Post B3zh0yTi0lCfhtxl7Q by jlundell@ioc.exchange
(DIR) More posts by jlundell@ioc.exchange
(DIR) Post #B3zYWkA7sDjyzDsQyG by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2026-03-06T20:33:36Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
SPINRITE! OMFG I'd forgotten all about that. The disk drive repair program.I found a cache of DOS and early Windows programs and such from 1993, 1994. NCSA Mosaic installer, wmos1_0.zip, the file you had to ftp from mosaic. I think this is NCSA Mosaic 1.0.QuickBooks, ARCNet setup and files from 1992, WinQVT/Net, a TCP/IP shim setup for Windows 3.1, a Win 3.1 bunch of files, no idea.These are all from a copy of a folder so as-installed but I think a lot of installers included.
(DIR) Post #B3za1zqtglvGZxLik4 by vga256@mastodon.tomodori.net
2026-03-06T20:50:11Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tomjennings that’s awesome. i got a very similar package of dialup tools from my mom’s university at the time. the win 3.1 tcp/ip stack of choice was Trumpet Winsock because i believe it was shareware or freeware. i definitely had winqvt which was… a terminal emulator I think?
(DIR) Post #B3zdgDUWhK22KGkuAa by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2026-03-06T21:31:20Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@vga256 It's too much stuff and too long ago for me to remember much of it without delving in deep! Apparently I ran win 3.1, though I have no memory of it. DesqView/QEMM, TopView, OS/2 I at least vaguely recall, as I actually liked (aspects of) those.I'd consider "next year" doing an up to date DOS/those above push, like I'm now doing for MP/M, but I'm utterly uninterested in running old hardware, with chips in sockets and all that reliability horror. I keep peeking to see who's emulating x86 on some ARM or something I can code for at the hardware level, but likely that won't happen, and it will likely be far too complex to be fun. But you never know...
(DIR) Post #B3zh0yTi0lCfhtxl7Q by jlundell@ioc.exchange
2026-03-06T22:08:38Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tomjennings Still spinning: https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm
(DIR) Post #B3znC1LMIWlRVJhvn6 by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2026-03-06T23:17:55Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@jlundell Holy crap, still at it. Wow the knowledge those peeps have must be enormous. I imagime though most businesses just toss snd replace cuz its cheaper. Im curious sbout this, gonna get a copy and try it out. I bought a half dozen drive upgrades in the last year and performance is all over the place. Thanks!!
(DIR) Post #B3znEpayQwdtw8LrHs by dec23k@mastodon.ie
2026-03-06T23:18:24Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tomjennings This was something close to my heart; every early HDD that I owned had *something* wrong with it. I could only afford dodgy ones.I found a DOS recovery tool called Tiramisu, that was easily as good as SpinRite, but then Ontrack bought it and sort of abandoned it.I sometimes used OpTune for DOS to 'optimise' HDD interleaving, which often messed with the factory-written low-level formatting, but the speed boost was worth it.Today, I'd use TestDisk under Linux for HDD recovery.
(DIR) Post #B3znIieWBlfxYurals by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2026-03-06T23:19:08Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@jlundell Oh weird, boots to run... Lol ill rtfm to see if it will work for me.
(DIR) Post #B3zo9uGnj4JmwP8DgG by jlundell@ioc.exchange
2026-03-06T23:28:43Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tomjennings Steve & I go way back, to the 70s, making disk controllers for minicomputers. One thing led to another, I guess.
(DIR) Post #B3zssT6Lz4pzWkkVDk by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2026-03-07T00:21:37Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@jlundell Oh thats yours?! Wow. Damn spinrite was a damn savior in the dos days! Hard disks were such a pita. Such continuty is rare these days. Glad to meet you!
(DIR) Post #B3zt7aiLxgyzTwja2S by jlundell@ioc.exchange
2026-03-07T00:24:19Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tomjennings Not mine, but rather Steve Gibson’s. We worked together and have stayed in touch. He’s solely responsible for SpinRite. All assembler.
(DIR) Post #B40HJhUgykBesqeRqy by jlundell@ioc.exchange
2026-03-07T00:35:45Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tomjennings Disk controllers were very close to the metal in those days. TTL SSI & a bit of MSI, discrete PLLs.
(DIR) Post #B40HJix5YeUnPCwdkm by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2026-03-07T04:55:26Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@jlundell Ugh, all those separate formatter/decoder boards, a cable to the buss interface... I used to know how MFM works, and i knew the controllers from the interface, and all the recal and positioning trickery, but that stuff started out obscure and became a black art soon enough. Spinrite was solidly in the black-art regime even then! And a three-letter domain name!