Re: 3174 disks

On Tue, 2 Jul 2019, Tony Harminc [email protected] [hercules-390] wrote:

> On Sat, 29 Jun 2019 at 13:43, Giuseppe Vitillaro giuseppe-yuD/ahkh7LvrZ44/[email protected] wrote:
>
>> The best I remember is named EPLCOPY (version 4.20),
>> still functional under FreeDOS (I used it last time
>> under DOS 3.30 or 4.xx), file date 09-14-89.
>>
>> I vaguely remember it was widely used INSIDE IBM
>> for copying a range of non standard floppy disk
>> format.
>
> EPL = European Program Library? The European equivalent of the US PID
> (= Program Information Department). Sounds like the kind of department
> that could make good use of such a tool.
>
> Tony H.
>
Not sure I even had a fancy idea of the
origin of the name ;-)

Copies are available on the Net, for what I
can see, ranging from 4.20 to 5.00 versions:

http://www.retrocomputacion.com/forum/aplicaciones-utilitarios-y-juegos/45082/eplcopy-version-5-00-y-4-21/

I just remember it was widely used to copy non standard
floppy disk format on a standard PC-PS/2 floppy controller,
inside IBM of course, between 1985 and 1990, under PCDOS/MSDOS
(maybe even under OS/2).

Not easy to use, though.

But I had been able to use it to copy really
weird floppies 5.25" and 3.5" at its time.

I bet it "requires" a controller which match
the hardware it knows. Intel motherboard floppy
controllers, still available, should match it
(I've a couple with 5.25" floppies connected
still up&running).

I should have the complete 4.20 version, stored
with the manual somewhere, if it is still readable.

I can't say if 3174 disks are in the set this
tool can handle.

Peppe.