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Data General/One

natcha

Experienced Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2011
Messages
195
Today, a friend gave me a Data General/One computer. It came with the case, plenty of manuals and some disks.

I turned it on and at first wasn't sure it was working at all. Then, with carefully looking at the screen, I could barely make out some text. From what I read, the screens were never very good on these computers. With it being this bad, I know I won't be using this computer much. My eyesight isn't that great to start with.

Bit I do want to archive the disks and make pdf's of all the documentation in case someone else wants them.

I have the following:

Owner’s Manual
Pocket Reference

MS-DOS (3-Ring Binder) with following:
Guide to MS-DOS
MS-DOS Programmer’s Reference Manual (System Calls)
3.5” Disk: MS-DOS Ver 2.11 Rev 1.10

GW-BASIC for use with MS-DOS (3-Ring Binder) with following:
Guide to GW-Basic
3.5” Disk: GW-Basic Interpreter Rev 2.02

CBASIC Compiler Language Reference Manual (3-Ring Binder) with
3.5” Disk: CBASIC Complier Rev 2.10 MS-DOS

CP/M-86 Operating System (3-Ring Binder) with following:
CP/M-86 User’s Guide
CP/M-86 Operating System Guide
CP/M-86 Operating System Programmer’s Guide
3.5” Disk: CP/M-86 Rev 1.10

Word Star for MS-DOS with following:
Reference Manual
Installation Manual and Training Guide
3.5” Disk: Wordstar Ver 3.30 with Wordstar Tutor Ver 3.32

Two 3.5” Disks:
Disk 1 of 2: MS-DOS Rev 2.11
Disk 2 or 2: How to Use your Data Genera/One


NOTE: All manuals and Disks are Specific to Data General/One.


The scanning part is no problem, since I have a high speed document scanner.

Which image program should I use to create images of the disks?
I have a notebook computer that has a 3.5" drive and runs Windows 95.
What software should I use with Win85?


Thanks,

Bill
Smithville, NJ
 
Nice catch. Yes, the early LCD display on the DG/One was downright awful. I passed the machine up for just that reason. But it does hold a special place as one of the first clamshell laptops.
 
Just a quick follow-up.

Neither of the floppy drives will power up. So no way to boot the system up.
I may try opening it up to see if I can get at least one drive working.

The post screen says it as 484K of memory, so I'm guessing it has the max the
system would take.

I am unable to image the disks. For some reason, the imaging programs I tried
either doesn't like win95, or when they do run, they give an error when accessing
the floppy drive.

Maybe someone here could help me get these imaged for archival purposes.

Plus, does anyone have a working DG/One system that they could test the
floppies on?

Thanks,

Bill
Smithville, NJ
 
I seem to recall that the drives in the DG/One were 720K (96 tpi) floppies. If you've got a desktop "tweener" with a 1.2M 5.25" drive, ImageDisk should work quite well--but if you're using Win9x, shut down to MS-DOS before running IMD.
 
What imaging tools did you try to use? On a Win9x PC, ImageDisk is probably your best bet.

I've tried RAREAD, RAWRITE for Win, Winimage. I know I have used RAWRITE before to create disks.

I think the problem may be that the system I'm using is a OB-600C which has an external drive that plugs into a special port on the rear of the notebook. I'm thinking that the disk image tools attempt to directly control a Floppy disk controller which the OB-600C doesn't have.

I'll give ImageDisk a try.

Bill
Smithville, NJ
 
ImageDisk won't work either--you need a real FDC on the system. In this case, if you've got the right drive, even a PC XT will do, as the disks are recorded in double density.
 
ImageDisk won't work either--you need a real FDC on the system. In this case, if you've got the right drive, even a PC XT will do, as the disks are recorded in double density.

Thanks Chuck - That's what I thought. Unfortunately, I don't have any other computers with floppy drive.
I've been trimming down since we plan on moving next year to a lot smaller place.

Bill
Smithville, NJ
 
Are any of Data General DOS images available online? I just bought DG One Model 2, but it did not include any diskettes.
 
Are any of Data General DOS images available online? I just bought DG One Model 2, but it did not include any diskettes.

A google search for "ms-dos" "data general oem" will turn up a couple of 720k boot floppies. I'd be interested to hear of those work for you.

BTW, looking at those images it appears to use a standard MS-DOS 720K format. That means WinImage should work to at least read the DOS formatted ones, even on a USB floppy drive as long the drive supports 720K disks (many USB floppy drives are lobotomized to exclude 720k support). Just be sure to write protect the disks.
 
Worked out nicely. I downloaded DG Dos 3.2. Modified 1.44k diskette to 720k by taping the hole opposite to write protect. Then I used WinImage to write the file.

It even loaded correct Finnish keyboard driver on boot. Next steps will be to try out my archived games.

Thanks for the advice!
 
I am guessing that the DG / One doesn't have a connector for an external monitor then?
I wonder if better backlighting would help?
 
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