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8" floppy archiving...

PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 8:52 am
by nama
Hi all,
I believe I now have a setup that can archive 8" (5.25" and 3.5") floppy disks, and that spits out a .IMD image file.

It's a been something I've been struggling to build/setup for years now, and this is actually the third PC I've tried to get this working on...wasn't as easy as it seems, as some specific hardware is needed.

Last weekend I finally achieved my goal, and was able to backup my 8" CP/M SOL-20 floppies. For some reason my IMSAI 8080 8" floppies were not able to be archived, but I think that has something to do with malformed disks from misaligned heads on the IMSAI drive. Still trying to figure that one out though.

Anyway...So if you have an 8" floppy that REALLY REALLY needs archiving, and you know all the formatting details (e.g. total # of tracks, SS or DS, SD or DD, interleaving, single set double step etc.) then maybe I can help.

I don't want to be inundated with floppies as it's not a service I really want to waste too much of my time on, but if you believe the disk is irreplaceable, and needs archiving, then I can probably help.

Phil

Re: 8" floppy archiving...

PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 9:35 am
by tezza
Very cool Phil. Setting up a system to image an 8 inch drive is a project I was thinking of tackling myself sometime....a long way down the track though.

I do have 8 inch floppies for my Panasonic JD-850M. I'm sure they are probably the only ones in existence, and should be imaged for posterity. It's not urgent, but sometime in the next few months I'll check on the specs and maybe touch base....

Re: 8" floppy archiving...

PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 10:21 am
by nama
Great!
The specs for my machine are pretty basic, although finding a suitable machine was a challenge, and as I mentioned, I tried a few PC's before I found one that worked. The specific specs for my setup is:

- 486 DX266 with ISA running Dave Dunfield's ImageDisk in DOS.
- D-Bit 8" floppy adaptor FDADAP (http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html)
- Adaptec AHA1522A : A VERY versatile ISA FDC...highly recommended.
- NEC dual 8" drive

Let me know what you want to do, as I could try to image those disks for you if you wanted me to try. Although there is always the risk of damage through shipping.

Phil

P.S. An a side note, it's been really fun playing with this old DOS box, and loading up some original DOS games like Doom. I was using Mac's from 85' onwards, so I never really got to use DOS back in the day. Having spent some time with CP/M over the past few years, this has really help me understand DOS better.