Archiving Software

Dave Dunfield wrote: Nah. ImageDisk isn't a Universal Solvent for this problem, but then it's a Hard Problem. BTW, belated thanks for your answers to my questions about ImageDisk on my previous go-round with it on HP150 stiffies. I haven't had time to poke at ImageDisk again, but the answer I took to heart was that the implementation of the PC floppy-disk system is sufficiently variable that reading HP150 stiffies isn't reliable across its whole range. So rather than try to build a workable configuration out of PC hardware, I figured I'd have more fun using classic hardware that was intended to be able to read HP150 stiffies, and that got me working on an HP Portable Plus and 9114B with which I am having some more success. And yeah, on my last go-round I was thinking it'd be nice to be able to read the source to find out what some of the messages I was seeing meant. They aren't in the printable documentation that comes in the archive, and it's hard to get at the built-in help when ImageDisk is busy chugging through the rest of the disk! But it's your code, you release it when you're ready. I don't have time to look at it right now, and might regret a promise to not use what I learn from it in code I might get around to writing someday. ... As an aside, it had crossed my mind to use the Portable Plus and 9114B to build ImageDisk-format image files, but looking at the Portable Plus Technical Reference, there's no well-documented way to read sectors from an HP-IL-attached disk. Bummer! -Frank McConnell