Re: Mac Floppies / Prodos

[Greg Buchner <apple22@mn.rr.com>]

In article <y_udnbXLwKObUI3YnZ2dnUVZ_o6dnZ2d@comcast.com>,
 "Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:

> Greg Buchner wrote:
> > In article <1158682633.847261.289650@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
> >  "jsnospam@cimmeri.com" <js@cimmeri.com> wrote:
> > 
> > 
> >>Greg Buchner wrote:
> >>
> >>>I'm not certain if a different drive would work.  So we'll start at the 
> >>>top.  Which Mac do you have?  Do you or will you have a hard drive 
> >>>available for your GS?
> >>
> >>I'm testing with both a PowerMac 6500 and a beige desktop G3.  They
> >>behave identically and both are running OS8.5.1.
> > 
> > 
> > I'd update to 8.6.  It's free from Apple.
> > <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60283>
> > 
> > Don't know if it'll help, but it shouldn't hurt.  I've never tried to 
> > write an 800K ProDOS disk from one of my three PPC Macs (a 7500 & two 
> > beige G3s).  I've always done it from the Quadra 650 I have sitting 
> > around.  But, other people have gotten it to work with DiskDup+, so I 
> > don't know why it wouldn't for you.
> > 
> > 
> >>What I'm trying to do is archive copies of my original GSOS diskettes
> >>so that I can recreate if a situation arises years from now where I
> >>lose its hard drive, AND then find that my original GSOS floppies are
> >>no longer readable.   One redundant system is never enough for me.. ;-)
> >>  The DiskCopy 4.2 images are nice for this situation because the Mac
> >>can do the generating.
> 
> <...>
> 
> > Best option would seem to be having multiple copies of the GS/OS system 
> > disks.  I think I have a couple of copies lying around.
> 
> Glad you mentioned the obvious best and cheapest insurance!  ;-)

It seems to be the most obvious.  I had to make a copy of an OS X 
install CD (only 1 of the three) for a friend as his original was giving 
errors during installation.  Thought about that for a while and then 
made copies of my install CDs.  Pressed CDs are supposed to be quite 
reliable, but murphy can easily rear his error ridden head.  :-)

> Media failures are uncorrelated (unless your drive is eating them), so
> two copies is *great* insurance.

And you need at least three copies of your data to be secure.  The 
original, an onsite copy and an offsite copy.  It seems that AOL has now 
made the third option quite easy.  Their new Xdrive setup is free with 
5GB of online storage and works from a web browser.  After all, there 
are only two types of computer users, those who have lost data and those 
that will lose data.

You know, Xdrive might be a good place for those Apple II torrent files 
that were floating around recently.  Xdrive has a public access folder 
for your account and they're touting it as a way to transfer large files 
to friends that don't fit through e-mail.

Greg B.

-- 
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