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+--- Thread: Pb. archiving HP-150 disks with Teledisk (/thread-15979.html)
Pb. archiving HP-150 disks with Teledisk - PascalG - 11-29-2020 07:01 PM
I have several HP-150 and HP-110 floppy disks that I want to archive in order to preserve them. I tried to use Teledisk 2.16 on an old Olivetti PC but I keep having errors. Right at the beginning when Teledisks tries to detect the floppy format, it detects that it's a double density (which is not correct as it is a single density) and then it says "Drive A: is not ready".
I tried to check my floppy disk controller with testfdc and it gives me this (see attachment). Is it a compatibility problem with my floppy disk drive ? any advice ?
[attachment=8903]
RE: Pb. archiving HP-150 disks with Teledisk - toml_12953 - 11-29-2020 07:07 PM
(11-29-2020 07:01 PM)PascalG Wrote: I have several HP-150 and HP-110 floppy disks that I want to archive in order to preserve them. I tried to use Teledisk 2.16 on an old Olivetti PC but I keep having errors. Right at the beginning when Teledisks tries to detect the floppy format, it detects that it's a double density (which is not correct as it is a single density) and then it says "Drive A: is not ready".
I tried to check my floppy disk controller with testfdc and it gives me this (see attachment). Is it a compatibility problem with my floppy disk drive ? any advice ?
It could be an incompatibility with your floppy controller rather than your disk drive. If the Olivetti has a free ISA slot, try to get an Adaptec AHA 1522A SCSI adapter for it. That includes a floppy controller that's 100% compatible with all the testfdc formats. I have one and have the SCSI turned off and just use the FDC on it.
RE: Pb. archiving HP-150 disks with Teledisk - Dave Frederickson - 11-29-2020 07:36 PM
(11-29-2020 07:01 PM)PascalG Wrote: Right at the beginning when Teledisks tries to detect the floppy format, it detects that it's a double density (which is not correct as it is a single density) and then it says "Drive A: is not ready".
That's strange. All of the 110/150 discs I've worked with are double-density.
There are DOS drivers that will allow one to work with HP formatted discs on a PC. Here's one.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vabp3-93H_2nmZEzfbQLOMmpkm4Q4zbT/view?usp=sharing
Dave
RE: Pb. archiving HP-150 disks with Teledisk - PascalG - 11-29-2020 08:08 PM
(11-29-2020 07:36 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:(11-29-2020 07:01 PM)PascalG Wrote: Right at the beginning when Teledisks tries to detect the floppy format, it detects that it's a double density (which is not correct as it is a single density) and then it says "Drive A: is not ready".
That's strange. All of the 110/150 discs I've worked with are double density.
Dave
Yes you’re correct I made a mistake, they are single side but double density.
RE: Pb. archiving HP-150 disks with Teledisk - PascalG - 11-29-2020 08:13 PM
(11-29-2020 07:07 PM)toml_12953 Wrote: That includes a floppy controller that's 100% compatible with all the testfdc formats. I have one and have the SCSI turned off and just use the FDC on it.
Do you know what format listed in testfdc I should check to be compatible ?
RE: Pb. archiving HP-150 disks with Teledisk - Dave Frederickson - 12-02-2020 10:19 PM
(11-29-2020 08:13 PM)PascalG Wrote: Do you know what format listed in testfdc I should check to be compatible ?
Here's the table from the ImageDisk doc.
Code:
Drive type Cyls Rpm Rate
---------------------------------------
5.25" DD 40 300 250
5.25" QD 80 300 250
5.25" HD 80 360 500/300
3.5" DD 80 300 250
3.5" HD 80 300 500/250
8" 77 360 500So for HP 110 and 150 floppies, you only need to pass the double-density test at 250 kbps, which your controller does.
Dave
RE: Pb. archiving HP-150 disks with Teledisk - PascalG - 12-03-2020 06:03 AM
(12-02-2020 10:19 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote: So for HP 110 and 150 floppies, you only need to pass the double-density test at 250 kbps, which your controller does.
Dave
Thanks very much, this narrows the causes for my problem. I will try with different versions of teledisk.
RE: Pb. archiving HP-150 disks with Teledisk - Dave Frederickson - 12-03-2020 04:39 PM
TeleDisk 2.16 is the correct version to use with 3.5" media.
Are you running TeleDisk under DOS?
Are you using DS/DD media and not HD?
Did you try the driver?
Dave
RE: Pb. archiving HP-150 disks with Teledisk - PascalG - 12-03-2020 09:53 PM
(12-03-2020 04:39 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote: TeleDisk 2.16 is the correct version to use with 3.5" media.
Are you running TeleDisk under DOS?
Are you using DS/DD media and not HD?
Did you try the driver?
Dave
I made some further tests and I found that the problem was the disks themselves. I was trying to copy a set of Lotus 123 disks and for some unknown reason teledisk would give me a reading error on several disks. I tried with another set of disks (Condor database) and it worked fine !
On each track it would give a reading error message saying that sector 17 of each track was different in size (128 instead of 256), but the process continued.
The only problem is that when I try to recreate disks from teledisk image it gives me an error reading A: side 0 sect 17 on each cylinder (probably linked to this size of 128). I had to press a key after each cylinder, which is not convenient.
I made some dumps of the disks using SuperCard Pro and it worked fine and the process is straightforward (no errors). I then used the Sydex driver you mentioned (excellent software!) in order to test the copies of the disks made with SCP on my Olivetti and everything was ok. :-)
I will continue with SCP for the archiving of my disks, it's more reliable.
Thanks very much for your help !!