24 May
2006
24 May
'06
3:01 a.m.
Al Kossow aek at bitsavers.org wrote on Tue May 23 18:55:07 CDT 2006:
Someone might consider putting a list up somewhere of people willing/able
to read old media, including info on fees, capabilities and location.
I can read and write 9-track 800/1600/6250 (multiple drives to verify on)
all soft-sectored floppies, 3480, CompacTapes (TK50 and TK70),
QIC 24/60/120/150/250/525/1.35/2000, DLT III/IIIxt/IV, Exabytes and DDS1/2/4.
I also have a 9-track tape cleaning machine, but I don't attempt the
"baking"
tricks--if the tape sticks after cleaning, I don't attempt any further.
I do this for free for hobbyists and occasional few tapes from desperate
small businesses; not particularly interested in business-level conversions.
I'm located in Minneapolis; turnaround is pretty much immediate, but return
shipping and the cost of my surplus media (if used) should be prepaid (paypal
works for me too) if the media is wanted back. Otherwise I can make the
imaging available over the 'net.
I can provide CPTP/TAP, SIMH, E11, TPC imaged tapes; teledisk, imagedisk or
raw/dsk files for floppies; straight disk dumps for any kind of SCSI or
IDE drive. I also specialize in hard-disk Morrow Micro Decision and Kaypro
machines.
Please consider this an offering of my services moving forward. Hobbyists
needing help in media conversion to electronic form can contact me at
staylor at smedley DoT mrynet DoT com
Best regards,
-scott
Al, this is
tall Dave I'm talking about.
I can take care of them for him. 
24 May
24 May
4:57 a.m.
On 5/23/2006 at 10:01 PM staylor at mrynet.com wrote:
all soft-sectored floppies,
Scott, that's a pretty tall claim! How are you at Durango 850 100 tpi GCR
floppies? How about 3.25" Dysan floppies?
Cheers,
Chuck
25 May
25 May
1 a.m.
>all soft-sectored floppies,
On Tue, 23 May 2006, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Scott, that's a pretty tall claim! How are you at
Durango 850 100 tpi GCR
floppies? How about 3.25" Dysan floppies?
I used to say "MOST" soft-sectored floppies. Now, I'm not even sure of
that.
I do have 3" and 3.25" drives and a bunch of diskettes, but they're no
longer easily accessible.
Howzbout:
Victor 9000 (aka Sirius)
Some Commodore formats
Drivetec / Kodak high density 5.25"
3.5" TRS-80 model 100 Portable drive I
Proctology
Ensoniq Mirage was fun (mixed sector sizes)
Amiga is awkward to do without special hardware (MFM, but not WD style
headers)
2.5"
2.9"
3.9"
RE-WRITING to Epson Geneva PX-8 is awkward (67.5 TPI)
The AMlyn drive was capable of a few weirdities
1:24 a.m.
On 5/24/2006 at 6:00 PM Fred Cisin wrote:
I used to say "MOST" soft-sectored floppies.
Now, I'm not even sure of
that.
I do have 3" and 3.25" drives and a bunch of diskettes, but they're no
longer easily accessible.
Howzbout:
Victor 9000 (aka Sirius)
Gutless wonder floppy controller.
Some Commodore formats
Drivetec / Kodak high density 5.25"
Which one? I can read both the 3 and 6.4MB versions. Wish I knew how to
format them, though--it's that darned embedded servo thing.
3.5" TRS-80 model 100 Portable drive I
Proctology
Ensoniq Mirage was fun (mixed sector sizes)
Reprised in the IBM XDF floppy. Try to read one in a USB drive...
Amiga is awkward to do without special hardware (MFM,
but not WD style
headers)
2.5"
2.9"
Or 2.8"
3.9"
RE-WRITING to Epson Geneva PX-8 is awkward (67.5 TPI)
The AMlyn drive was capable of a few weirdities
You forgot the Insite 21MB floppy--or does that not count as "soft
sectored"?
Cheers,
Chuck
1:31 a.m.
On Wed, 24 May 2006, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Drivetec /
Kodak high density 5.25"
Which one? I can read both the 3 and 6.4MB versions.
Wish I knew how to
format them, though--it's that darned embedded servo thing. You forgot the Insite 21MB floppy--or does that not
count as "soft
sectored"?
I would count it, but, some might not.
even 2.8M would be an obstacle with most stock hardware.
It was definitely NOT intended as an exhaustive list.
D'ya want a few boxes of miscellaneous problem disks?
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
2:01 a.m.
