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TIPI as a backup for WDS1.


aftyde

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Hi All,

 

New to the TIPI - meaning, I have a PEB attached version and love it.  However, I do not use it to it's fullest potential yet.  However, I understand you can store stuff on it.  I have yet to figure out how to mount a directory on it as a destination I can write to with DM2K.

 

Ideally, I'd like to dump my SCSI hard disk to it as a backup.

 

Anyone use a TIPI in this manner?  Any suggestions?

 

Thank you, Arthur...

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You need to use DSK4 to write to it with dm2k but since dm2k wasn't designed to access tipi you may have issues. The cru may need to be set to 1000 for this to work.

Better yet Use jedi commander to copy to it which works with TIPI. As it was designed to.

Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk

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In principle, I think one could write a backup program.  One would read a SCSI drive sector by sector, then write a file, probably with 128 byte records, up to the maximum number of records for the file, then autoincrement the filename for subsequent files until the complete drive was written.  Similar concept to what MDM5 did with the HFDC, though I think that was sector writes to the floppy versus record writes.  MDM5 had issues when you tried to write to a bad sector.

 

Downside here is what/how do you deal with bad sectors either on the read or write and how you flag them in the transfer process.

 

Back years ago, Alan Beard wrote a program for the Geneve for MDOS that did an individual file read and archive to a path.  That program was written in Fortran.  I think the name may have been something like SFBACKUP.  It embedded the filename/path/type up front in the beginning of the file for later restoration.

 

We all know sector writes are not possible with the TIPI, however, a record based format should be doable.  What I do not know is if the TIPI DSR has a restriction of 127 files at a file path, or how it would handle the situation if there were more than 127 files at a file path.

 

Just some thoughts on how one might try to approach the issue with a TI system.

 

Beery

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In principle, I think one could write a backup program.  One would read a SCSI drive sector by sector, then write a file, probably with 128 byte records, up to the maximum number of records for the file, then autoincrement the filename for subsequent files until the complete drive was written.  Similar concept to what MDM5 did with the HFDC, though I think that was sector writes to the floppy versus record writes.  MDM5 had issues when you tried to write to a bad sector.
 
Downside here is what/how do you deal with bad sectors either on the read or write and how you flag them in the transfer process.
 
Back years ago, Alan Beard wrote a program for the Geneve for MDOS that did an individual file read and archive to a path.  That program was written in Fortran.  I think the name may have been something like SFBACKUP.  It embedded the filename/path/type up front in the beginning of the file for later restoration.
 
We all know sector writes are not possible with the TIPI, however, a record based format should be doable.  What I do not know is if the TIPI DSR has a restriction of 127 files at a file path, or how it would handle the situation if there were more than 127 files at a file path.
 
Just some thoughts on how one might try to approach the issue with a TI system.
 
Beery
It has no restrictions on files or size

Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk

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2 hours ago, arcadeshopper said:

You need to use DSK4 to write to it with dm2k but since dm2k wasn't designed to access tipi you may have issues. The cru may need to be set to 1000 for this to work.

Better yet Use jedi commander to copy to it which works with TIPI. As it was designed to.

Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk
 

I was thinking Force Command myself, but I've only used it on single files at a time.  Back in my early DOS days, the good old copy *.* command was awesome!  Maybe Matt might implement that as well.

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I was thinking Force Command myself, but I've only used it on single files at a time.  Back in my early DOS days, the good old copy *.* command was awesome!  Maybe Matt might implement that as well.
Yup or someone can create a backup program from his source

Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk

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1 hour ago, arcadeshopper said:

It has no restrictions on files or size

Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk
 

While there isn't the physical limitation on capacity except by the size of the SD card on the PI, the DSR would have a 16 bit limitation on record numbers unless Matt expanded the record number count to something higher with an extended PAB.  MDOS tried to do that, however, the last time I tried to use higher record numbers than a 16 bit number, it did not work on the Geneve.  The MDOS XOP PAB has one extra byte with a maximum record count of either 24 bits if memory serves me correctly.  I had a "database" of individual verses of the Bible that exceeded the 16 bit limitation and ended up having to break it down into multiple files using a different method of access.

 

Highly unlikely this expanded feature was added by Matt as there would be almost no need/use of it for the TI.  

 

Beery

 

 

 

 

 

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You need to use DSK4 to write to it with dm2k but since dm2k wasn't designed to access tipi you may have issues. The cru may need to be set to 1000 for this to work.

Better yet Use jedi commander to copy to it which works with TIPI. As it was designed to.

Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk


Do not know jedi commander, will try to locate and check it out. Setting CRU might cause issues with other cards. It's a packed PEB. :)

Sent from my EVR-L29 using Tapatalk

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5 minutes ago, aftyde said:

Do not know jedi commander, will try to locate and check it out. Setting CRU might cause issues with other cards. It's a packed PEB. :)

Sent from my EVR-L29 using Tapatalk
 

It's actually called FORCE COMMAND and you can get it <<HERE>>.

CRU should NOT be an issue as you can type it in manually designate it from the DOS prompt which actually let you distinguish between multiple DSK1,2,3's at the same time.  It's the friggin bomb in my book.  It's at ver 0.8 and I expect it'll be become something no one will be able to live without in the coming years.  Yes, I'm biased.

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It's actually called FORCE COMMAND and you can get it HERE>>.

CRU should NOT be an issue as you can type it in manually designate it from the DOS prompt which actually let you distinguish between multiple DSK1,2,3's at the same time.  It's the friggin bomb in my book.  It's at ver 0.8 and I expect it'll be become something no one will be able to live without in the coming years.  Yes, I'm biased.

Sorry force command and CRU only matters with dm2k

 

Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk

 

 

 

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Wow!  Stop looking for a few months and miracles happen.  FC is pretty damn impressive.  Looking for wildcard support or an xcopy command... or some way to create one.  Or perhaps Fred can enhance the CRU.DEVx.PATH magic into DM2K.  I was very pleased by the ability to CD directly into a directory whether it be diskette, ram disk, hard disk, or HDX and execute software.

 

Matt - really awesome.  Thank you!!!

Edited by aftyde
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5 hours ago, aftyde said:

Do not know jedi commander, will try to locate and check it out. Setting CRU might cause issues with other cards. It's a packed PEB. :)

Sent from my EVR-L29 using Tapatalk
 

Yes, DM2K will see TIPI. but it's a mess.  Files don't display properly.  Can't copy, delete, mkdir - nothing really works as you would expect.  While I understand the TIPI isn't designed as a file storage device - being able to back up TI hard disks to it would be excellent.  Or better, host my network based TI home directory on it.  (which I currently access via. HDX)

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3 hours ago, aftyde said:

Would ARC or a similar tool be able to compress a dir structure to a single file on a device?

Sent from my EVR-L29 using Tapatalk
 

Not aware of a specific program yet written that would do as you ask.

 

Myself, I can backup my 64 MB and 40 MB HD images on my HFDC in about 20 seconds, give or take.  I'm using the DREM that has hard drive images stored on a SD card.  Makes it pretty easy to backup those images on a Windows system.  The price of a DREM is around $270.  Not cheap, but for hard drive emulation using with the TI/Geneve by HFDC owners, I personally think that is the future.  The DREM uses a 1/2 height drive bay.

 

In principle, you could connect the DREM up as drive 2 and use your exisitng hard drive as drive 1, and copy files to it.  If you had 2 MFM hard drives, you could move one of those 2 drives to drive #3 since it is read only, and copy from drive 1 to 2, as well as drive 3 to drive 2.

 

The other option is to use Force Commander that Matt has developed, and to use the copy commands on it to copy to a TIPI setup.  This assumes you are TI, not Geneve based.  If Geneve based, the DREM would be the preferred route only because MDOS itself does not have MDOS file access to the TIPI and only TI programs could be run from the GPL "TI Mode" of the Geneve.

 

Beery

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, BeeryMiller said:

Not aware of a specific program yet written that would do as you ask.

 

Myself, I can backup my 64 MB and 40 MB HD images on my HFDC in about 20 seconds, give or take.  I'm using the DREM that has hard drive images stored on a SD card.  Makes it pretty easy to backup those images on a Windows system.  The price of a DREM is around $270.  Not cheap, but for hard drive emulation using with the TI/Geneve by HFDC owners, I personally think that is the future.  The DREM uses a 1/2 height drive bay.

 

In principle, you could connect the DREM up as drive 2 and use your exisitng hard drive as drive 1, and copy files to it.  If you had 2 MFM hard drives, you could move one of those 2 drives to drive #3 since it is read only, and copy from drive 1 to 2, as well as drive 3 to drive 2.

 

The other option is to use Force Commander that Matt has developed, and to use the copy commands on it to copy to a TIPI setup.  This assumes you are TI, not Geneve based.  If Geneve based, the DREM would be the preferred route only because MDOS itself does not have MDOS file access to the TIPI and only TI programs could be run from the GPL "TI Mode" of the Geneve.

 

Beery

 

 

 

so far..  I have another mfm emulator that I have tried (costs about half what the DREM costs) but not on a hfdc/geneve yet. I have used it on my personality card and it seems to have the same issues I'm experiencing on my mfm drive so I'm thinking a cap has given up the ghost or something in my pers card or wd1000 card

 

Greg

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