Re: Two technical problems...

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

bguenter@rummelplatz.uni-mannheim.de (Boris Guenter) wrote:

>Greetings! Here they are:
>
>1) Recovering data from a damaged Focus HD
>
>Some months ago, my Focus 20 hard card exhausted its spirit, taking
>some of my works in progress with it. Yes, I know, I should have a
>backup. No, I don't have one. But I have still hope that I can recover
>some of the data. 
>
>I don't believe that it is a real physical head crash, rather a blasted
>boot sector. Booting has been a little unreliable in the last weeks
>before the accident happened and when I now turn on my Focus card, it
>emits some scrapping noises as if it looks for the boot sector but
>can't find it.

Try booting from floppy, then accessing the Focus from there.
That way, you bypass the boot block.  If you can get in, immediately
copy all your important data to floppies.

Then you can reformat the Focus and restore your data.

>Now the question is: Can I still read data from the drive by bypassing
>the boot sector? If not on the IIgs then perhaps on a pc? Is there a
>way to connect the IDE drive to a pc and access it with file utilities?
>The drive itself is formatted as a single ProDos partition. If 
>everything else fails, I will have to let the HD be repaired
>by a professional HD recovery service and that would not be worth
>the costs...

Then it is certainly possible.  You need a file utility on the PC
that allows low level editing and a good knowledge of ProDOS
so you can rebuilt what was missing.  David Empson is probably
the best person to ask on this.

But try something like Prosel or Salvation on the IIGS first.
The damage might be automatically repairable using IIGS HD
software.

>2) Connecting an Epson LQ 850+ to the gs
>
>I have got this printer from a friend who has used it on his pc. It
>has the long parallel pc connector on the back and a round connector
>which looks like this, with five contacts and an indentation near the
>top. 
>
>                       v
>                     /    \
>                       __   
>                    I      I
>                       I    
>
>When I went into the local Macintrash shop and asked the salesman if
>this is is a connector for a serial cable, he promptly responded that
>the computer can probably be connected only via the parallel port and
>that an adapter card would be more expensive than the printer itself.
>Then, he recommended that I should buy an Apple printer.
>
>I would not trust these information farther than I can see in a dark
>tunnel in the night. Before I am going to spend many $$$ to buy a
>new printer (and perhaps a new computer, or two), I would like to ask
>the csa2 folks if they have managed to use this printer and which cable
>they have used to get a serial connection.

Sounds like the salesman is BSing unless that connector really
is not a serial port.  Have you tried plugging a standard Mac
to ImageWriter or Mac to StyleWriter (I, II, etc.) cable into
the port (with the power off, of course).  If it fits, then it should be
a serial port.  But check with the manual or Epson's web site to
be 100% sure.  I'd hate that to be a power connector and your
IIGS to be damaged because of it.

Good luck!