ImageDisk System

If you are involved in classic computers, you may have heard of my "ImageDisk" software.

ImageDisk can read/write floppy disks to/from .IMD image files. It does this by direct access to the disk controller hardware and can backup/restore any disk that the PC floppy hardware can access, regardless of it's content or format. It has been well received and is used by many organizations such as "Bitsavers" and "Retrotechnology" as well as a number of museums worldwide to preserve the content of historic media.

This is the system I used to run ImageDisk, and in fact is the system ImageDisk was mainly developed on. As a PC it does't seem overly special:

• Pentium-1 CPU at 200 Mhz.
• 64m RAM
• 2.1g Hard drive
• CD ROM drive
• Built in 3.5" HD drive.
• Network, serial and Parallel ports.

It does however also have/come with a 37 pin "D" connector on back panel and cableing/adapters for connecting external drives including (these will come with the system):

• Qume "QUMETRAK 242" 8" floppy drive.
• Panasonic "JU-475-5AKJ" DS/HD 5.25" floppy drive.
This is modified with a front panel switch to runs the drive at the normal Double Density speed of 300rpm instead of the usual High Density speed of 360rpm. This allows it to handle certain formats requiring data rates the PC controller hardware can't do at 360rpm.
• Additional Panasonic HD 3.5" floppy drive (JU-256-203P shown).
• I have more floppy drives if you need them.
• An external power supply which can power the various drives.

The reason I have kept this system is that of all the systems I tried, this one has the BEST floppy controller. It handles all the single desnsity formats I have tried (most PCs can't do SD at all or in very limited ways).

It is running DOS 5.0. It has my ImageDisk software as well as a number of other useful tools. I will provide a "restore" CD which can restore the system back as I deliver it.

It runs DOS because that it needed to be able to have total (and only) control of the floppy hardware. Which leads to the question?

How can I get images on/off the system?
since DOS doesn't support most modern networking protocols.

The system does have a network port as well as serial and parallel ports. I have several ways to easily move files to/from more modern systems. I will provided information on how I accomplish this.

An interesting historic note: IIRC the CPU has the famed "Intel Pentium FDIV Bug". This does not affect DOS or ImageDisk because they (as well as my other tools and utilities) don't use floating point at all.

-SOLD-

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