Strand 520 saving options

[Samuel0904]

Hi,

Does anyone know if there is another way to save a backup on the strand 520 if the floppy drive has broken? I have heard that a USB stick will work if insterted before start up and I have also heard that an external USB to floppy will work. I haven't tried yet but wondered if anyone had any experience of this problem.

Thanks

 

 

[gareth]

Wrong on both counts, I'm afraid - the OS on the 520 doesn't have drivers for the USB ports. If your floppy drive is broken, the only other way to save to somewhere external to the console is by networking it to a PC running Strand's IOFTP software to pull the .ssf files from the hard-drvie in the desk.

[IRW]

Wrong on both counts, I'm afraid - the OS on the 520 doesn't have drivers for the USB ports. If your floppy drive is broken, the only other way to save to somewhere external to the console is by networking it to a PC running Strand's IOFTP software to pull the .ssf files from the hard-drvie in the desk.

 

Not quite correct there Gareth...

 

I once got dos USB drivers working with a 520, which gave access to a USB stick if inserted before turning the desk on, and not unplugged until the desk was off again.

 

However, even once I'd got it working, it never really seemed beneficial, other than to bulk transfer old show files off the desk in DOS, and I seem to recall having some issues with the software crashing when accessing Archive with a USB stick plugged in (although only occaisionally), so once I'd done my transfer I disabled the drivers again.

 

Unfortunately I can't remember the exact configuration to get it working, but it's definately possible! IIRC, USBASPI.sys (but a specific version) and DI1000.sys , or something like that were the keys to the door.

 

What I never managed to get working were the USB ports on a 300 though- I've got a feeling that was something to do with not having enough RAM available as far as I could work out.

 

Ian

 

Edited to add:

 

By the way, this is certainly not something you want to try unless you know DOS and 520s completely inside-out, and know how to fix them if when you break it through experimentation!

[Kazeja]

Agree with Ian.

 

Whilst saving to a USB is possible as described by Ian, I have noticed some system instabilities and would never recommend running the console under live conditions with the USB connected.

 

Easiest way to archive as Gareth suggests is via IOFTP to a PC or another networked 500 series processor.

 

If you have server application enabled then you don't need to worry about DOS commands as you can do all you archiving in console mode.

 

K

[gareth]

Not quite correct there Gareth...

 

Ok, perhaps I should've qualified my statement by saying that *natively* there's no way to save to USB. I do seem to remember, now I think about it, you mentioning a while back that you'd managed to get the USB ports working on a 520 - but unless we're talking about someone with in-depth knowledge of MS-DOS (which is unlikely, although the OP hasn't commented on the thread yet so we don't know for sure!), then it's not really a realistic proposition. IOFTP is a much easier route to go down ;).

[Samuel0904]

Thanks for all your info guys. Taking all this into account does anyone know if it would be worth getting a new floppy drive for the desk and if so how do I go about getting hold of one? Sorry for the nagging nature of the questions but I have no idea what's the score with all this sort of thing.

Thanks

[IRW]

Thanks for all your info guys. Taking all this into account does anyone know if it would be worth getting a new floppy drive for the desk and if so how do I go about getting hold of one? Sorry for the nagging nature of the questions but I have no idea what's the score with all this sort of thing.

Thanks

 

Two options (I think, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm getting confused and the following isn't the case!)

 

Short term temporary fix would be to just get hold of a standard PC floppy drive and pop it under the hood somewhere that the cables would reach and it doesn't interfere with anything. Obviously this will involve lifting the lid every time you need to use it, which will lead to extra wear on cables, chances of touching things you shouldn't etc etc etc....

 

Long term fix would be to get hold of the proper fitting drive, which, IIRC, was some sort of laptop drive? (I've got Panasonic in my head for some reason) Maybe try White Light, I think they had a stock of 520 bits and pieces for a while...

[ianknight]

It's been a while since I opened a 520 but the old 430's used a standard 3.5inch floppy and it was some clever case design that made it look like a slimline drive - I can't for the life of me remember if it was the same on the 520.

 

It would be worth looking on eBay or Freegle for old PC's with floppy drives (even old gaming machines like Atari's and Amiga's - some of the later versions had HD Floppy drives) - as an Illusion owner I hoard old floppy drives for this reason when I see them in old PC's :P

 

If you get a floppy drive working then put a copy of LapLink Dos on the desk - then all you need is a serial cable if the drive dies again and you can transfer files to almost anything.

 

The really geeky amongst us keep a hard disk with it's own IDE paddle card around to plug in and do hard disk to hard disk copies (so I've heard... :P )

[Kazeja]

Strange. With the exception of the 510, I've only ever known the 500 and 400 series consoles and the SN100 and 102 nodes to have the slim line laptop type drives fitted. Well that's what we have fitted on all our range of consoles here in the workshop.

 

Slim line drives are widely available and most will work. If you're handy with a drill or can make a new fixing plate, then the only real criteria I've found is the position of the cable connector relative to the chassis.

 

K