RetroTech Chris Profile picture
May 19 15 tweets 9 min read Read on X
Did someone say "Bernoulli"? Well, I did! I recently received some new old stock 20MB disks from overseas. Let's revisit our past disk adventures and see how these new ones pan out! Time for another 🧵


Image
Image
Image
Image
So, first, I decided to start with this disk. We knew it had bad sectors from the last time we explored it. Okay, no surprise there. Sadly, though, a few new ones are bad now too. Oh well!


Image
Image
Image
Image
After running scandisk, I copied some files over, ran chkdsk, and then copied some more. We received a visit from good ol' General Failure, that guy is never nice to us! I did fill up the entire disk, but those failed file copies are a sign that things will not get better!

Image
Image
Image
I was able to quick format the disk when done. I couldn't recall if that would render the disk useless or not. We had to try it for science... after all, this is a Bernoulli disk! (Science. Bernoulli. Get it? Good! 🤣) Image
On to the next disk. I like this one since it is a "classic" compared to the others. But, alas, it is no good. A format doesn't work. Using the Iomega SCSIUTIL to format it doesn't work. It's still a lost cause, naturally. Boo.


Image
Image
Image
Image
So, as such, I'll mark it bad, but I am keeping it since it has that cool older disk aesthetic compared to the rest! Image
On to the next disk, which has known bad sectors. If I pass the right commands into scandisk, it won't bug me every time it finds a bad sector, it will just fix it. Here's to hoping...
Image
Image
Oh man! When scandisk made it to the bad sectors, the drive sure was angry! Have a listen!
So in the end, 18 new bad clusters were patched. Sheesh, these disks get worse every time we use them. Best that we not store anything important on them!
Image
Image
The next one, I had regrettably formatted it with the SCSIUTIL in the past. And this left it in an unusable state. I don't think it's supposed to work that way, there might be something wrong with my drive perhaps.
Image
Image
Alright, let's try one of the new disks! The directory listing shows the usual README suspect! That's good. And scandisk is off to a good start. Oh man, this is going to be a nail biter!


Image
Image
Image
Image
And... kaboom... about halfway through, some bad sectors. I am not going to patch it though, I am going to abort this experiment, I am starting to suspect the drive may have an issue, and I don't want to wreck any more disks.
Image
Image
So, I think to myself, I'll see if eBay has any drives. What do I find instead? THREE new packs of Bernoulli disks for sale... LOCALLY. Wait, what?? Yes, that's right: after having disks shipped from overseas, apparently there are now some available locally! Unbelievable 🤣 Image
Anyway, special thanks to @jk86tech for sending me the disks from overseas! I think I'll work to source a new drive before I open up any more of them. And rumor has it that even more disks MIGHT be on the way now 🤣. To be continued. Thanks for following along! Image
@jk86tech @threadreaderapp unroll

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with RetroTech Chris

RetroTech Chris Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @RetroTechChris

May 19
Let's get back to installing OSes on the PS/2 Model 70 386. I installed NetWare 3.12 w/ IBM Classroom LAN Administration System on top of it! And I decided to make the Pocket 386 the client! This install didn't go as planned, but we got there. Let's talk about it in a 🧵here!

Image
Image
Image
So, first of all, before I get too far, if you ever feel the inkling to set this up, I do have a video that covers the subject, more or less! I did have to make some modifications for this Microchannel PS/2 with an ESDI drive, but the concepts apply.
For the NetWare 3.12 install, there are basically two phases. The first phase lays down the NetWare server in DOS, and the second phase sets up the NetWare volume which clients access. And the first phase went nice and smooth.


Image
Image
Image
Image
Read 17 tweets
May 12
So, someone left a comment on an old YouTube video of mine today. The question: "Can you show me how to set up a Renegade BBS that people can access over telnet"? Why.. YES... I totally can. Let's have some fun and explore how to do it in a 🧵here! Let's go!


Image
Image
Image
Image
So, step 1, we need three pieces of software! First is Renegade itself, and someone has packaged it up nicely. Second, we need a special fossil driver called rlfossil. And third, we need a packet driver for our network card. And, yes, this all runs under DOS!
There is a great resource online that talks all about Renegade BBS and setting it up! It does try to link to some Renegade setups that people have done, but the links are broken. However, I'll list it anyway since it is a great Sysop resource! renegadebbs.info
Image
Read 17 tweets
May 11
Earlier today, I posted asking: Which OS should we install on the PS/2 Model 70 386 next? 16K views later, I now have a list of 35+ OSes, and growing!. Some apps were also requested, and, since my brain is tired, we're going to start with an app tonight: Microsoft Bob! 🧵 Image
Fortunately (?), Microsoft BOB can be found online, and it runs under Windows 3.1, which we already have installed on the Model 70 386!
Image
Image
I actually ended up installing the in-store demo of BOB just to keep things simple! Image
Read 6 tweets
May 10
Ahh, OS/2 Warp Connect 3, installed and running on my Model 70 386 (with a 486 DX/33 upgrade). This was quite the ordeal, and I learned a lot.. right, wrong, or indifferent. Let's talk about all of the problems and successes I had in a 🧵 here! Image
So, first of all, I decided to go with the "Blue Spine" version: this gives us DOS and Windows 3.x support, which I always thought was pretty neat!
Image
Image
So, for installation, I connected up a CD-ROM drive to my McIDE-CF. I had to take out my Kingston memory expansion card so that I had a spot to plug in the power for the CD-ROM drive.


Image
Image
Image
Image
Read 28 tweets
May 8
Okay, another successful experiment: Windows NT 4.0 Workstation installed on the PS/2 Model 70 386 with a 486 DX/33 upgrade! Let's talk about it in a 🧵

Image
Image
Image
So, first, just like when we installed NT 3.51, settings are important. Here are my settings for my McIDE-CF and ESDI hard drive. Channel A (secondary) is my CF card. Channel B (primary) is where I connected up a CD-ROM on the slave channel. And the ESDI is primary!
Image
Image
I booted up into DOS and loaded CD-ROM drivers, and then used the "/b" flag to do a diskless install of NT 4.0 (I learned about the "/b" flag from a great online article!)

Image
Image
Image
Read 14 tweets
May 8
Alright, admittedly I did a TERRIBLE job trying to copy and preserve these disks! What did I do wrong? Well, pretty much everything. Let's talk about what I missed and just how terrible I did in a 🧵
So, first, I used a 1.2MB drive for 360K disks. While this isn't a totally terrible sin, we'll be much better off using machines with 360K drives due to the size of the read heads of the drive. As such, I've enlisted my Tandy 1000 HX and Compaq Portable II to help!
Image
Image
So, first sin? Not checking for hidden files. Using the attrib command, I found that all disks have them, and now I know why disk 2 was "blank." I should have caught this: when I ran the virus scanner yesterday, I saw additional files, but just figured they were in an archive. Image
Read 11 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(