crash Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 Greetings, I'm looking for any feedback regarding the program from CSS called "The Hard Disk Pro Backup". I am trying to buy it, but if you have used the program I would appreciate hearing about your experiences. http://nleaudio.com/css/products.htm Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 I'm sorry that I can't help you out, but thanks for the link, I didn't even know CSS was still around! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 I'm sorry that I can't help you out, but thanks for the link, I didn't even know CSS was still around!1018227[/snapback] Their website might be up, but are they still in business? It looks like it hasn't been updated in about five years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 I'm sorry that I can't help you out, but thanks for the link, I didn't even know CSS was still around!1018227[/snapback] Their website might be up, but are they still in business? It looks like it hasn't been updated in about five years. 1018230[/snapback] guess theer's only one way to find out, but even the fact that they lasted until 2000 was something I didn't know. The last I'd heard or seen of CSS was Antic magazine and Atari Interface magazines before they went under in the early 90's. I would imagine, that even if CSS isn't in business anymore, the fact that they were around till at least 2000 means one might at least be able to contact the proprietor still and purchase some old-stock left over from CSS. A chance that was much more slim if CSS HAD disappeared 15 years ago like I thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danwinslow Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 I talked to him about a black box the other day. He's still selling them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 I talked to him about a black box the other day. He's still selling them. 1018310[/snapback] I assume you spoke to Bob Puff? I lived in Rochester for several years and went to his place on several occasions. Very smart guy and he was cranking out tons of 8-bit hardware and software at the time. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danwinslow Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 Well, I think so, although I didn't speak via phone with him. I sent an email to the address on the CSS site and after a bit of fooling around with a spam filter he sent me an email and phone number. I have not actually called it yet, but he said in the email that he has BB's in stock and to call him. The email is at work, so when I get back there I'll post the number. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 Is it possible to even find a hard drive and controller to use with the Black Box anymore? I considered buying one some years ago, but was scared away by the seemingly arcane technology; it almost looked to me like I would have had to somehow find a working twenty-year-old SCSI controller and hard drive. That's got to be a hard sell nowadays compared to the IDE solutions that are available for a lot less elsewhere. I know the Black Box gives you a lot more options, plus the ability to sector-copy floppies into bootable hard drive partitions (which I don't believe is possible with MyIDE), but still ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 Is it possible to even find a hard drive and controller to use with the Black Box anymore? I considered buying one some years ago, but was scared away by the seemingly arcane technology; it almost looked to me like I would have had to somehow find a working twenty-year-old SCSI controller and hard drive. That's got to be a hard sell nowadays compared to the IDE solutions that are available for a lot less elsewhere. I know the Black Box gives you a lot more options, plus the ability to sector-copy floppies into bootable hard drive partitions (which I don't believe is possible with MyIDE), but still ... 1018339[/snapback] You can find all the vintage equipment you will ever need on E-bay. I got an old adaptec 4000 SCSI controller off E-bay along with a Seagate ST-xxx type 40MB MFM HD to go with it. My stuff would work with the Blackbox and floppyboard add-on as it states compatiblity with the Adaptec 4000. Though the controller and HD were originally bought for my ST, not 8-bit, and I have since upgraded to newer ST HD equipment, so it's just waiting to be used with the 8-bits. Though I do have the MyIDE already. but I was more interested in some of the other items besides the Black Box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danwinslow Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 Yup, I have scavenged quite a bit of old SCSI gear off of ebay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 You can find all the vintage equipment you will ever need on E-bay. I got an old adaptec 4000 SCSI controller off E-bay along with a Seagate ST-xxx type 40MB MFM HD to go with it. My stuff would work with the Blackbox and floppyboard add-on as it states compatiblity with the Adaptec 4000. Though the controller and HD were originally bought for my ST, not 8-bit, and I have since upgraded to newer ST HD equipment, so it's just waiting to be used with the 8-bits. Though I do have the MyIDE already. but I was more interested in some of the other items besides the Black Box.1018361[/snapback] An MFM hard drive to connect to a SCSI controller? I wasn't aware they were compatible. If they are, I could kick myself for scrapping so many of those old Seagates years ago. I just took a look for Adaptec 4000 controllers on eBay but didn't see anything but a bunch of USB2 cards; I guess I'll have to keep looking (and putting away my pennies for a Black Box). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXG/MNX Posted February 18, 2006 Share Posted February 18, 2006 I did buy the back program it's nice only there is no support for 1.44Mb floppy drives like the HDI, but overal it's a good product and heavily protected... It was an expensive program and I have used it for sometime, but later I did use a ZIP drive on my blackbox to backup it's much faster to do a 16Mb partition copy with the sector copier on the blackbox. SIO2PC is also a good solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crash Posted February 18, 2006 Author Share Posted February 18, 2006 I did buy the back program it's nice only there is no support for 1.44Mb floppy drives like the HDI, but overal it's a good product and heavily protected... 1020362[/snapback] Greetings, Do you mean that the program cannot be installed on a hard disk? That would pretty much kill my interest. After all, I'm trying to reduce my reliance on floppy drives and disks, not make the mandatory. I've been trying to contact CSS about buying it, but haven't gotten a response recently. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 I've given this thread a bump because I've been considering getting a Black Box. I've recently come across an old hard drive that might be compatible with it, and would like some feedback on that and on where I can get a controller. The hard drive is a Seagate ST238R, which was connected to a Western Digital WD1002A-27X controller inside an old Kaypro XT clone. I'm having trouble getting my 386 to recognize the drive/controller, but it powers up fine and I'm assuming it's in working condition. I know that this is an RLL drive, and I've seen mention of RLL drives in the Black Box documentation. Does anyone have this drive (or a similar one)? Does it work with the Black Box? Where can I get a controller for it (or does anyone happen to have an extra one)? I'm still seeing a bunch of USB2 cards when I try to look for an Adaptec 4000 on eBay, and I know that the controller I have isn't compatible with the Black Box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bf2k+ Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 I know that this is an RLL drive, and I've seen mention of RLL drives in the Black Box documentation. Does anyone have this drive (or a similar one)? Does it work with the Black Box? Where can I get a controller for it (or does anyone happen to have an extra one)? I'm still seeing a bunch of USB2 cards when I try to look for an Adaptec 4000 on eBay, and I know that the controller I have isn't compatible with the Black Box. 1022189[/snapback] IIRC, the drive should work but to get the entire 30 megs out of it, you'll need an RLL controller. I think with the 4000, you'd probably end up with 20 (or so) meg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 You can always use an RLL drive with an MFM controller (the other ways is also true in most, but not in all, cases). As pointed out you'll get 2/3 of the capacity. But you'll need to completely low level format the drive with the new controller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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