[TUHS] Floppy to modern files for Usenet maps
Jonathan Gevaryahu
jgevaryahu at hotmail.com
Tue Jun 25 13:54:28 AEST 2019
I'd use something like imagedisk or teledisk or anadisk for reading the
diskette; this will also preserve the deleted/unused sectors, the boot
sector and the disk filesystem/metadata, while just copying the files
off will lose most of this data.
On 6/23/2019 7:10 PM, Mary Ann Horton Gmail wrote:
> Hunting around through my ancient stuff today, I ran across a 5.25"
> floppy drive labeled as having old Usenet maps. These may have
> historical interest.
>
> First off, I don't recognize the handwriting on the disk. It's not
> mine. Does anyone recognize it? (pic attached)
>
> I dug out my AT&T 6300 (XT clone) from the garage and booted it up.
> The floppy reads just fine. It has files with .MAP extension, which
> are ASCII Usenet maps from 1980 to 1984, and some .BBM files which are
> ASCII Usenet backbone maps up to 1987.
>
> There is also a file whose extension is .GRF from 1983 which claims to
> be a graphical Usenet map. Does anyone have any idea what GRF is or
> what this map might be? I recall Brian Reid having a plotter-based
> Usenet geographic map in 84 or 85.
>
> I'd like to copy these files off for posterity. They read on DOS just
> fine. Is there a current best practice for copying off files? I would
> have guessed I'd need a to use the serial port, but my old PC has DOS
> 2.11 (not much serial copying software on it) and I don't have
> anything live with a serial port anymore. And it might not help with
> the GRF file.
>
> I took some photos of the screen with the earliest maps (the ones that
> fit on one screen.) So it's an option to type things in, at least for
> the early ASCII ones.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mary Ann
>
>
--
Jonathan Gevaryahu AKA Lord Nightmare
jgevaryahu at gmail.com
jgevaryahu at hotmail.com
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