Re: How to transfer 3.5 image back to a real disk

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

Rob <roberta@inreach.com> wrote:

>Supertimer wrote:
>> 
>> Rob <roberta@inreach.com> wrote:
>> 
>> >Hi all,
>> >I finally resurrected my IIgs after several years sitting in boxes in
>> >the garage.  I found that some of my 3.5" diskettes didn't survive too
>> >well after sitting around for so long in a hot garage although, oddly
>> >enough, all my 5.25" floppies still work fine.  Most notable were the
>> >Marble Madness GS and PrintShop GS diskettes that were crushed.
>> >
>> >Anyway, I was able to locate and download some images of these disks but
>> >just how do I transfer the images from my PC back to IIgs 3.5 diskettes?
>> >I don't have access to a Mac so copying the image to a Mac disk is not a
>> >real option.  I know I'll need to use a serial null modem cable but I
>> >could use some help on the actual steps, commands, programs, etc. needed
>> >to accomplish the transfer.  The images I found contained the .SHK
>> >extension.
>> 
>> What you have are probably Apple IIGS ShrinkIt GS archives.
>> The program you need is ShrinkIt GS.  As for transferring the
>> archives to the IIGS, the easiest way is by disk.  The Apple IIGS
>> can read MS-DOS disks with the right drive.  For example, I use
>> the Iomega ZipDrive.  It lets me transfer 100MB of stuff over
>> at a time and sometimes I use it to transfer in the reverse, from the
>> IIGS to the Win PC.  If you can find a 1.44MB SuperDrive for
>> the IIGS plus its controller, then you can use it to read MS-DOS
>> disks.  Another option is ///SHH Systeme's BlueDisk controller
>> which lets you run cheap IBM disk drives (such as 1.44MB PC
>> floppy drives) on your IIGS.  The SCSI Flopitcal drive also
>> works on the IIGS.  Flopticals can take 21MB disks as well as
>> 1.44MB ones, but since this is a dead format, Mac and Win users
>> are throwing them out and you are likely to find cheap ones on
>> the used market for a few bucks.  Excellent additions to the IIGS
>> for transfer purposes.
>> 
>> Just some ideas.  I know you are probably going to try the null
>> modem approach, but I just wanted to let you know that there
>> are alternatives.  I'm sure others will fill you in on the cable
>> approach.
>
>Thanks, but locating and purchasing an interface card and drive just to
>restore a few 3.5" diskettes is just a little unreasonable from my point
>of view. 
>
>I have downloaded the ADT utility from asimov but unfortunately it only
>appears to work for 5.25" disks.  Is there similiar utility for 3.5"
>disks? Or at least a manual way of transfering a 3.5" disk image from a
>PC to a IIgs via a null modem cable?  I've read all the faqs I could
>find and other then stating that it could be done, they don't say how.

Unfortunately, ADT is not going to work for your even if it did
support 3.5" disks and neither are the disk image transfer
instructions on the FAQs.  The reason again leads back to the
SHK format you said your programs were on.  These are NOT
disk images.  Rather, they are the equivalent of what ZIP
archives are on your Win PC.  Like them, inside is a list of
compressed files.  As you can imagine, this is not a disk image.
Thus, you must get the archives over to the IIGS and unpack
the SHK archives ON the IIGS.

There is nothing equivalent to ShrinkIt GS on the Win PC, by
the way.  There IS something called Nulib, but it does not do
what ShrinkIt GS does and that's because Windows and DOS
cannot handle the extended files that the IIGS file systems
(ProDOS and HFS) can.