Old DOS and Windows software

[g3yuh_ron]

I was just having a grand chuck out of all my old floppy disks from way back when, and found a version of DOS 2.11 I can't help wondering if this old software will be collectable one day, I still keep an old P100 to run DOS but I havn't used it for years, do we just sigh and bin the lot or save a small space in the atic for collectors to find in the year 3000

[brunel]

A good Q. I have lots of floppies with old software, probably will keep them along with several 3.5 floppy drives.

Slightly OT, also have old hardware, does anyone still use 250MB Zip Disks, or HP Tape drives anymore?

[yesnaby]

Hello,

I did use 250 MB Zip disks until about 2 years ago, but they kept going bad. So I switched to Fujitsu magneto-optical disks (up to 2.3 GB) which I use all the time. At one time the drives for these were horrendously expensive but they do turn up now and then on eBay and appear to be practically indestructible, as do the disks.

Michael

[eldritch]

Originally Posted by brunel

...Slightly OT, also have old hardware, does anyone still use 250MB Zip Disks...

I do, my boss does and so does just about any one who uses a Torex Prism Bom.

the Bom machines they supply all come with zip drives for backup.

I still have disks for DOS 6.2 somewhere, and Windows 3.11 for Workgroups.
all kept under the banner, 'that'll be useful, to someone, someday'.

Still got an old CD of 'inside sports - swimwear edition' on CD somewhere.
Won't work with Vista, I don't think it worked with XP...

[KeithsTV]

I have one 250MB zip disc and a very under used drive in one of my PCs. I have about 40 100MB discs and two PCs with drives and an external 100MB drive, again hardly ever used. They were useful in the days when an extra 100MB was a significant proportion of the PCs own hard drive size. Also useful as backup. I was glad of them when my 1G hard drive failed as most of the important stuff was saved on the Zip discs. Now with 8G and more flash drives available they are obselete. I'll hang onto them as a future antique.

Keith

[Dave Moll]

I still use Zip 250MB and 100MB discs, though not on a regular basis anymore. I used to use them for backups, both for my (currently defunct) Windows 3.1 486 and my main machine. The latter now has too much data for it to be practical to back up in 250MB chunks.

Please don't bin any old operating system discs. I would be happy to add any sets of original discs to my collection of old OSs.

[arjoll]

Sales of ZIP disks dropped to zero for us a couple of years ago now - in fact an ex-staff member bought a ten pack of ZIP250's into stock in 2005 when a client ordered two. Another client bought one in 2007, and I got rid of the other 7 for $20 (total) late last year.

In terms of old software - if you have a package you really need to run try Virtual PC. Its a free download from Microsoft. I had a client (surveyor) who had to run an old DOS-based CAD package to read some old files so they could export to DWG. It had been running - sort-of - in XP, but not reliably, and just wouldn't run on new hardware. I fired it up in MSDOS 6.22 with the Virtual Machine Additions for DOS so they could access files on the host. Worked perfectly!

[Mullard]

Virtual PC is an excellent package for anyone who wants to run multiple operating systems on a single PC. I run Linux, Windows XP, and Windws 7 under Vista, and am planning to put in a copy of Windows 95 to run some old CAD software. And its FREE.
John

[quantum]

Originally Posted by g3yuh_ron

I was just having a grand chuck out of all my old floppy disks from way back when, and found a version of DOS 2.11 I can't help wondering if this old software will be collectable one day, I still keep an old P100 to run DOS but I havn't used it for years, do we just sigh and bin the lot or save a small space in the atic for collectors to find in the year 3000

I believe that DOS 2.11 was the last version of DOS where variations were designed to run on non IBM compatibles, so as well as 'generic' 2.11 there were versions for a whole range of machines. I remember having 2.11 for an Apricot PC and 2.11 for a CAL PC, which were not IBM compatibles.

I've disposed of most of my old disks now, but I still have a boot disk for MSDOS 1.25 (again for a CAL PC), CP/M 86 and a CP/M system disk for Datastar, which I actually used to run under DOS emulation years ago, not because it was of any use but of interest to see how it worked!

I suspect that like many people on the forum, I've zipped up many of my old DOS based programmes onto CD 'just in case I need them in the future...'

[evingar]

Originally Posted by quantum

I suspect that like many people on the forum, I've zipped up many of my old DOS based programmes onto CD 'just in case I need them in the future...'

Yep !

Dos 6.2, Windows 3.11, a ton of old DOS cross compilers, Wordperfect 5.1 for DOS (what a classic !) and a lot of other stuff - I haven't tried the CDR for years though - hope it's still OK

[paul.brett]

I have found a set of 6 original 3½" Microsoft Works 2.0 diskettes.

Does anybody want them? (FOC)

Paul.

[ParcGwyn]

I still use an old 386 computer with freedos and a STAG eprom programmer for blowing eproms, as th programmer has a 8bit ISA card and my newer computer wont support the hardware. It also runs pspice slowly, with a 387 emulator program.


Dave

www.parcgwyn.talktalk.net

[Andyt31]

I still use Zip 100 disks to copy data to/from my newer PCs/Macs to my old Apple Macs.

Luckily, the older macs like the LCIII and SE/30 have SCSI interfaces!

[Andy Day]

I suppose all this old stuff is of relevance while there are people around who remember it. The things you guys are talking about is still relatively new! I have - not recently, taken to the tip CA LSI2 mini computers, power supplies, 8 inch floppy disks and drives, and even a Pertec 10mb removable over 10mb fixed hard disk. ( About 1 metre by 1/2 meter, 25cm deep and two people to carry it. And it worked ). I suppose some of this stuff needs to be preserved, but the functionality of modern software and hardware has made it redundant.

Having said that, it would be a good thing to see a museum where older computer equipment and software was preserved in a working state, maybe there is one, I wait for a deluge of responses! Or maybe, if there isn't, one of you young guns could set one up.

[Dave Moll]

There are certainly private collections (as distinct from museums). I have a modest collection here, and I know of at least one other forum member with a somewhat more extensive collection and virtual museum on the web. I don't have the address to hand at present.

It is my wish one day to set up a museum, but I would certainly be interested to learn of any (physical) museums of this nature which already exist.

[davidw]

Try here www.computinghistory.org.uk I found this and put it on the forum last year. The owner/curator is a forum member now.

[Andyt31]

http://www.retrocomputermuseum.co.uk/ is a new museum that has just started up.

Ive been lucky enough to visit the Centre of Computing history in Haverhill. (www.computinghistory.org.uk) Fantastic collection. They now also have a Sinclair C5!