Backing up Apple II diskettes...

[Josh]

i'm worried that my apple II diskettes are detoirierating can i just install a 5 1/4 drive in my pc and back them up from there so i can put them on my pc?

(alot of theese diskettes are very special http://apple.duke.net/hackers.html they were cracked by theese people)

Edited October 22, 2006 by Josh

[Christophero Sly]

(alot of theese diskettes are very special http://apple.duke.net/hackers.html they were cracked by theese people)

That doesn't make them special.

[Josh]

i still want to back them up since some of the other discs ae class project disks

[+remowilliams]

If you still have your Apple II setup, take a look at ADTWin. It will allow you to hook your Apple II to your PC over a serial connection and read your disks into .dsk files on your PC.

[Josh]

is there one for linux?

[gdement]

A few years ago I was looking into this, and found repeated mention online that the IBM and Apple 5.25" drives are physically incompatible. There's no way to do a backup with IBM drives.

[antron]

You can back up one side of an Apple disk on an IBM. It takes a little hardware hacking and some special software called DISK2FDI.

[Delicon]

A few years ago I was looking into this, and found repeated mention online that the IBM and Apple 5.25" drives are physically incompatible. There's no way to do a backup with IBM drives.

I dont think this is true. A while back I had a Star 128 board for my PC. The Star 128 was an apple II on a card, so it pretty much made the PC dual purposed DOS and Apple. The card used my normal PC disk drive to load software from. They were the same disks I used with real Apple IIs.

 

Maybe there was some special stuff on the card to allow it to access a PC drive, but the drive is capable of reading both kinds of disks.

 

I hope Star 128 is the name of the card, its been a while since I looked at it, and even longer since I used it.

 

Vern

[+batari]

A few years ago I was looking into this, and found repeated mention online that the IBM and Apple 5.25" drives are physically incompatible. There's no way to do a backup with IBM drives.

I dont think this is true. A while back I had a Star 128 board for my PC. The Star 128 was an apple II on a card, so it pretty much made the PC dual purposed DOS and Apple. The card used my normal PC disk drive to load software from. They were the same disks I used with real Apple IIs.

 

Maybe there was some special stuff on the card to allow it to access a PC drive, but the drive is capable of reading both kinds of disks.

 

I hope Star 128 is the name of the card, its been a while since I looked at it, and even longer since I used it.

 

Vern

You may be talking about the Trackstar. IIRC, it didn't use the PC's floppy, but it did allow you to connect an Apple II disk drive to it and install it in your PC and do file transfers back and forth.

 

I think the incompatibility was only for 5.25" disks. The 3.5" disks could be read by a PC.

[+FujiSkunk]

Apple II 5.25" floppies cannot be read in an IBM 5.25" floppy drive, due to physical incompatibilities in the way the drives read from and write to the floppies. Early 400KB and 800KB 3.5" floppies also can't be moved between Apple and IBM hardware, but modern 1.44MB 3.5" floppy drives on both systems are compatible with each other (though the OS still must have support for being able to read the other company's file system).

 

If you happen to have an old Macintosh lying around, classic Mac OS offered support, via Apple File Exchange, for ProDOS formatted 3.5" floppies. There is also an Apple II utility floating around that will read a 5.25" disk and turn it into an image file stored on a 3.5" ProDOS disk, which can then be used on the Macintosh. This is how I moved disks and disk images back and forth when I last bothered to play with them.

[Delicon]

Right now I am staring at my Trackstar 128 board and directions. It does connect to a PC 5.25 drive. It also connects to an apple drive. I did not have any 3.5 apple disk, only 5.25. I would install it in my PC and try except the board has an ISA connection and has a CGA video connector, no chance with my current PC. It even comes with a special cable to plug between PC motherboard and PC disk drive, not the apple drive, you need a special cable for the apple drive.

 

I found a FAQ online that talks about the Trackstar, heres the link.

 

http://www.apple2.org.za/gswv/USA2WUG/Trac...ackStarInfo.txt

 

It did have compatiblity issues with some drives, but I must have had one of the TEAC drives they talk about. I dont ever remember having problems.

 

I wouldnt mind lighting this thing up. Silly question, but can I get a PCI to ISA adapter? I dont think one of the ISA to USB things will work because I remember needing to do something at boot to get the card to work. Also, is there a way to convert from CGA to VGA? More money than its worth I am sure.

 

Vern

Edited October 24, 2006 by Delicon

[shadow460]

Have you thought about building a PC with an ISA slot in it? The computer I'm using right now actually has two of them, yet it's still modern enough (686 class) to do mundane chores like surfing the web with ease.

Edited October 24, 2006 by shadow460

[antron]

Apple II 5.25" floppies cannot be read in an IBM 5.25" floppy drive, due to physical incompatibilities in the way the drives read from and write to the floppies.

 

Please see the Disk2FDI Homepage

 

You make (or buy) a special cable that connects two floppy drives to your PC. You put an IBM formatted disc in one to trick out your floppy controller, then this software reads Apple II data from the other drive. You can only copy one side of the disk, because of the alignment hole.

[Delicon]

You make (or buy) a special cable that connects two floppy drives to your PC. You put an IBM formatted disc in one to trick out your floppy controller, then this software reads Apple II data from the other drive. You can only copy one side of the disk, because of the alignment hole.

If the floppy controller is the problem and not the actual drive, then that explains why the Trackstar can use the PC floppy to read apple disks; it has its own controller on board.

[Delicon]

You make (or buy) a special cable that connects two floppy drives to your PC. You put an IBM formatted disc in one to trick out your floppy controller, then this software reads Apple II data from the other drive. You can only copy one side of the disk, because of the alignment hole.

If the floppy controller is the problem and not the actual drive, then that explains why the Trackstar can use the PC floppy to read apple disks; it has its own controller on board. Which would mean the original poster can only read apple disks on a PC with the floppy cable hack described above.

[ijor]

Apple II 5.25" floppies cannot be read in an IBM 5.25" floppy drive, due to physical incompatibilities in the way the drives read from and write to the floppies.

 

Please see the Disk2FDI Homepage

 

You make (or buy) a special cable that connects two floppy drives to your PC. You put an IBM formatted disc in one to trick out your floppy controller, then this software reads Apple II data from the other drive. You can only copy one side of the disk, because of the alignment hole.

 

As mentioned already, the incompatibility is at the floppy controller and not at the drive. You can indeed use the Disk2FDI method. Or even better (but more expensive) you can also use some specialized hardware like the Catweasel or the Central Point Option Card.

 

Depending on your drive (now yes, the problem is the drive) you do can read the flippy side as well. Most DD drives can read disks without seeing the index hole, most HD ones cannot.