Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2019 11:03:58 +0100 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: "L. Mart" <l__mart@hotmail.com> Cc: "freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Imation SuperDisk 120MB Message-ID: <20190116110358.46035e18.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <BN8PR15MB2913E229D5B56778250950EDA9810@BN8PR15MB2913.namprd15.prod.outlook.com> References: <BN8PR15MB2913E229D5B56778250950EDA9810@BN8PR15MB2913.namprd15.prod.outlook.com>
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On Tue, 15 Jan 2019 23:31:53 +0000, L. Mart wrote: > Yes, Imation SuperDisk 120MB is old technology. However, after a > recent death in the family, I now have a need to recover important > genealogy documents stored on these disks. The disks were created > on an Imation SuperDisk 120MB Parallel Port Drive w/ Imation USB > adapter, which is in my possession. A USB-based device should cause less trouble than the parallel ones, even though I once got a parallel Iomega Zip drive working with FreeBSD. > There are 2 dirvers for 2.2.6-RELEASE and, 2.2.7-RELEASE, wfd > (ATAPI LS-120/ZIP) driver for FreeBSD > http://configure.sh/FreeBSD/ls120.html The ATAPI version is for internal drives (parallel ATA connector). If you have the USB version, the generic USB direct access storage driver (da) should work. > My Questions: > > 1. Is the Imation SuperDisk 120MB supported in your current > release (FreeBSD-12.0-RELEASE)? It's so old it's not listed anymore, and because it was less common in the PC area (mostly a "Mac thing"), documentation for comparable technology concentrates on Zip drives. However, as you said you have the USB version, why not give it a try? Even a live system (booted from USB stick or CD / DVD without installation) should be sufficient. After the system booted, attach the drive. Make sure a disk is loaded, so the medium can be identified. Use the "dmesg" command to check the last messages. Does a new da* device appear? For this example, let's assume lines with "da0:" have been printed, and we assume /dev/da0 as the new drive. If yes, check which files have been created in /dev for that device, i. e., use "ls /dev/da0*". There will probably be two files, /dev/da0 and /dev/da0s1, but that's just a guess. So let's assume /dev/da0s1 is a MS-DOS (FAT) file system on the disk - the data you want to get. Now you can probably mount the disk. Pay attention to _not_ use a r/w mount at this stage! A usable approach would probably be something like this: # mkdir /isd # mount_msdosfs -r /dev/da0s1 /isd It might be helpful to apply a file and directory mask with a more extended mount command: # mount_msdosfs -r -m=644 -M=755 /dev/da0s1 /isd Check what's in there: # ls -R /isd You can then copy everything from the /isd directory, depending on your "recivery system setup". Don't forget to use # umount /isd when you're done. Pay attention to use the correct device name, Contrary to my example, /dev/da1 could be correct (and /dev/da0s1 wrong). You can examine the partitioning with the appropirate "old" tool: # fdisk /dev/da0 And you will probably see one MS-DOS partition. However, if you have the "Mac thing"... it _could_ be possible that a different file system has been used to initialize the disk. In that case, more forensic work will be needed. I'm not saying it is impossible - I'm just suggesting that it can be a bit complicated because you need to perform "a mental and material travel into the past", which I'm saying from my experience as a "living museum". ;-) > 2. Is the driver for 2.2.6-RELEASE operable on your current release? Probably not, but as I said, as you're using the USB version, you're probably not going to need it. > 3. If not, can the driver for 2.2.6-RELEASE be updated to be > operable on your current release? Maybe it can. It heavily depends on the facilities it relies on. Keep in mind the OS kernel has seen a lot of changes since 2.2.6. :-) > 4. Does the 2.2.6-RELEASE offer a LiveCD or does it require a > full install to a HDD? I'm not sure it will even _run_ on current hardware. Sure, you could use a much older computer, set up networking, and use an internal FTP server to get the data out... On the FTP server, I can only see floppy images for the 2.2.6 installation process: http://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/old-releases/i386/2.2.6-RELEASE/floppies/ So that should work. The old computer you're going to use will surely have a floppy disk drive. :-) > 5. Do you have any additional thoughts to help me? Try it first with a current FreeBSD version. A live system will probably be sufficient for testing. Good luck! -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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