Re: disk transfer methods?

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

"Keatah@worldnet.att.net" writes ...
> 
> I've got an extensive collection of both pirated (copyright of course
> now extinct) and original software. Actually, I got the original disks
> then got the pirated versions because they loaded faster and could be
> backed up easily.
> 
> Well anyways, I'm pulling all this stuff out of storage this winter with
> the intention of dumping 800+ disks to my pc. That comes to be almost
> 120megs of stuff. I know these disks aren't going to last forever and
> some are 20 years old already. The ones I played with last year seemed
> to check out ok...but for how much longer?
> 
> What is the best method for getting the disk images onto my pc's cdrw
> drive? What programs do I use on the //e to generate and dump disk
> images, what program do I use to send it to the pc? How do I hook it to
> the pc? What's gonna be the maximum speed I can get? Some are
> copy-protectd, can that be dealt with too?
> 
> I was thinking something along the lines of a super serial card and
> using proterm 3.1 to send the files..Now what do I use to generate the
> file? I also want to use these images with emulators and have them
> readily available for transfer back to the //e at "moment's notice" so
> to speak. Tell me what you folks have done in the past and what's the
> most efficient way to deal with this project. Are there websites that
> offer a tutorial on this? I just don't want to fuck everything up and
> make a mess.
> 
> Kg


     If you use a IIe with 5.25" drives, then, you are pretty well set for going with ADT.
ADT is a dedicated disk transfer package using a NULL modem connection which will require
the IIe to have a Super Serial Card. You can find ADT v1.22 as Adt122.zip on USA2WUG at ...

http://www.grin.net/~cturley/gsezine/GS.WorldView/************JULY.99/A2.PC.Emulator.STUFF/

     Adt122.zip includes the PC and Apple2 parts of the program along with directions. The
directions tell how to trnasfer the Apple2 part to your IIe and how to use ADT for doing
disk transfers.

     For more about ADT, NULL modem connections, and related topics visit ...

http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/Csa2T1TCOM.html#003 .


     ADT will, also, let you transfer some helpful utilities (including telecom programs)
from PC to your IIe. One good collection of disk images is available at ...

ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/useful.stuff/Disks/ .


     For a IIe with 5.25" drives, disk images are as accessible as any other form of disk
archiving; so, you lose nothing there. And, a nice advantage of .dsk files on the PC is that
you can access them as virtual diskettes via an Apple II emulator such as AppleWin.

     About the only real downside of the ADT approach is time and convenience when
transferring large numbers of disks. It takes around 2 minutes per disk transfer and you
must do the transfers one by one. That is, you must stick in the diskette, type in the name,
and wait for the transfer. Also, your PC must run the PC side of ADT in DOS mode-- a Windows
DOS prompt window won't work.

     Fortunately, there is a way you could save a good deal of time and bother and, often,
get around copy protection. Instead of transferring, say, Wavy Navy, you can just download
the .dsk.gz Wavy Navy file from Asimov to your Apple2Archive folder on the PC. (A .dsk.gz
file is a compressed .dsk. Use WinZIP to uncompress.)

     Except for the game disks which contain prized High Score records or adventures with
Game Saves you want to preserve, you are likely to discover that most of your old commercial
game disks do not need to be transferred at all. The same applies to many utilites and other
kinds of software.


     As has been mentioned, the standard format for archiving Apple II software is ShrinkIt.
A ShrinkIt whole-disk archive usually has a name ending with ".sdk". (Some whole-disk files
have names ending with ".shk"; but, usually, ".shk" is used for a ShrinkIt archive of one or
more individual files.)

     Just as you can locate many old commercial products as disk images on Asimov,
Uni-kl.de, The Vault, and similar sites, you can probably find most of your other stuff in
.sdk and .shk files on sites like Ground, A2-Caltech, the ACN sites, and USA2WUG. Most 5.25"
.sdk files have been created by 8-bit ShrinkIt and can be converted to disk image form via
Nulib. (You will need to convert these disk images to DOS 3.3 order before transferring with
ADT; but, this is fairly easy.)

     For more about ShrinkIt, disk images, and Nulib along with places you can find the
relevant utilities, see ...

http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/Csa2FLUTILS.html


     800 diskettes is a humungous collection to get archived. Good luck!



Rubywand