Re: After 20 Years, I'm This Close To Finally Escaping Data Rot - Thoughts?

[lyricalnanoha@dosius.ath.cx (Steve Nickolas)]

Dave Rawson wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I'm sort of a babe-in-the-woods here and need some kind help.
> 
> I have around 650 Apple-disk sides of correspondence from 1989 to 1993, 
> but have been unable until now to attempt to get them over into a more 
> preservable form.
> 
> I booted up my aging, failing Franklin Ace which had long ago replaced 
> my Apple ][+.
> 
> The Franklin's power supply makes woozy pulsing sounds and a number of 
> keys don't work and their number has grown over the last two days or so 
> of trying to get Apple Disk Transfer (ADT) onto the Franklin's disk
drives.
> 
> I have been able to boot into Acewriter and load and read the most 
> ancient of my disks.  The Acewriter format appends an ".mw" to each file 
> and I believe that stands for Magic Writer and I believe these are just 
> glorified ASCII text files.
> 
> So I've demonstrated the potential viability of the old media and was 
> finally able to get the two machines - Franklin and PC - to talk to each 
> other.
> 
> This used an Apricorn serial interface in slot 3 with the connector 
> mounted in the terminal position and connected through a standard DB-25 
> to DB-9 cable to the PC.  The card is triggered with an "IN#3" and I 
> used a trial version of HyperTerminal (which I thought was HyperTerm 
> when I installed it) to set the mode parameters to match the Apricorn's 
> required 8N2 (not 8N1) data format.  Additionally, I set character 
> delays and line delays.  Eventually, it worked and I got both ADT and 
> it's configuration program over to the Franklin.  After 20 years, a big
> YAY!
> 
> But in that interval, the only working of the three shift keys began to 
> work intermittently, the "O" key gave out (no more "Catalog" or "Load"). 
>   The "R" key ("PR#n" "Run" "BRun") didn't work at all.
> 
> Alas, the ship is sinking slightly faster than I can bail.
> 
> But I am so close and have come so far toward finally dealing with this 
> mass of old data, that I am in need of advice.
> 
> I need a reliable used machine that can help me read and port these 650 
> sides over to the PC world.  What should I look for?  Should I stick 
> with a ][+ or is there a better, more useful later version that would 
> work?
> 
> What considerations or approach should I take that maybe is less than 
> self-evident?
> 
> Sorry for my ignorance, but I haven't touched this stuff in almost 20
> years.
> 
> 
> --- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: news@netfront.net ---
>

The //e, //c and even Laser 128 might be just as useful as a ][+.  Maybe
even the IIgs, though those are prolly more expensive and slightly less
compatible?

-uso.