Subject: Recovering data from disks...

From: Jim Donoghue <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Mar 26 14:19:00 2003

I have several 5 1/4" *hard-sectored* floppy disks. These are in some
proprietary format, they are read by a controller that consists of a Z80
CPU, an EPROM, and some TTL chips. All this thing does is read the
entire contents of the disk, outputting the data in parallel format over
a ribbon cable. This is used to load CPU microcode into static RAMS.
I want to be able to read the data from the disks, as I no longer have
the controller/drive (or the mainframe it came from.)
Any ideas?
-- 
Jim Donoghue
Smithy Co.
(734) 913-6700

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From: "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Mar 26 15:03:00 2003

> the controller/drive (or the mainframe it came from.)

Is there a brand name?  (Somebody else might HAVE one)

Otherwise,the drive is almost certainly not a problem, and you can
probably use an "industry standard" drive, such as a TM100-2.

But you will need a controller that can handle hard sectored diskettes.

Depending on the specs of the format (which you haven't tod us), it MIGHT
be readable with Northstar hardware, or it MIGHT be readable with Vector
Graphic hardware, etc.

OR, you could build an appropriate controller for a PC.

--
Fred Cisin                      [email-masked]
XenoSoft                        http://www.xenosoft.com

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From: Jim Donoghue <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Mar 26 15:45:01 2003

> Is there a brand name?  (Somebody else might HAVE one)

The disks are 'CP4 CPU Microcode' disks for a Wang Laboratories' VS-90
minicomputer system. Their only purpose is to load microcode or
diagnostic routines into the control memory on the CPU board.
 
> be readable with Northstar hardware, or it MIGHT be readable with Vector

I don't have, and cannot obtain, the specs of the format. What I do have
is a disassembly of the Z80 code from the EPROM. From what I have read
scanning old newsgroup postings, etc. today, I might be out of luck.
There's a dealer of old Wang equipment in Ohio that has one of these,
but they want a small fortune for it. I may have to abandon the idea of
reading these disks until I can locate hardware from somewhere else, or
the Wang dealer finally decides it's not worth keeping and scraps it
out.

-- 
Jim Donoghue
Smithy Co.
(734) 913-6700