On Thu, 12 Nov 2015, Tom Moss wrote: There is DITU (Disk-Image Transfer Utility) for MS-DOS, and it's free including C source code. I use it e.g. to image the hard disk of a DOS PC into a file (either network or parallel ZIP drive). ftp://ftp.oldskool.org/pub/misc/Hardware/IBM/PCjr%20magazines%20and%20resou… I've modified the program a bit to support retries and TurboC. Christian

On Thu, Nov 12, 2015 at 3:05 PM, Mouse <mouse at rodents-montreal.org> wrote: 10kb/s is about 800MB/day (rounded down), or roughly 1CD / day. Warner

I meant for the livecd to be on the usually-running-DOS machine. But see below. Of course, if you have the ability to add hardware, you might be able to pop an Ethernet in to the machine. But you specified serial.... Yes, if it's _that_ old, it may be difficult to find a livecd that will run. Perhaps minix? It also might be worth investigating to see if any of the [xyz]modem implementations would be willing to read directly from a disk. At 9600, assuming no loss to framing, error detection/correction, and the like, my arithmetic says 20MB should take a little over 6 hours. True enough. However, I _think_ some old Sun and MicroVAX machines play in that space; I've seen Qbus hardware that talks to drives with card-edge connectors and I've seen SCSI-to-cardedge interfaces on Suns of Sun-3/260 vintage. I don't know the details of ST506, ESDI, and all that, but it strikes me as at least _possible_ that something in that line might be able to help. /~\ The ASCII Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse at rodents-montreal.org / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B

On 11/12/15 4:00 PM, Mouse wrote: Not really. Sun used Adaptec 4000's for MFM and Emulex MD21 for ESDI DEC did its own thing, Emulex sold into that space with MFM/ESDI but with their own formats. Dave G's MFM emulator could read it, but just finding a serial block transfer program that can cope with bad sectors would probably be easiest. It wouldn't even be that difficult to write one if the system still knows about the disk geometry in the CMOS RAM and you can use BIOS calls.

On 11/12/2015 05:52 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote: Just lowest common denominator and based on what I have sitting around here (e.g. I don't have any MCA Ethernet boards, or ISA ones that will work on an 8 bit XT-type bus, only 16 bit). Hmm, I *might* know where there's one of those available - I'm not sure about cartridges, though (or if it's actually in working condition). The backup operation would certainly be quicker, and I am a bit concerned whether some of the old ST506/412 drives that I have will remain running for the length of time needed to do a serial transfer. My assumption there was that Interlink needs a newer version of DOS, and that some of these systems that I have may be incompatible, but maybe it's worth me putting that to the test. Yes, I'm sure - just figured I'd ask here as it seems like the sort of nut that will already have been cracked :-) Vintage PCs are just a pain - new enough to make significant use of hard disk technology, but old enough that getting the data off them isn't quite as trivial as it likely would be on a much newer machine. I do find them *just* interesting enough to make it worthwhile trying to create a snapshot of how they were used, though (compared to the Win95-and-newer age where it's all so incredibly dull) cheers Jules

On 11/13/2015 05:10 PM, Josh Dersch wrote: A couple of weeks ago, I dug out an old XT with a Quantum Q540 drive in it. It didn't want to start at first, but a couple of tapes on the side of the HDA caused the drive to spin up and come ready. Not wanting to tempt fate, I copied over the Interlink files from DOS 6.2 onto the XT system and booted a P3 system here running Win98SE and connected them with a Laplink parallel cable (I've still got a box of them). I think I ran interlnk on the XT and intersvr on the 98SE one (or maybe it was the reverse). At any rate I discovered that it was indeed possible to transfer files over even though the XT was running DOS 4.00 and the 98SE was running from a FAT32 partition. So yes, it can be done. Just in case, I also had a network card in the XT (an Artisoft AE/2T) and MSLANMAN ready. But I didn't need it. I do hope the Q540 will keep running for at least another decade, but if it doesn't, I've got the files backed up. I can always run it with an XTIDE card and a small CF card, if worse comes to worst. --Chuck

On Sat, 14 Nov 2015, Jules Richardson wrote: They, and those of other similar products, were 3 to 6 feet long. There is no special shielding requirement up to about 10 feet, or unless you have extreme electrical noise next to them. So, bring the two computers to within 10 feet of each other. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LapLink_cable Before MICROS~1 included an imitation in MS-DOS 6.00, . . . Traveling Software created "Laplink"

On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 5:08 PM, Jules Richardson < jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> wrote: Vintage PCs are ot my field of expertise, so just a random thought.. Could you put a 2nd disk drive in the machine, and copy the disk image to it? -- Charles

While my backup image files are far too large to consider an RS232 transfer (my backup image files are 1 GB), I would still suggest that if you are performing a backup of your entire drive (or just partition), Ghost is an excellent program to produce a compressed image file first. After that, you will have a relatively small file to transfer. There is probably one restriction that you may not realize at first glance. You will require at least TWO drives (or partitions). The compressed image file of the C: drive (or partition) must fit completely on the unused space of the second partition. Of course, for the best transfer rate, it is useful to have two physical drives and to compress the C: drive onto the second physical drive. After the backup is complete, you will be able to transfer a much smaller compressed image file to your remote system. Jerome Fine

A parallel port based solution is widely usable and portable too. A parallel port Zip drive with the PalmZip drivers will work even on an 8088 class machine. A Xircom PE3 Ethernet adapter will give you network access at speeds over 30KB/sec when on the slowest machines without even having to open the case.