non-PC Floppy imaging

[Dave Wade]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Guy
> Sotomayor via cctalk
> Sent: 05 January 2018 19:53
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Subject: non-PC Floppy imaging
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I now have a number of uCode diskettes for my IBM 4331.  I would somehow
> like to image them so:
> a) I have backups in case the floppies themselves go bad
> b) be able to investigate their contents in case I have to “merge” the
> contents of multiple floppies to
>      make a single good one
> 
> These are all 8” diskettes.
> 
> The complicating factors in all of this are:
> a) any text (e.g. strings) are going to be in EBCDIC rather than ASCII
> b) each uCode diskette was presumably serialized to the CPU it was for
> c) not sure what the “on-disk” structure looks like
> d) the only 8” diskette drives that I have are in IBM (non-PC) equipment
> 
> Any ideas/comments would be welcome.
> 

IBM invented the 8" floppy disk format. Generally their disks follow the standard 3740 format.  I would try that first.

https://ub.fnwi.uva.nl/computermuseum/diskettes.html


> Thanks.
> 
> TTFN - Guy

Dave