Reading dblspaced disks

[John]

Hi

Is there a way to read old dos/win95 dblspaced images in xp?

Thanks

Regards

 

[Richard Urban]

No!

The disk must be mounted on a computer that has DoubleSpace (Win95)

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Not in XP or in Vista. There may be some third party products that can read
this old compression system, you might try a search on google.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Is there a way to read old dos/win95 dblspaced images in xp?

G'day John,

There is no 32-bit Dblspace driver for XP or Vista. The only reliable way to
read a dblspace volume is to mount it under MS-DOS or Windows 9x.

If you don't have a spare DOS machine floating around, one workaround would
be to configure a virtual machine, using Virtual PC. This is a free
download:

Virtual PC 2007
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx

Install Virtual PC on your XP machine, Then create a new Virtual Machine,
and install MS-DOS or Windows 95 into the virtual machine. Then use this VM
to mount your old dblspace disks. Once they are mounted, copy the data
across to a shared folder on the host XP machine. Once you have recovered
all your data, you can remove the virtual machine, if you don't need it any
more. You will need MS-DOS or Windows 95 setup disks.

If you have a an external FAT or FAT32 drive, you could alternatively
download a MS-DOS or Windows 95 Bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com. Boot up from
a MS-DOS floppy boot disk, and access the dblspace files via the FAT/FAT32
drive (you cannot access NTFS drives from DOS). This would require that your
FAT drive can show up under DOS, and doesn't require a special driver.

Hope it helps,

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Dblspace was a DOS 6.2 utility.. DriveSpace appeared in Win 95/98. I don't
think that they were compatible. You have to use the same utility as was
used to compress the drive..

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Dblspace was a DOS 6.2 utility.. DriveSpace appeared in Win 95/98. I don't
think that they were compatible. You have to use the same utility as was
used to compress the drive..

Doublespace was the original utility, which appeared in MS-DOS 6.0.

After Stac Electronics took Microsoft to court for patent infringement,
Microsoft introduced DriveSpace in MS-DOS 6.22. DriveSpace was also
available in Windows 95 and Windows 98 (the 98 version being "DriveSpace
3").

DriveSpace was *supposed* to be compatible with DoubleSpace compressed
volumes, but ... YMMV

I agree with Mike, it is best practice to mount the compressed volume with
the exact version OS it was created with.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Drive Space 3.. now there is a utility to keep you awake during the witching
hour..

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Drive Space 3.. now there is a utility to keep you awake during the
witching hour..

) !!!

I think every version of Doublespace/Drivespace needed a quantum of
supernatural reinforcement. I remember users regularly telling me "I had
this huge dblspace.000 file taking up most of the disk, so I deleted it. By
the way, where have my documents gone?"

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Since we are on nostalgia lane, I installed Windows 95 retail Upgrade the
other day in VPC '07 the other day and was reminded of all the illegal
operations that OS use to spit out. Those were the days.

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Since we are on nostalgia lane, I installed Windows 95 retail Upgrade the
other day in VPC '07 the other day and was reminded of all the illegal
operations that OS use to spit out. Those were the days.

It's good to install Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, every once in a while ...
just to remind ouselves, how far we've come!

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

It's good to install Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, every once in a while
... just to remind ouselves, how far we've come!

I actually still use Windows '95 occassionally. I have one of the first IBM
Thinkpads, a 755c, which has a better keyboard than my later Thinkpad X31.
It's the best keyboard I have ever used, and use it when I am typing
something very long, on Word '95.

I don't have the dock, and there is no USB or optical drive, so I have to
use floppy or serial connection. I reinstalled a fresh copy of Windows '95
on it last year, through serial.

Strangely, it is Made in Scotland.

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:755C

ss.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Greenock

--
Mike Hall - MVP
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx
Posting Productively.. http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

 

[Andrew McLaren]

It's not strange - all good things come from Scotland!

Alba gu brath!


(although, unfortunately IBM pulled out of the Glasgow/Greenock district a
few years back, & the electronics industry there has withered on the vine).