On 5/24/2006 at 6:31 PM Fred Cisin wrote:
It was definitely NOT intended as an exhaustive list.
Everytime I think about it, I come up with a few more screwball formats,
like Multitech and Future Data.
D'ya want a few boxes of miscellaneous problem
disks?
Nope--got my own collection. What is interesting are the proprietary "one
off" OS-es used on some. Everything from the ridiculously simple to the
insanely complex in the way they allocated and stored files.
Cheers,
Chuck
2:10 a.m.
New subject: Screwball disk formats
On Wed, 24 May 2006, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Everytime I think about it, I come up with a few more
screwball formats,
like Multitech and Future Data.
I had left instructions for my collection to go to Don Maslin when I blue
screen. Now, I don't know what to change that to.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
http://www.xenosoft.com/fmts.html
D'ya want a few boxes of miscellaneous problem
disks?
Nope--got my own collection. What is interesting are the proprietary
"one
off" OS-es used on some. Everything from the ridiculously simple to the
insanely complex in the way they allocated and stored files. 
9:08 a.m.
New subject: Don Maslin collection was:Re: Screwball disk formats
At 07:10 PM 5/24/06 -0700, Grumpy Ol' Fred wrote:
On Wed, 24 May 2006, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Speaking of Don. Does anyone know what finally became of his collection?
Joe
Everytime I think about it, I come up with a few
more screwball formats,
like Multitech and Future Data.
I had left instructions for my collection to go to Don Maslin when I blue
screen. Now, I don't know what to change that to. D'ya want a few boxes of miscellaneous problem
disks?
Nope--got my own collection. What is interesting are the proprietary
"one
off" OS-es used on some. Everything from the ridiculously simple to the
insanely complex in the way they allocated and stored files. 
3:23 p.m.
New subject: Planning for eventual disposal of collection
At 7:10 PM -0700 5/24/06, Fred Cisin wrote:
I had left instructions for my collection to go to Don
Maslin when I blue
screen. Now, I don't know what to change that to.
This is an important consideration that not enough of us think about.
My instructions are outdated as well. The person that was supposed
to be contacted about my computer collection if anything happened to
me has left the state, and the hobby.
Actually anyone with specific collections that they want to be
disposed of in a certain way need to think about this, and leave
instructions on how to dispose of the collection. Even if this is
nothing more than a list that says, "do yourself a favor and put
these items on eBay". Make sure everyone that needs to, knows this
info, or at least where to get it.
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
3:57 a.m.
On 5/25/06, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote:
I used to say "MOST" soft-sectored floppies.
Now, I'm not even sure of
that.
I do have 3" and 3.25" drives and a bunch of diskettes, but they're no
longer easily accessible.
Howzbout:
Some Commodore formats
Yeah... GCR, variable number sectors per track (4 zones, typically)...
The only C=
drive I can think of that used a WD-style chip was the 3.5" 1581. The
best solution
I know of is to interface vintage C= drives to modern hardware
(IEEE-488 and/or IEC
bus) - let the C= hardware do the hard work.
Ensoniq Mirage was fun (mixed sector sizes)
No kidding - I have a Mirage - wish I could easily backup/recreate disks.
-ethan
27 May
27 May
10:53 a.m.
On Thu, 2006-05-25 at 15:57 +1200, Ethan Dicks wrote:
There is a tool on Rainer Buchty's website that lets you create SQ80
disks. You can modify it.
There is also MREAD.EXE and MWRITE.EXE, but they require DOS.
Gordon.
Ensoniq Mirage
was fun (mixed sector sizes)
No kidding - I have a Mirage - wish I could easily backup/recreate disks. 
25 May
25 May
9:17 p.m.
I used to say "MOST" soft-sectored floppies.
Now, I'm not even sure of
that.
[...]
RE-WRITING to Epson Geneva PX-8 is awkward (67.5 TPI)
Presumably you mean the disks used in a PF-10 (the PX8 can use the TF20
drive, which is a pair of normal 40-cylinder 5.25" drives).
If you have a working PF10, you could talk to it from a PC serial port
(the interface is asynchronous, RS232 levels, 38400 baud).
Talking of oddball floppies (and Epson), I haev, somewhere, an Epson
thing about the size of the TF20, but labelled BM-5 (IIRC). It contains a
single 5.25" drive. Now for the odd part. The cables to that drive look
like ST412 _hard_ drive cables (i.e. a 34 pin and a 20 pin connector).
