Toshiba laptop aggravation

Yes:

:> I can grab a scrap machine *with* a 5" floppy, etc. and solve this (immediate) problem. But, that's not a long term solution. (I also have 5" drives available) A better solution is a 5" USB floppy (or, build a NAS with a variety of "removable media")

I just imaged all of the 5" media and tossed it away. Unfortunately, that also included the SETUP/INSPECT/TEST disks for the lunchbox.

I still have an 8" soft-sectored as well as a hard-sectored drive (and a few boxes of virgin media of each).

That's the *mistake* I made :-/ Stuff takes up far less space than the aggravation of *not* having it causes! :<

Cool! But:

"The FC5025 is read-only. It cannot write to floppies."

makes it useless in my case. :<

I preferred Zork.

OK. But any bootable 5.25" floppy and a CMOS editor ought to get you back on your feet.

The other way I have used to get into very dead in the water PCs is to make a bootable CDROM and install a self contained Adaptec SCSI card that tries to grab control at bootup. This might work if you have a spare ISA slot. You can also get hard disks mounted on an ISA card (or rather you could in those dim and distant days).

Careless.

I suspect I still have some DOS 2.10 bootable disks in the attic somewhere - whether or not they are still readable is another matter. I have a Z80 BCPL compiler on 8" floppies lurking somewhere too.

Good luck. Perhaps someone nearby will send you a 5" boot disk.

Regards, Martin Brown

That's what the storage shelves in the Garage are for :-))

I have kept an old machine just for that purpose, because it can read

5-1/4" floppies. Sometimes I have to tackle production issues for clients. Often goes like this: "The computerized machine ran perfectly fine for over 20 years, then yesterday there was a loud screeching sound and ..."

Let us know what you find out. My wife would love if this big old machine could go ;-)

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

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Laptops use plastic "snaps" to keep things together. These invariably break. :<

Hardest thing I found with the lunchboxes is getting the 6" (?) screws lined up properly on reassembly.

"Any" 5" floppy leaves me exactly in the same predicament. :>

If I can write a floppy, I can write the *right* floppy!

Ah, I might still have an AHA 1542CF in my stash. That's a possibility.

Or, I can just drag an old PC home, write the image, and trash the PC. (but that doesn't solve the problem for "next time")

It gets hard making sure you keep:

- drives for every type of media you have

- utilities for every file format you use

- OS's for every utility you run

- machines to support each OS...

After a few decades, the combinations tend to add up! :>

Not a rush. I could fetch an old machine *today* and get it off my list. But, it's not "pressing". And, it doesn't address "tomorrow".

Maybe I take apart a USB floppy and see what's inside...

I picked up some industrial shelving at a local auction. They are 7' tall, 18" deep, 42" wide "bays". I have 6 bays assembled (currently). I.e., 21 feet "wide". Shelves are space about 6" apart, vertically (i.e., 12 shelves * 6 bays = 72 shelves).

That doesn't count the 4 roll top cabinets in which I store "small things") nor the large 2' x 4' shelving unit.

Nor the wall of "parts drawers" (e.g., for small components).

Too much "stuph". One shelving "bay" is full of boxes of handtools (hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, torx drivers, chisels, etc.) and *small* power tools (drills, belt sanders, drill sharpener, cordless tools, etc.). Two are full of cables (SCSI {Old Sun, Centronics, 50 pin HD, 68 pin, VHDCI, Old Apple, etc.}, video {"VGA", Sun/SGI, 4BNC, etc.}, serial/parallel {DP9, DB25, centronics}, "ethernet" cables,

10BaseT coax, "specialty" cables, etc.). Another is full of small peripherals (pointing devices, motion controllers, network appliances, USB widgets, etc.). There are several programmable power supplies, multimeters, freq synthesizers and counters, etc.

I.e., there's no more *room* to "waste" on something as commonplace as a PC. :>

Yup. This is what prompted me to hold onto the lunchbox. I've also got a "bare board" system that I use for handling the 8" drives.

The compaq gave me the 5" drive, a "clean" DOS implementation, two ISA slots and was semi-portable. I just hadn't thought ahead to hold onto actual bootable SETUP disk. :<

I am hoping that not all of them are "highly integrated". One that I examined some time ago was quite obviously designed *for* the drive that it was *part* of. I am hoping to find one with a small ribbon between "controller" and "drive". That would be encouraging.

Perhaps I will check this afternoon -- if I remember. :<

I still have a 5-1/4 inch 1.2 MB drive. Might i help you?

(Foxconn=20

On the other hand there should be some cases of where the=20 capability was there and they forgot to take it out.

Thanks for the offer. I've got a couple of 5" drives (but not currently attached to a machine -- as none of my machines have "unused" bays :-(

But, I rescued a 3" USB floppy drive that uses a *real*

3" floppy. I'll see what happens when I attach a 5" drive in place of the 3" and see if the controller is smart enough to see the difference or if it was designed expressly for 3" floppies.

Do any of them have a PC-AT equivalent floppy controller inside? A floppy will work just sitting on the tabletop.

Do any run Linux or could run MS-DOS + rawrite.exe? (Another very useful old MS-DOS program is anadisk, which can read, write, and format anything the hardware can deal with. Found wherever the old Simtel archive went...).

The 1.2 meg 5.25" (And the 8") drives rotate at 360 RPM, the 3.5" (and 360k 5.25") rotate at 300 RPM. Bad odds, IMHO.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

I've used trackpads on laptops for years now. I'm always amused by people who have a visceral reaction to the tap feature.

Indeed, I have one WIndows 98 laptop around for things like the magnetic card reader/writer (Requires a real serial port and a PS2 port for power.)

Tell that to someone with severe disabilities.

--
Lead free solder is Belgium's version of 'Hold my beer and watch this!'

Not just that. When you work with your hands a lot like I have to during EMI improvement sessions you'll inevitably get calloussed hands and fingers. Then the tapping stuff becomes really erratic. Heck, I had to get finger-printed for a visa recently and had to press real hard onto the optical reader glass until they could get a clear scan. And on my Samsung netbook the whole touchpad becomes really unreliable after 2-3 days of EMI grunt work. To the point where I just had it and bought a Bluetooth mouse.

It may be ok for office people but not for use dudes :-)

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

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I despise touch pads and joy sticks, so a small RF mouse is an immediate addition to any small laptop, like my Lenovo X61s. ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
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I'm with you on touch pads, but I get along with track-sticks very well. I carry an RF mouse when I travel but rarely use it.

Mine is currently installed in an operational machine. There is even an open front panel 5.25 bay available in=20 that machine.

As much as anything i was looking for a way to test it.