• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Floppy advice or suggestions

B

bettablue

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2011
Messages
1,647
Location
Eugene, OR
I have been working on getting data transferred over to my IBM for some time. I’ve attempted to connect my IBM 5150 PC directly to my primary Windows 7 PC’s shared drive, but without any programming to access the files, there is no way to determine if my connection is working. Then there is the Intel 8/16 LAN adapter. I have brought this up on several occasions, but still don’t have a complete resolution, and even if we did, there is no software on my IBM to verify if the connection is working properly. Finally, I have built no less than 4 different “Tweener” computers to use as a storage base, and for writing floppy disks for use in the IBM PC. All of the Tweeners used the same 5 1/4” DSDD floppy disk drive which was swapped from one computer, to another, to another and so on. At first the drive seemed to work fine to load and read from diskettes I already had, but by the time I finally got some blank diskettes, the drive seemed to balk at doing anything regarding writing to these diskettes. I even went so far as to try another source of blank diskettes. All proved to be the same with that drive. However, the diskettes seem to be fine when used in the dual floppy drives in my 5150 PC. :-(

There is one idea I was wondering about. Can I install another floppy controller that is capable of running a 3.5" 1.44 Meg floppy drive, even temporarily? Do you have any other thoughts as to something I can try?

:!: I think my BEST option though is to just purchase another beige 5.25” 360Kb DDSD floppy drive. Searching E-Bay turned up a few, but I know I’ll probably do better by buying from someone here. I will gladly pay for shipping, and can even send a pre-paid UPS shipping label via email so if someone does have a floppy drive, I will make it as simple as possible. I'm really leaning in that direction. If I can buy another drive that has been tested and known to work properly, I think I'll be much better off. And, it will be a much simpler solution as well!

As always, if any of you have any suggestions at all, please reply to this thread.

Thanks much.
 
You might need to clean the tweener's floppy drive heads. I always find that old, 360k diskettes tend to be flakey at some point when you try to use lots of them. Sooner or later one or more *will* foul the drive's heads and that requires a cleaning diskette. I also think that is the easiest/simplest way to transfer data to your 5150. OTOH, you can use Laplink if the tweener has a serial or parallel port. It's also quite simple and you won't have to beat your head against the wall, either. You really don't need a permanent connection to the 5150. You only need to connect when you want to add some software to it.
 
I have an old Iomega ZIP drive that runs off of the PC parallel port. That may be a good method, too.

Just a thought...

smp
 
Stone said:
OTOH, you can use Laplink if the tweener has a serial or parallel port. It's also quite simple and you won't have to beat your head against the wall, either.
Click to expand...
I think he enjoys it; Interlink/Laplink have been suggested several times but it doesn't sound like he ever actually tried it; he seems to prefer the frustration of dealing with diskettes or network cards/drivers/etc... ;-)

I haven't tried Laplink in years; do the later versions map the remote drives (and printers) to local ones as Interlink does, or is it still just a nice file copy program?
 
Chuck(G) said:
If you want to go vintage, I have a package called "The $25 Network" that I used many years ago. You have to be DOS on both ends--and (I think) it uses serial I/O. There's an image online and a mention of it here.
Click to expand...
I've still got a few different packages and even used 'em back in the day; the one I used most was 'Little big Lan', which might actually be your '$25 Network' after Caranet bought it and raised the price ;-). Some others were AlsoLan and Lantastic and even remote control packages like Carbon Copy, PC Anywhere, etc., but not all of them ran on 8088s.

But for just two computers I still prefer parallel-port Interlink.
 
MikeS said:
I've still got a few different packages and even used 'em back in the day; the one I used most was 'Little big Lan', which might actually be your '$25 Network' after Caranet bought it and raised the price ;-).
Click to expand...

Is that what happened to Imodes? I still remember them as being "Drawer something in Denton, Texas".
 
Chuck(G) said:
Is that what happened to Imodes? I still remember them as being "Drawer something in Denton, Texas".
Click to expand...
Some mentions on the 'net seem to suggest that; ISTR that it was distributed the same way, a PO box in a suburb of Toronto. Worked well, and cheap as I recall; will have to dig it out again some day.
 
I do have a 100 Meg Iomega zip disk and a zip diskette that has been partitioned into 3 32 Meg partitions. But I still need a way to get the software to access the zip drive onto the IBM computer! Unless someone has a copy that works... But i don't want to go behind the back of whoever owns the software copywright. There is a software on modem 7's site for using the zip drive on a parallel port. They want $10.00. The software engineers have limitted it's use somehow.

But if someone has some software already on a 360Kb floppy disk they would be willing to send me, Please send me a PM an we'll discuss it.

Thank you



smp said:
I have an old Iomega ZIP drive that runs off of the PC parallel port. That may be a good method, too.

Just a thought...

smp
Click to expand...
 
bettablue said:
There is a software on modem 7's site for using the zip drive on a parallel port. They want $10.00. The software engineers have limitted it's use somehow.
Click to expand...
Clarification: My web site doesn't have the palmZIP software - it simply points to the author's web site. The version of palmZIP available for download at the author's web site is a demo one:

Limitations of this demo:
- About half a minute of delay during the boot process
- Operation is limited to 7 minutes. The machine will have to be rebooted to regain access to the Zip-drive.
- The licenced driver will be only about 3 KByte in size!

On purchase of the software, unrestricted (and serialised) software will be emailed out.
 
So you presently don't have any means to transfer software to your DOS machine.

