| Author | Message | ||
     Gunut75 |
I need a little help with an old computer, and I mean OLD! In my shop, I have software for storing programs (CNC) in an old DOS based (YES, DOS based) computer. The computer has a 5 1/4 floppy slot, and nothing else. Is there any way to get those out of there, and convert them in a way that I can read them with windows. Maybe a program or something that one of you knows about. I can get them out of the computer, and into the machine, but the company that makes the software wants me to spend $5-6k on a new program that is windows based. Also, they still don't guarantee that I wont lose 20yrs of programs. I guess what I'm asking is, does anyone know of a way to get windows to read and store a DOS based file. Or, am I so outdated on the computer, that I'm SOL? Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance. | ||
| Etennuly |
Go to a pawn shop. Find an old computer with a floppy slot and a 5 1/4 slot, copy to the floppy, then find one with a floppy slot and a disc to copy to. Bet you could get all the info from all the 5 1/4 discs onto one corner of a cd. | ||
| Oldog |
Nut does the machine have a hard drive? and is the soft ware and are the files on that drive? if so a good computer shop may be able to help. | ||
| Hootowl |
If the files are already on the hard drive, you should be able to slave it into another system as long as the drive is IDE. If it is a REALLY old MFM drive, you'll have to have the appropriate controller...good luck finding one of those. | ||
| Gunut75 |
Yes, it's all on the hard drive. Yes, all the files and the software are on it. As far as WHAT kind of drive it is (IDE or MFM) I do not know. The computer is a Packard Bell PB8810. | ||
| Gunut75 |
Also, NO USB ports, and has never been connected to the net. | ||
| Dbird29 |
Make a RAM Disk to emulate a disk drive, map it to the drive letter needed by the software. Run your program in a DOS window, Start Menu/Run/cmd www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM_disk www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=131 www.support.microsoft.com/ | ||
| 99savage |
Can you get specific on what software you are running - i.e. the CNC program Know an individual that went thru that rodeo maybe 15 years ago - know that they still have a 5 1/4 floppy reader around. If I had more information would be willing to ask | ||
| Hmartin |
I'd try the slave drive first. Just get the model / serial no. off the hard drive and do a quick internet search to get instructions on resetting the jumpers for "slave". You might could still find a zip drive that runs from the parallel (printer) port. Once you're done, keep it around for a backup system. Or, if you're more familiar with DOS or know an old DOS guru, use a serial cable (if your new computer has a serial port) and find a copy of Laplink. | ||
| Hootowl |
That computer was manufactured in 1987 (according to the site I found) so it may in fact have an MFM or RLL drive in it. IDE came out in 86, but only one manufacturer used them in their computers that year. The drive controllers back then were not integrated (generally) into the motherboard, but were an add on card, probably ISA. You'll be hard pressed to find an ISA slot in a mobo these days. You could find an old ISA IDE drive controller, slave an IDE drive into the old machine, copy the data, then put the IDE drive in your new computer. Or... The floppy interface has not changed since the 5 1/4 drive was made, so you could take the floppy drive out of the old PC and put it in a new one. You'd have to copy all the files you needed from the hard drive to the floppy first. You may have to make several trips as I'm pretty sure that's a 360k drive. But then, your hard drive is probably only a few megabytes anyway. | ||
| Gunut75 |
Software is Griffo Bros., used to communicate with Mazak Mazatrol Machines. Zip drive.........I forgot about those. I may still have one laying around that works. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I keep a 5 1/4 drive down in the basement, just because I am stubborn that way. So I have a drive. I'm not sure I have a controller left to hook it up to though, but I could probably find something. Even better would be to install an ISA network card (3Com 3C509 or something) and boot off of one of the single floppy drive unix distributions. If it has a CDRom, so much the better, as you can boot off of one of the not so tiny Linux distributions. Then "scp" a copy of the drive across the network. You would need somebody that speaks linux to do this, but it's doable. Of course this only solves the "physical access" aspects of the problem, not the logical problem of interpreting the files. Maybe your old software with a virtual machine, or running under WINE under Linux or something. If you get to the "gotta ship the box" state, drop me a note and we can probably work something out. I'm a computer geek, and my neighbor is a machine tool designer who has been doing cad since cad came out, so between the two of us we could probably make decent progress on both fronts. And we work for beer.  | ||
| Hootowl |
The 5 1/4 floppy interface is the same as the 3.5 interface. The connector has changed, but the existing ribbon cable has the right connector on it. The mobo/interface card connector is the same then as now. Standard floppy connector. Should work. The NIC idea is a good one. So is the laplink idea. Laplink might be the easiest. I'm sure you can find a copy of the software somewhere online. The only other thing you'd need is a serial cable. | ||
| Froggy |
I got a 5.25 floppy drive at home, I have tested it on a modern Pentium 4 machine with XP, and it works great. I used it to play old games, and it is quite hilarious, the programs were designed for like 20mhz machines, and running at 3.5ghz makes them so fast they are unplayable. | ||
| Boese |
easy, find a DOS emulator or run Virtual machine. you most likely will need someone to help you with that, but at least you know what to ask for. this will make all your DOS programs run on any computer (even a mac). | ||
| Froggy |
Bump, any luck? |
