I need to copy a 5.25 floppy that is obsolete and copyrighted

[Pete Peck]

I need to copy a bootable 5.25 floppy that is obsolete and it boots an old CalCom graphics computer.
I have an old IBM XT but it won't read the floppy. I have contacted Kryoflux and are waiting to :huh:see if there system will work. Does anyone know a way to do this. Thanks, Pete

 

[Chuck(G)]

Is the floppy high-density (i.e. 1.2M) or low-density (i.e. 360K)?

XT's don't read 1.2M 5.25" floppies without third-party controllers and appropriate drives.

 

[commodorejohn]

If you have a PC with a reasonably functional floppy controller (i.e. anything made a few years ago or earlier,) you can just pop down to the local recycling center and grab a 5.25" drive to use for the job. Special software might be needed if it's not a DOS-format disk, but it should be anywhere from possible to easy.

 

[carlsson]

Apart from the density and format, you need to consider which kind of encoding this CalCom uses. Common variants:

FM - You need a PC with a decent FDC chip and matching drive. While the number of compatible computers are higher than what the rumour suggests, you may need to look around for a while to find the right combo.

MFM - Pretty much any PC compatible that handles 5.25" floppy disks will be capable of reading those floppy disks, even foreign formats.

GCR - You are probably out of luck unless you get a CatWeasel or similar competing custom flopy drive controller. Better hope this is not the case.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Do you mean Calcom or Calcomp? What's the model number of system?

 

[Pete Peck]

Pete Peck

Pete Peck

Do you mean Calcom or Calcomp? What's the model number of system?

Hello Chuck,

This CalComp Vistagraphic computer is a 4500. I need to know what format that they used for the floppy and also the operating sys. Would you know about that? I am getting close but need that info. Thanks, Pete

 

[barythrin]

You might consider contacting someone at the Arlington Museum of Technology who may know or have the equipment to help you. lol How'd you end up with one of these? Looks like a bigfoot evidence hunt searching for that thing.. ;-) From what little I gather it may have run linux, so the format of the floppy might be something proprietary or non dos compliant but I'm not seeing a large amount of obvious info out there.

 

[Chuck(G)]

The Vistagraphic 4500 Engineering Workstation dates from about 1984 (think something in the range of a Data General GW workstation or a Megatek Merlin) and was a high-end unit using a 68K CPU as a front-end to a custom bit-slice rendering engine. A beautiful piece of kit with a 1024x1280 display--it was a floor-standing unit.

Certainly not Linux--and maybe not even Unix.

Pete, if you want to discuss what might possibly be done, please drop me a private message (click on my name on this post) and let's see what can be done for you.

 

[Raven]

Apart from the density and format, you need to consider which kind of encoding this CalCom uses. Common variants:

FM - You need a PC with a decent FDC chip and matching drive. While the number of compatible computers are higher than what the rumour suggests, you may need to look around for a while to find the right combo.

MFM - Pretty much any PC compatible that handles 5.25" floppy disks will be capable of reading those floppy disks, even foreign formats.

GCR - You are probably out of luck unless you get a CatWeasel or similar competing custom flopy drive controller. Better hope this is not the case.

Doesn't the C64 use GCR? Isn't it feasible that you could use a 1541 hooked up to a PC via X-Cable to do read/write them if so, with some custom software?

 

[carlsson]

Well, if I recall correctly the Apple II also uses GCR and I'm quite sure the two computers can not be programmed to read eachother's floppy disks. In particular as the 1541 is an intelligent device, pretty much a computer of its own already programmed to understand its own format. It might be possible to hack or reprogram it to bypass decoding the raw data and thus degrade it to a dumb floppy drive but I don't quite know.

 

[billdeg]

The Vistagraphic 4500 Engineering Workstation dates from about 1984 (think something in the range of a Data General GW workstation or a Megatek Merlin) and was a high-end unit using a 68K CPU as a front-end to a custom bit-slice rendering engine. A beautiful piece of kit with a 1024x1280 display--it was a floor-standing unit.

Certainly not Linux--and maybe not even Unix.

Pete, if you want to discuss what might possibly be done, please drop me a private message (click on my name on this post) and let's see what can be done for you.

This would be a challenge. I hope you have success. Is it possibly a ucsd pascal system?

 

[Chuck(G)]

This would be a challenge. I hope you have success. Is it possibly a ucsd pascal system?

Not from what I know. This was very high-performance graphics for 1984.

 

[DrTune]

{I PM'd this to original poster}
Do you still need this disk copied? The Kryoflux will literally copy anything on any floppy disk, I know cos I designed the hw.
The software right now isn't necessarily set up to handle your specific disk but it can be.

Either myself or the kryoflux team can almost certainly help you out if you still need help.


Cheers,
Rich Aplin

 

[mgrambush]

I work for an airline that is still using Vistagraphics 4500 to control the instructors operating systems for a few of our older simulators. We can generate IPL floppies. Let me know if your still interested.