewen@cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
Have you found a path for this one to create IMD format? The format isn't perfect but that is what I have been using. I didn't find a way in my looking. On Mon, May 04, 2020 at 11:08:10AM -0400, Alexander Jacocks via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
There are a number of newer tools, for imaging of disks, for preservation.
I've been closely watching this one: http://cowlark.com/fluxengine/index.html
The author is working on support for a lot of common formats, and additionally, a number of the 80s-90s dedicated word processor formats. It's a simple and rather nifty solution.
Also, of course, it's 100% opens source hardware and software, which always makes me happy!
- Alex
On Sun, May 3, 2020 at 1:12 AM Mike Loewen via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
On Sat, 2 May 2020, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Part of my charm is simplicity. It often inspires discussion. One thing I was hoping was for people to chime in on the fact that there are vintage computer enthusiasts that have the original machines and artifacts to retrieve from floppies instead of modern emulators and devices.
In my opinion, any serious vintage computer hobbyist should have a dedicated "media" system for archiving data and creating new media for vintage systems. For my imaging system I'm using an Abit KV8PRO motherboard, with an Athlon CPU, onboard 10/100/1000 ethernet, 1 AGP 8X/4X slot, 5 PCI slots, SATA and IDE drive support, and 4 USB ports. The onboard floppy controller will handle all formats except 128 byte/sector MFM. I haven't run across anything yet that uses that format. I also have a Catweasel MK4+ for things that Dave Dunfields's IMD or the native floppy controller won't handle. I have the motherboard installed in a full size tower case, with lots of places to mount drives. I also installed a SCSI interface for lots of other drive options.
For the moment, I have to recable the drives for different media. For 5-1/4", I connect the 360K and 1.2M drives. For 3-1/2" I have a 1.44M drive. For 8" I use a Tandon TM-848 DS drive in an external case, connected via a "D Bit" FDADAP adapter board.
http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html
On this system I mostly run Linux and FreeDOS. When using Imagedisk (IMD), I'll boot FreeDOS to read and write diskettes. To transfer the images to/from my server, I'll boot into Linux and mount the FreeDOS drive. I suppose I could try to get FreeDOS on the net, but I haven't bothered.
I'm not into the older Apple GCR format diskettes, but the Catweasel will handle them if necessary. For my TRS-80 and CP/M work, this system handles just about anything I need. For some of the weird TRS-80 stuff, I can run David Keil's Model 1 or Model 4 emulator under FreeDOS and directly access the floppy drives.
My point: use the right tool for the job. It's not difficult to put together a system to handle your media conversion needs, and you won't be dependent on other hobbyists for boot disks.
Mike Loewen mloewen@cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
participants (5)
-
Alexander Jacocks -
David Gesswein -
Herb Johnson -
Jeffrey Brace -
Mike Loewen