Help With AOS + ATAPI Zip Drive

[Karthik Raju]

Hello All,



I'm working in a company which uses a very old Test Machine and thereby works on old Data General Computers. Somehow they have DOS and AOS OS installed and can be switched alternatevely. The device drivers for Test machines are on AOS Operating System and communicate directly with the Test machines. The issue is the everytime we need to type a new test program, it must on the same old system. There is a Zip Atapi 100 drive and can be accessed only through DOS and not AOS.

Could you please help me with the below two

1. How do I access the zip drive on my AOS operating system

2. How to replace the old Zip drive with a USB port. Like using some ZIP-USB converted Bus or similar.



Any help would be greatly appretiated



Thanking you

 

[Cycloid Torus]

DG went out of business in 1999.

You need a retired DG programmer (which I am not).

 

[retsxel]

Unfortunately, you are limited to supported HDD's and floppy disc's. What you can do is take the IDE HDD out of the target system, plug it into a USBtoIDE adapter then into the system you need to transfer data to/from.
You could also get a CompactFlash to IDE adapter and replace the ZIP drive with it.

That's about it for your options on such an old, unsupported OS.

 

[Karthik Raju]

Unfortunately, you are limited to supported HDD's and floppy disc's. What you can do is take the IDE HDD out of the target system, plug it into a USBtoIDE adapter then into the system you need to transfer data to/from.
You could also get a CompactFlash to IDE adapter and replace the ZIP drive with it.

That's about it for your options on such an old, unsupported OS.

Hi Lexter,

Thank you for the answer, The USBtoIDE adapter is something im looking for. Could you please elaborate or provide me a link of how exactly that can be done. Beause as far as I know this cable is used to transfer data from a Hard Disk Drive to a computer. But we are speaking other way round where the input comes from a Computer.

If this works, I'm planning to provide the output of the USBtoIDE adapter to a raspberry pi which will further move files to a shared location via some network adapter.

 

[retsxel]

Hi Lexter,

Thank you for the answer, The USBtoIDE adapter is something im looking for. Could you please elaborate or provide me a link of how exactly that can be done. Beause as far as I know this cable is used to transfer data from a Hard Disk Drive to a computer. But we are speaking other way round where the input comes from a Computer.

If this works, I'm planning to provide the output of the USBtoIDE adapter to a raspberry pi which will further move files to a shared location via some network adapter.

Ah, I see what you mean. What might work best is the following;
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000T9QQP0/?tag=httpwwwtechsp-20
or
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001JTO782/?tag=httpwwwtechsp-20
With either one of these and a CompactFlash card you will be able to transfer data off of the system in question and onto another system with the cable below(or one like it);
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J9WQGDX/?tag=httpwwwtechsp-20

CompactFlash cards are not expensive and are very useful for older systems like the one you're using. The one below is a 2GB model;
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00009967Y/?tag=httpwwwtechsp-20
If the system you're using doesn't support drives that large you may need to go with something like a 128MB;
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073RX9VQ3/?tag=httpwwwtechsp-20
Or a 512MB;
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073RWCZRQ/?tag=httpwwwtechsp-20

These are are examples from the US Amazon site, but wherever you are in the world you should be able to find equivalents available.

 

[Karthik Raju]

Ah, I see what you mean. What might work best is the following;
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000T9QQP0/?tag=httpwwwtechsp-20
or
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001JTO782/?tag=httpwwwtechsp-20
With either one of these and a CompactFlash card you will be able to transfer data off of the system in question and onto another system with the cable below(or one like it);
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J9WQGDX/?tag=httpwwwtechsp-20

CompactFlash cards are not expensive and are very useful for older systems like the one you're using;
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00009967Y/?tag=httpwwwtechsp-20

These are are examples from the US Amazon site, but wherever you are in the world you should be able to find equivalents available.

Thank you so much.
I think this should work (unless the system does not throw an error). I'll give it a shot and get back to u. Thank you again

 

[retsxel]

Thank you so much.
I think this should work (unless the system does not throw an error). I'll give it a shot and get back to u. Thank you again

You're welcome! I hope it works well for you like it's worked for others! Please do let us know how things go.