krebizfan
Veteran Member
I think no one tried to create a backup software to transfer disks to audio cassette for the 5150 because by the mid-80s, the price of diskette and cassette were close to the same. While a 30 minute side of a cassette comes close to being able to store the contents of a 360K floppy, 30 minutes is a lot longer than the duration of a diskcopy. There were a number of programs that would copy between disk and tape for some of the Soviet PC compatible systems. I don't know if any were used to back up a floppy as opposed to moving disk software to cassette for all the systems that couldn't get a disk controller and drives. I think the Soviet BIOSes added some functions to the cassette routines to make bulk copying of files easier.
If one goes with systems not derived from the IBM PC, there were a surprising number of tools designed to backup complete disks onto cassette. Tarbell went even further, bundling software to do that with their disk controller though one would also need their cassette interface. The Apple II and Tandy Coco had third party backup software that used their built-in cassette ports. Astonishing, the lengths some would take to avoid buying another box of diskettes.
If one goes with systems not derived from the IBM PC, there were a surprising number of tools designed to backup complete disks onto cassette. Tarbell went even further, bundling software to do that with their disk controller though one would also need their cassette interface. The Apple II and Tandy Coco had third party backup software that used their built-in cassette ports. Astonishing, the lengths some would take to avoid buying another box of diskettes.