I have some old 5.25" floppies that I stored data on, from the 3b1 years ago. Presuming these are still readable (GRIN), is there a way with
FreeBee (or other tool/method) to get the data from them -- I can't even imagine how, as you'd need to get the drive (first) and use mtools, etc.
I don't think freebee yet can read an actually floppy drive, so as to other methods:create a readable image from a 3B1 floppy, but it *should* be doable.
1) Get a 3B1 ;-) and transfer the files off over a serial connection.
2) Get a 5.25" drive for a PC and use a floppy disk image creation tool. I have one under DOS on a machine from 1994 that lets you specify the sectors per track and other parameters. Last time I was messing with it (quite a while ago) I had yet to
3) Mail me the disks and I will make tar files for you, kermit them to my Pi 400, and put them up on Google Drive.
Cheers -- Peter
On Tuesday, February 23, 2021 at 5:13:48 PM UTC-5, Forrest Aldrich wrote:
I have some old 5.25" floppies that I stored data on, from the 3b1 years
ago. Presuming these are still readable (GRIN), is there a way with
FreeBee (or other tool/method) to get the data from them -- I can't even
imagine how, as you'd need to get the drive (first) and use mtools, etc.
Are there any Linux distributions that even support 5.25" disks LOLOhh yeah, I would assume there's plenty of support. =) Linux seems to support an amazing amount of h/w new and old.
accessible in FreeBee if you like.Are there any Linux distributions that even support 5.25" disks LOLOhh yeah, I would assume there's plenty of support. =) Linux seems to support an amazing amount of h/w new and old.
If you can dump the disk images, you should be able to access them in FreeBee. Raw disk images of 320k (8sec/trk), 360k (9sec/trk), and 400k (10sec/trk) should all be detected properly. If you can dump the images, I can help review getting them
Jesse
I have some old 5.25" floppies that I stored data on, from the 3b1 years
ago. Presuming these are still readable (GRIN), is there a way with
FreeBee (or other tool/method) to get the data from them -- I can't even imagine how, as you'd need to get the drive (first) and use mtools, etc.
Here's an idea, I wonder if I can dump the images from Linux if I can in
turn mount those same images under the OS then pull off the data?
In article <s1b4vt$g3q$1@gioia.aioe.org>,
Forrest Aldrich <forrie@forrie.com> wrote:
Here's an idea, I wonder if I can dump the images from Linux if I can in
turn mount those same images under the OS then pull off the data?
Assuming you weren't using the DOS filesystem support on the 3b1 you can't mount since stock Linux doesn't support the filesystem. There is a driver
you can build that does allow mounting. I was using it for hard
drive images but I think it works for floppies also. If I remember the install
disks are cpio archives without filesystem.
https://github.com/dgesswein/s4-3b1-pc7300
Since driver interface to Linux changes frequently it may be fiddly to get
it to work with any particular release.
You can image the disks with Linux but need to be careful. There is a large colletion of 3b1 10 sector disks around that only 9 sectors were read so useless.
The non Linux images tools seem to be a little easier to use.
If you are going to try this I can dig up my notes on how to do this under Linux. You will need a computer that still has a floppy port. Last I herd there was talk of dropping Linux floppy support but someone stepped up to be maintainer so its good for now.
There is (was) an open source tool called "mtools" which I recall using,
back in the day with the 3B1, to read other disks. It allows some forms
of tuning, etc., so it can read disks. It's been so long, I don't
recall the details -- but the source code must still be "out there" >somewhere.
In article <s23bt9$o97$1@gioia.aioe.org>,
Forrest Aldrich <forrie@forrie.com> wrote:
There is (was) an open source tool called "mtools" which I recall using,
back in the day with the 3B1, to read other disks. It allows some forms
of tuning, etc., so it can read disks. It's been so long, I don't
recall the details -- but the source code must still be "out there"
somewhere.
Still exists and says it will handle disks with more sectors. https://www.gnu.org/software/mtools/manual/mtools.html#more-sectors
Its in the packages for my Centos 8.
It will only work if the filesystem on the disk is DOS. If you used the native 3b1 filesystem it will not be able to extract the files.
If you made the disks the normal DOS format and number of sectors per track you can just mount them under Linux.
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