Backing up ST506 disks

From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk_at_yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Mon Aug 4 05:49:01 2003

Hi all,

I'm just wondering how to back up the hard drive (a 20MB MFM) in my Research
Machines fileserver. The system runs CP/M, has a couple of floppy drives, and
the hard disk is hooked up to a Xebec controller with a SASI bus linking it to
the host controller in the fileserver.

There are actually two problems:

  1) Getting the data off the hard drive somehow (possibly via floppy) and
being able to read it on another system (ideally a PC I suppose)

  2) Being able to rebuild the system if/when the hard drive fails.

Thoughts on both are welcome! I don't have any kind of OS source media for the
system, and it wouldn't surprise me if it isn't the only survivor :-( Maybe
there are utilities on the system itself to recreate bootable OS media, but my
knowledge of CP/M is a little lacking!

For my old SCSI systems I tend to hold a raw block-by-block backup image of the
drive by putting the hard disk in a PC with Linux and dragging data off that
way. If the drive fails and I can't get an identical replacement, a slightly
larger drive still works with a little bit of wastage. Due to the relationship
between the controller and drive using ST506 I gather things are probably a
little more complex though...

cheers

Jules


=====
Backward conditioning: putting saliva in a dog's mouth in an attempt to make a bell ring.

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Received on Mon Aug 04 2003 - 05:49:01 BST

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