TELEDISK Warning

Ed Smeda

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Mar 31, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/31/98

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Don't throw out your old XT/AT machines just yet!

I recently attempted to reconstitute some MS-DOS disks from images I
created some years ago using the Sydex TELEDISK utility (ver 2.12).

It seems that the newer Pentium class machines don't like Teledisk and
hang during the write process. I had to get out my old XT to do the
job. Just what is causing the problem I don't know - maybe the disk
controller chip in current PC's deviates too much from the old 765's (?)

I mention this as Teledisk may have been used by some to save images of
'foreign' (e.g. CP/M) disks.

Regards.
___
X SLMR 2.1 X

David Firth

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Mar 31, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/31/98

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: It seems that the newer Pentium class machines don't like Teledisk and

: hang during the write process. I had to get out my old XT to do the
: job. Just what is causing the problem I don't know - maybe the disk
: controller chip in current PC's deviates too much from the old 765's (?)

My wife sometimes shrugs her shoulders when I tinker with the old Compaq
Plus XT-class machine. I keep it alive for just such emergencies because I
too have found programs that blow out on the faster machines for one
reason or another.

Old computers are fun. The Compaq has outlived three hard drives. I hope
the most recent transplant, a 40 meg Seagate IDE X/A, is going to work for
a while.

Keep the classics alive!
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Firth ! "Don't just do something, sit there!" We must
Westerville, OH ! learn to stop from time to time in order to see
! clearly. -- Thich Nhat Hahn

timo...@cyberramp.net

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Apr 1, 1998, 3:00:00 AM4/1/98

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djf...@freenet.columbus.oh.us (David Firth) wrote:

>: It seems that the newer Pentium class machines don't like Teledisk and
>: hang during the write process. I had to get out my old XT to do the
>: job. Just what is causing the problem I don't know - maybe the disk
>: controller chip in current PC's deviates too much from the old 765's (?)

>My wife sometimes shrugs her shoulders when I tinker with the old Compaq
>Plus XT-class machine. I keep it alive for just such emergencies because I
>too have found programs that blow out on the faster machines for one
>reason or another.

>Old computers are fun. The Compaq has outlived three hard drives. I hope
>the most recent transplant, a 40 meg Seagate IDE X/A, is going to work for
>a while.

>Keep the classics alive!

I have an XT running, but I use it only for CP/M-86

Tim Olmstead
webmaster of the CP/M Unofficial web page
email : timo...@cyberramp.net
MAIN SITE AT : http://cdl.uta.edu/cpm
MIRROR AT : http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~cfs/cpm

Tom Karlsson

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Apr 3, 1998, 3:00:00 AM4/3/98

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Ed.S...@bbs.tardis.net (Ed Smeda) writes:

> I recently attempted to reconstitute some MS-DOS disks from images I
> created some years ago using the Sydex TELEDISK utility (ver 2.12).
>

> It seems that the newer Pentium class machines don't like Teledisk and
> hang during the write process. I had to get out my old XT to do the
> job. Just what is causing the problem I don't know - maybe the disk
> controller chip in current PC's deviates too much from the old 765's (?)

I have experienced the same problem using Teledisk for storing old CP/M
floppies and trying to use as old machines as 386 PCs (they are way to
fast for Teledisk :-). The 16 MHz 286-AT however will do the job.

/Tom

| Tom Karlsson, Computer Security Researcher |
| Department of Computer Services, SLU Fax: +46 18 301533 |
| BOX 7079 Phone: +46 18 671738 |
| 750 07 UPPSALA <URL:http://www.kemi.slu.se/homes/tomk.html> |
| Sweden <Tom.Karlsson@_data.slu.se_> remove underscores |

AR Ogden

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Apr 4, 1998, 3:00:00 AM4/4/98

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Ed,

I'm not so sure about what you said.

A friend and I are working on a project the required his sending
me disk image files. We used Teledisk 2.1x. At my end, I have a PCI
Pentium Intel MB with a on-board fdc. In that the disk images
involved were a 'stressed' format, it took a long time for
Teledisk to write them, but it did do the job.

I'll grant that this system is using two-three year old
technology... but I'd still take a hard look at my set up
and my hardware, if I ran into this.

Alan Ogden
ar...@gte.net
ar...@bix.com

Ed Smeda wrote:
>
> Don't throw out your old XT/AT machines just yet!
>

> I recently attempted to reconstitute some MS-DOS disks from images I
> created some years ago using the Sydex TELEDISK utility (ver 2.12).
>
> It seems that the newer Pentium class machines don't like Teledisk and
> hang during the write process. I had to get out my old XT to do the
> job. Just what is causing the problem I don't know - maybe the disk
> controller chip in current PC's deviates too much from the old 765's (?)
>

bill_h

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Apr 5, 1998, 4:00:00 AM4/5/98

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Ed Smeda wrote:
>
> Don't throw out your old XT/AT machines just yet!
>
> I recently attempted to reconstitute some MS-DOS disks from images I
> created some years ago using the Sydex TELEDISK utility (ver 2.12).
>
> It seems that the newer Pentium class machines don't like Teledisk and
> hang during the write process. I had to get out my old XT to do the
> job. Just what is causing the problem I don't know - maybe the disk
> controller chip in current PC's deviates too much from the old 765's (?)
>
> I mention this as Teledisk may have been used by some to save images of
> 'foreign' (e.g. CP/M) disks.

Not enough detail to actually KNOW.....but sounds like possibly you're
trying to make a 40 track disk in an 80 track drive...... ??

Herbert Oppmann

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Apr 8, 1998, 3:00:00 AM4/8/98

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Ed.S...@bbs.tardis.net wrote:

> I recently attempted to reconstitute some MS-DOS disks from images I
> created some years ago using the Sydex TELEDISK utility (ver 2.12).
>
> It seems that the newer Pentium class machines don't like Teledisk and
> hang during the write process.

I had similar problems after I upgraded my 486 machine from 50 MHz to
150 MHz. Upgrading TeleDisk as well from 2.12 to the latest version
(Version 2.14 August 2, 1991) fixed this.

> Just what is causing the problem I don't know - maybe the disk
> controller chip in current PC's deviates too much from the old 765's (?)

I'm not aware of such differences in the diskette controller. I think
the cause is much simpler: Sydex has some software timing loops in older
versions of TeleDisk which time out too fast on modern machines.
--
he...@memotech.franken.de
Dipl.-Inf. Herbert Oppmann
Duesseldorfer Str. 65, 90425 Nuernberg, Germany

Herbert Oppmann

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Apr 27, 1998, 3:00:00 AM4/27/98

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[I'm re-posting this because my provider's news system crashed]
[and I fear it never made it to the newsgroup the first time.]