Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!ukma!gatech!ncar!asuvax!hrc!force!covertr
From: covertr@force.UUCP (Richard E. Covert)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Serial port Disk driver
Summary: Please tell us more!!
Keywords: ST <--> UNIX
Message-ID: <462b356c.14a1f@force.UUCP>
Date: 11 Oct 89 19:47:21 GMT
References: <42681@ccicpg.UUCP>
Organization: gte
Lines: 55

In article <42681@ccicpg.UUCP>, paulm@ccicpg.UUCP (tmp Paul Moreau usenet acct) writes:
> 
> Hi:
> I've been doing some drive changes on my ST latelly and been needing a backup
> system.   I've tried turtle but I haven't loads of floppies that I can use
> for this nor the time to sit in front of my computer all day switching 
> diskettes.   What I do have is a couple of UNIX systems (one system V and one
> BSD 4.2) with lots of disk space and 5 1/4 cartridge tape drives.   I then
> started to consider using the UNIX system but had to get the information
> to it some how.  I thought of using xmodem but it also required some
> intervention.   I've been writing disk driver code for a while (my MAXTOR
> 380 meg ESDI drive) and all of a sudden it flashed on me to just convert
> the actual I/O routines in the driver so that instead of going to the DMA
> port, it went via the serial port.  I over came the non re-entrant BIOS
> problem and wrote a handler that runs on the UNIX system.  I can create
> a disk file on the unix system from 128K to 16meg, start the TSR driver
> on the ST and Wella... I've got a drive 'P' on my st that I can just drag
> files or disk ICONS to and start the copy and go away for a while.
> If used with a disk caching program this drive can be quite fast.
> Well I've been reading this forum for quite a while and have downloaded
> a lot of great stuff.  If anybody is interrested in my code I will post
> it PD on this net or (try) to mail it to whom-ever asks.
> Currently I am working on another UNIX side utility to copy to and from
> files from UNIX and the ST disk file.
> ----
>    |  UUCP:  ...ccicpg!dl2!paulm   |      Paul L. Moreau       |
>    |    or   ...ccicpg!dl1!paulm   | Diagnostics Software Eng. |
>    |    or   ...ccicpg!paulm       |    Irvine, California     |
>    `==========================================================='


Paul, while most of us STers have access to usenet (how else can we read this
message), we don't all have UNIX computers at home. But, your ideas sound good
anyway. I have a thought, would it be possible to interface an ST to an IBM PC
with a tape backup?? More folks out there might have access to such a creature.

There are a lot of Bourneoulli (sp?) boxes out for IBM PCs, and other forms of
tape backup. But, except for the ICD FAST TAPE, which is $900 plus tapes,
and the SysQuest 44 meg removable drive, which is $800 plus $110 per cart,
there is very little way of backing up a large hard drive. So, your ideas are
most welcome.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Richard Covert