Don Lancaster

If not, what is the simplest way to transfer files on thousands of IIe
disks?


--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster voice phone: (928)428-4073
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
rss: http://www.tinaja.com/whtnu.xml email: don@tinaja.com

Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

David Empson

Don Lancaster <don@tinaja.com> wrote:

> Is an apple 3.5 disk to USB converter available? Where?

Never heard of one. Mainstream USB floppy drives support 720K and 1.44MB
MFM-encoded disks. They won't work with 400K or 800K (GCR) floppies.

In principle, someone could build a disk controller using an embedded
micro which has USB support. This would be similar in complexity to
Apple's SuperDrive card, with the added requirement of software support
for the USB protocol and drivers in the host computer (for whichever
operating systems were to be supported).

Seems like an awful lot of work, plus it requires custom hardware (IWM
or SWIM chip) that Apple made, or a clone using FPGA.

There is also the question of file system support in the host operating
system - ProDOS, Pascal, CP/M, MFS or HFS according to what is on the
floppy.

> If not, what is the simplest way to transfer files on thousands of IIe
> disks?

A IIgs with a 3.5" drive and CFFA or hard drive which can be reconnected
to another computer that is able to access the files in whichever file
system you used (ProDOS or HFS). You could probably do it with a IIe, as
long as you had the right peripherals for it.

I'd be inclined to do this sort of thing using my IIgs with a spare SCSI
hard drive and then transferring it to a Mac OS 9 era PowerMac.

There is also the question of how to convert the documents into a format
which is usable in a more recent computer. This is a can of worms by
itself.

--
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz

schmidtd

On Mar 29, 1:30 am, Don Lancaster <d...@tinaja.com> wrote:
> Is an apple 3.5 disk to USB converter available? If not,
There is none.

> what is the simplest way to transfer files on thousands of IIe
> disks?
That largely depends on the hardware you have on hand. The "simplest"
way is probably to load up an Apple with a CFFA card (http://
dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php)
and use Asimov (http://www.ninjaforce.com/html/products.html) to
extract disk images to the Compact Flash. Then, use CiderPress on a
PC (http://ciderpress.sourceforge.net/) to extract files from the CF
card.

Another simple (cheaper, but more time-consuming) way would be to use
ADTPro (http://adtpro.sourceforge.net) to transfer your disk images
directly via serial or via Ethernet (http://a2retrosystems.com/
products.htm), then use CiderPress again to extract individual files
from the images.

Mark McDougall

Don Lancaster wrote:

> If not, what is the simplest way to transfer files on thousands of IIe
> disks?

Look for the Catweasel floppy disk controller...
<http://www.jschoenfeld.com/products/catweasel_e.htm>

Regards,

--
Mark McDougall, Engineer
Virtual Logic Pty Ltd, <http://www.vl.com.au>
21-25 King St, Rockdale, 2216
Ph: +612-9599-3255 Fax: +612-9599-3266

sicklittlemonkey

On Mar 29, 2:30 pm, Don Lancaster <d...@tinaja.com> wrote:
> If not, what is the simplest way to transfer files on thousands of IIe
> disks?

Here's one that was announced and demonstrated recently:
http://www.deviceside.com/

Otherwise a couple of websites offer disk transfer services, but
thousands of IIe disks might be prohibitively expensive.
http://retrofloppy.com/

Depending on how valuable the guru's time is, and whether he has
trained monkeys available, an Apple II with either ADTPro or a SD/CF
card drive is the way to go.
http://adtpro.sourceforge.net/
http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforA...pleII/main.php
http://www.gse-reactive.com/

Cheers,
Nick.

Michael J. Mahon

Mark McDougall wrote:
> Don Lancaster wrote:
>
>
>>If not, what is the simplest way to transfer files on thousands of IIe
>>disks?
>
>
> Look for the Catweasel floppy disk controller...
> <http://www.jschoenfeld.com/products/catweasel_e.htm>

But is there any usable software to deal with Apple II
disks? My impression is that the Catweasel is outside
the realm of the Apple II.

The CFFA would be a much better investment.

-michael

NadaNet networking for Apple II computers!
Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."

