Re: [NTLK] File xfr, Newt to Mac & back

From: Morgan Aldridge <morgant_at_makkintosshu.com>
Date: Wed May 20 2009 - 14:53:55 EDT

On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 11:35 AM, Brett Feinblatt <bafein@mac.com> wrote:
>
> Hiya -
>        I was wondering; I know we generally use the serial port to transfer
> files, do updates to/from the Newt, and so forth.
>        Here's the thing: I mentioned a while ago that my Newt's getting a
> bit slow, and the PC storage card's probably the culprit. As I
> expected, the solution is apparently to empty out the card, clear it,
> and put everything back on.

Yup, that'll do it.

>        Does anyone know if there's an easier way to do this? What I had in
> mind is to just pull the card from the Newt, stick it into an older
> Powerbook (which I have) running either OS 9 or OS X, drag everything
> off (or alternately use some app to pull it all off the card), wipe
> the card clean, then put it all back on again, nice and un-fragmented.
>
>        I realize Newt stuff isn't exactly an area that's heavy with
> development, but has anything been put together that would make that
> an option? Or alternately, is some clever individual out there just
> looking for an excuse to build an app like that  in his free time?

Unfortunately, there's no such beast. One could probably use the likes
of the `dd` command to make a bit-for-bit copy of the card and then
restore it to a same-size card (it might even have to be the same
model, I'm not entirely sure what extra bits might be used for in the
card), but it'd still be fragmented. I don't believe that there is an
even remotely simple way to write a tool that would allow you to do
this.

That said, there probably are Newton-based utilities that would make
copying everything from one card to another simpler than normal select
& file. Anyone have suggestions there?

Morgan Aldridge

---
morgant@makkintosshu.com
http://www.makkintosshu.com/
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Received on Wed May 20 14:54:05 2009

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