Subj : My new* 486 (*=old)
To   : Cougar428
From : Ben Collver
Date : Wed Mar 01 2023 11:02:30

  Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
  By: Cougar428 to BEN COLLVER on Wed Mar 01 2023 06:24:00

BC> I hoped to back up the hard disk to a USB drive.

CO> I used a 'Ghost 2002' boot disk to backup the original drive on the
CO> 386. Plugged in the DOM to the second IDE port and cloned from one
CO> to the other.

That sounds pretty straightforward.

As it turned out, the USB ports on this PC were not reliable.  My USB
storage would attach and function, but large transfers would freeze
part-way through.

I ended up buying an inexpensive USB2 adapter on eBay that has plugs
for SATA, 3.5" IDE, and 2.5" IDE.  I used that to plug the IDE disk
into my working Linux system and recover data from the disk.  While i
was at it, i ran a SMART self-test, which completed without logging
the results.  So i used the "dd" command to read all sectors, and
then write all sectors.  This completed without any new errors in the
SMART error log.

A friend gave me an 80 conductor IDE cable.  It is keyed by blocking
one of the holes.  I used a dremel to drill a pin hole.  Now the
hard drive is on the 80 conductor cable to the primary IDE controller
and the CD-ROM is on the 40 conductor cable to the secondary IDE
controller.

I installed FreeDOS 1.3.  The CD-ROM drive has intermittent read
errors, so it took me more than one try.

I removed the Windows-only PCI cards and installed a non-PNP ISA
SoundBlaster 16 card.  It seems to be working perfectly.

Eventually i plan to set up WIFI connectivity through a serial
connection to a Raspberry PI running modem emulation software.  I
found a USB DB9 RS232 adapter at a thrift store for $0.50 and it works
great.  I think it has a Prolific chipset.

I have already tested connectivity between Taylor UUCP on Slackware 15
and "UUPC" on FreeDOS, and it worked as expected.

CO> I use the 386 for all of my old apps.  I still use Lotus 123 V3.1,
CO> Wordstar 7.0, dBASE III+, XTree Gold and all the old apps I started
CO> with.  Wordstar is the system I started using back in the 80's and I
CO> still find it the easiest system to use for writing.  It lacks
CO> anything but basic image insertion, but if you need to type and are
CO> a touch typist you can fly in it.  And I love programming apps in
CO> dBASE III, it's so easy.  I have an Epson LQ570 dot matrix printer
CO> that is hooked up to it for output.  I use Colorado backup for DOS
CO> with a T1000 drive for system backukps.

Nice setup!  I like that you have a printer for output and tape drive
for backups.  That sounds like the real deal.

I remember using Borland TurboBasic and the Q.EXE editor (now known as
Semware TSE), and they both have Wordstar key bindings.

I also remember using Crocodile backup software with a QIC tape drive.
If i remember correctly, the controller is very similar to a floppy
controller, but not exactly identical because the timings are
different for tapes.

-Ben

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