Mark McDougall

Michael J. Mahon wrote:

> But is there any usable software to deal with Apple II
> disks? My impression is that the Catweasel is outside
> the realm of the Apple II.

The Catweasel is an ISA/PCI card meant to be installed in a PC/Amiga host
and is specifically for transferring data and/or disk images between host
and Apple II format.

I'm not familiar with it myself so I can't say whether or not there's much
in the way of 'usable software' for actually reading/writing Apple II disks,
other than the statement of claim on the website. BTW for some reason I
simply cannot fathom, there's no mention of the MKIV on the website, which
is a PCI-based card. But it definitely is, or was, available.

Yes, the CFFA may be a better investment, depending on exactly what you're
trying to achieve. However, the OP said he has "files on thousands of Apple
II disks" and the implication was that they don't have an Apple II - in that
case the Catweasel may be the better choice?

Regards,

--
| Mark McDougall | "Electrical Engineers do it
| <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug> | with less resistance!"

bieling@terra.es

On Mar 29, 2:27 pm, Mark McDougall <msmcd...@no.spam.iinet> wrote:
>
> ... the OP said he has "files on thousands of Apple
> II disks" and the implication was that they don't have an Apple II
> ...
>
> Regards,

Mark,

Don... (Lancaster !) doesn't have an Apple II ?
Come on !
A fully tuned ("enhanced") one... running AppleWriter... and connected
to a LaserWriter.
Unless it has all been "mass teleported" long time ago.

8-)

Jorge.

Michael J. Mahon

Mark McDougall wrote:
> Michael J. Mahon wrote:
>
>> But is there any usable software to deal with Apple II
>> disks? My impression is that the Catweasel is outside
>> the realm of the Apple II.
>
>
> The Catweasel is an ISA/PCI card meant to be installed in a PC/Amiga
> host and is specifically for transferring data and/or disk images
> between host and Apple II format.

My impression is that it was "specifically" for transferring Amiga
GCR disks, and that the application to Apple II GCR disks was an
afterthought. The absence of any "real" software usable by Apple
folks confirms that, in my opinion.

If there were any significant use of this card by the Apple community,
then there would be useful software for that purpose.

Making something possible does not make it useful.

> I'm not familiar with it myself so I can't say whether or not there's
> much in the way of 'usable software' for actually reading/writing Apple
> II disks, other than the statement of claim on the website. BTW for some
> reason I simply cannot fathom, there's no mention of the MKIV on the
> website, which is a PCI-based card. But it definitely is, or was,
> available.

The website seems to be minimally maintained--another worrying
sign of neglect.

> Yes, the CFFA may be a better investment, depending on exactly what
> you're trying to achieve. However, the OP said he has "files on
> thousands of Apple II disks" and the implication was that they don't
> have an Apple II - in that case the Catweasel may be the better choice?

I'm pretty sure that Don has an Apple II. ;-)

My remarks should be considered in light of the Catweasel having been
available for many years, and brought up on csa2 many times, yet there
have been no reports of satisfied users or reasonable software support.

It may be a gem hidden in plain sight, but if so, it has eluded
discovery for a long time. ;-)

-michael

NadaNet networking for Apple II computers!
Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."

Longtime Lurker

Don Lancaster <don@tinaja.com> wrote:

>
>If not, what is the simplest way to transfer files on thousands of IIe
>disks?

Seems like you asked this same question a couple of years ago. My
answer then still applies, as I haven't found a better way:

I recommend Eric Shepherd's ImageMaker utility on the Apple II side.

I recently used it to image several hundred 5.25" and 3.5" disks, and
it is by far the fastest way I found to do bulk transfer of lots of
disks.

I penciled a numeric serial number on each floppy, and named the image
file with that number to keep track of them. With this system, it
takes about 20-25 seconds to do one 5.25" disk. Once I got the hang of
it, I was easily doing over 2 disks a minute.

I was writing the image files directly to my server via Appletalk, but
you can just as easily save them on a local disk or flash card of some
kind, as others have noted. Writing locally will also shave another
few seconds off the cycle time.

As was also mentioned, CiderPress is by far the best utility on the PC
side for cataloging/indexing/transferring the files in the images once
they've been created.

Good luck!

LL