8" floppy project

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Mon Aug 9 16:46:36 2004

> > > also try AnaDisk to analyse foreign disks, both programs can be
> > > found everywhere on the net.
> >
> > Only if you happen to run an MS-DOS PC.
> >
>
> Not to start a flame-war, but we're talking about methods using various
> equipment to archive and/or analyze foreign diskettes. 'Running an

AFAIK, Teledisk only handles 'standard' disk controllers. It wouldn't
work with a Catweasel card, for example. Which immediately limits the
disks it can be used with.

> MS-DOS machine' amounts to having one somewhere in the shop you can use
> for this kind of specialized work. If you detest Microsoft, use DR-DOS
> or FreeDOS or any of the alternatives. Obviously nobody (or barely
> anybody) 'runs' an MS-DOS machine as a primary workstation in this day
> and age. It would make sense, though, to recognize that a machine like
> that is useful for a few occasional purposes and not 'boycott' them for
> some high-and-holy reason.

So what happens in 20 years time when you want to recover the data from
one of these Teledisk archive files, and when there are no suitable PCs
left running (PC hardware is notoriosuly badly docuemnted and therefore
difficult to maintain -- have you ever seen official schematics to a PC
later than a 286?). Sorry, but if I want to achive data, I want the
format of the archive to be fully documented so that I can recover it on
whatever machine I have access to.

-tony
Received on Mon Aug 09 2004 - 16:46:36 BST