A week or two ago, you were purchasing a serial header for the motherboard in your Windows 7 machine (to give your machine a serial port). And you have a serial Laplink cable that I provided. Therefore, you should be able to run the procedure at [here] to transfer files from your Windows 7 machine to your DOS machine.

The procedure uses Laplink 3, but you don't need to have that on your DOS machine because the procedure is such that it will be downloaded to the DOS machine via the serial Laplink cable. It's all explained in the procedure.
 
modem7 said:
So you presently don't have any means to transfer software to your DOS machine.

A week or two ago, you were purchasing a serial header for the motherboard in your Windows 7 machine (to give your machine a serial port). And you have a serial Laplink cable that I provided. Therefore, you should be able to run the procedure at [here] to transfer files from your Windows 7 machine to your DOS machine.

The procedure uses Laplink 3, but you don't need to have that on your DOS machine because the procedure is such that it will be downloaded to the DOS machine via the serial Laplink cable. It's all explained in the procedure.
Click to expand...

Sadly, there is no serial header for my Windows 7 machine. At least not any longer. But I may also have some other things going that will negate that requirement. I'm seriously thinking about one of the Backpack drives that Chuck has. I'm also getting a replacement floppy drive from k2. As you stated here too... The laplink3 is still one more option with the cable I got from you. One or more of these will do the job. Maybe all of them will. And that is one more reason I completely rebuilt a new tweener/vintage gaming machine.

With the tweener, another option available is to try connecting the 5150 via the serial cable and Laplink, which you gave me a while ago. I 'll try that later today. Laplink 3 is still on one of the disks I have, so I'll try is and let you know what happens. Sheesh! My 5150 is on a portable desk... The instructions on your site say to install DOSBox. Can I run it from the version of DOS that comes with Windows 98? Do I have to use DOS Box? The reason I ask is because of my money situation. I'm going to be spending money one way or another. The other issue is that neither Com 1 nor Com 2 are 9 pin serial ports. Can I use a 9 pin to 25 pin adapter? Other than that, I'm back to square one again until I can somehow test the dual 9 pin card I have installed in the expansion unit.

Finally, I am going to try opening the Teac drive in my tweener to see if it might be dirty, or if it's even turning. From the sounds it's making, it seems as though it's either having trouble with the seek, or getting the drive to spin.

By the way modem. Thanks for the clarification on the palmzip software. That has also been one more option for me to use, once I got my machine working the way I expected it to.
One way, or another, I'll have something working within a few days. And that again is all thanks to all of you.

Thanks everyone. I'll let you know what finally happens.
 
bettablue said:
With the tweener, another option available is to try connecting the 5150 via the serial cable and Laplink, which you gave me a while ago. I 'll try that later today. Laplink 3 is still on one of the disks I have, so I'll try is and let you know what happens.
Click to expand...
Laplink has limitations.

First, one has to use the same version of Laplink on both computers.

Next, if there is a significant difference between the 'speed' of each machine, then timeout errors will occur. For example, if I connect my 6 MHz 5170 up to my 486DX-66 clone, they won't communicate until I use the turbo button to drop the 486DX-66 down to 8 MHz. So, you may need to use the turbo button on your 'tweener'.

bettablue said:
Sheesh! My 5150 is on a portable desk... The instructions on your site say to install DOSBox. Can I run it from the version of DOS that comes with Windows 98? Do I have to use DOS Box?
Click to expand...
DOSBox is not a DOS progam. The instructions have one install it on the Windows 7 machine only. It allows Laplink 3 to be used in Windows 7. Also, because the 'speed' of DOSBox can be controlled, the 'speed' of Laplink running in DOSBox can be reduced to make compatible with the 'speed' of Laplink running on the 5150.
 
facepalm.jpg

(Thanks, Chuck ;-)
 
Thanks to a few members here, my tweener is finally complete. With CD/DVD reader writer, 3.5" floppy, 5 1/4" floppy, 100 Meg Zip drive, and USB support the computer has everything I need to bring data to it from my Windows 7 computer. And because I have a good replacement for my 360Kb floppy drive, and one of the Back Pack drives I purchased from Chuck, I have a couple of methods of bringing data from the Gateway to my IBM 5150 system. So far everything seems to be working. I'm able to write some floppy disks for use in the 5150's main system, and have brought over some programs. Now, I think I'll upgrade the version of DOS I'm running on the IBM.

Thanks everyone! It looks lkike I'm fully functioonal at last!
 
Today was a great day for Alice and me. Alice being my IBM 5150 system. The 3.5" 1.44 Meg Back-Pack drive I purchased from Chuck installed perfectly. But not until after I took some advice and got rid of my current install of DOS and installed DOS 3.3. The drive installed smoothly, and because of all of my other drives, now shows up as drive E. Moving data is quick and easy too.

So, again, I take my hat off and bow to Chuck for getting me out of one of the last hurdles.

I'm pretty much done with all of the other configurations the system needed. The replacement network adapter works great for accessing the network, but I'm still experiencing problems with communications and protocols. (The replacement is the exact same card as the one I was working with earlier, but this one seems to actually be working. At least the two green LEDs are flashing, occasionally. So, yeah, there is still a little bit more work to do. All of the serial and parallel ports are working as expected, with no errors. The loopback testing confirmed that. And finally, Alice is playing some games, and working with me on some documentation I'm writing for my web page, www.allthingsdos.com.

Thanks to everyone here too for all of your assistance. Without you, my dream computer would still be just that; a dream.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top