The controller board, which has a parallel interface connector back to
the host (pesumably it goes with some special I/O card for a QX10 that I
don't have) has a hard disk controller chipset on it. But the drive sure
looks like an overcomplicated floppy drive.
What do I have here, and what sort of disks does it use?
-tony
9:56 p.m.
On Thu, 25 May 2006, Tony Duell wrote:
Alas, I don't have one, but I do have some 67.5 TPI 3.5" drives.
RE-WRITING to
Epson Geneva PX-8 is awkward (67.5 TPI)
Presumably you mean the disks used in a
PF-10 (the PX8 can use the TF20
drive, which is a pair of normal 40-cylinder 5.25" drives).
If you have a working PF10, you could talk to it from a PC serial port
(the interface is asynchronous, RS232 levels, 38400 baud). Talking of oddball floppies (and Epson), I haev,
somewhere, an Epson
thing about the size of the TF20, but labelled BM-5 (IIRC). It contains a
single 5.25" drive. Now for the odd part. The cables to that drive look
like ST412 _hard_ drive cables (i.e. a 34 pin and a 20 pin connector).
The controller board, which has a parallel interface connector back to
the host (pesumably it goes with some special I/O card for a QX10 that I
don't have) has a hard disk controller chipset on it. But the drive sure
looks like an overcomplicated floppy drive.
What do I have here, and what sort of disks does it use?
I don't know. But somewhere, I have a similar unit from NEC!
26 May
26 May
3:29 a.m.
On 5/25/2006 at 10:17 PM ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk wrote:
Isn't this just what's laid down by a standard Sony 0AD-1 floppy drive?
(600 RPM, IIRC and the original 3.5" drive, not the 300 RPM nonsense that
we now have).
I used to say
"MOST" soft-sectored floppies. Now, I'm not even sure of
that.
[...]
> RE-WRITING to Epson Geneva PX-8 is awkward (67.5 TPI) Talking of oddball floppies (and Epson), I haev,
somewhere, an Epson
thing about the size of the TF20, but labelled BM-5 (IIRC). It contains a
single 5.25" drive. Now for the odd part. The cables to that drive look
like ST412 _hard_ drive cables (i.e. a 34 pin and a 20 pin connector).
The controller board, which has a parallel interface connector back to
the host (pesumably it goes with some special I/O card for a QX10 that I
don't have) has a hard disk controller chipset on it. But the drive sure
looks like an overcomplicated floppy drive.
What do I have here, and what sort of disks does it use?
Does the floppy have two positioner motors (one coarse, one fine)? If so,
maybe what you've got is a Drivetek drive. But Fred would recognize one of
those, so it must not be that.
Cheers,
Chuck
10:02 p.m.
Talking of
oddball floppies (and Epson), I haev, somewhere, an Epson
thing about the size of the TF20, but labelled BM-5 (IIRC). It contains a
single 5.25" drive. Now for the odd part. The cables to that drive look
like ST412 _hard_ drive cables (i.e. a 34 pin and a 20 pin connector).
The controller board, which has a parallel interface connector back to
the host (pesumably it goes with some special I/O card for a QX10 that I
don't have) has a hard disk controller chipset on it. But the drive sure
looks like an overcomplicated floppy drive.
What do I have here, and what sort of disks does it use?
Does the floppy have two positioner motors (one coarse, one fine)? If so, maybe what you've got is a Drivetek drive. But
Fred would recognize one of
I am, however, pretty sure the drive mechanism was made by Epson.
those, so it must not be that.
-tony
24 May
24 May
5:51 a.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "User Staylor" <staylor at mrynet.com>
To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 5:01 AM
Subject: Reading old tapes
Al Kossow aek at bitsavers.org wrote on Tue May 23
18:55:07 CDT 2006:
Someone might consider putting a list up somewhere of people willing/able
to read old media, including info on fees, capabilities and location.
I've offered the same service some time in the past, but I can't remember
any reactions.
I am located in Denmark. Also free/minimal charge for hobbyists, but fees
for commercial users.
As the capabilities change regularly (new drives, old drives scrapped /
ruined, etc), it could be relevant with a list containing just the name,
location, and fees (where relevant).
I would be happy to add a special page to my website to give that info. The
page could also contain links to the "supplier"s website, where details
could be found on which things he/she is able to handle.
I'll start the page next week
Nico
Al, this
is tall Dave I'm talking about.
I can take care of them for him.
6800
days inactive
6803
days old
15 comments
9 participants
participants (9)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
cclist＠sydex.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
gordon＠gjcp.net -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
nico＠farumdata.dk -
rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com -
staylor＠mrynet.com