Software Overloading My House Need to consolidate

[03GrandAmGT]

My software library is out of hand. I've got programs dating back to the 80's all over the place and was thinking of consolidating everything to DVD. My question is, IIRC some of these programs required the label of the disk to be read from the floppy or cd how could I replicate that on the DVD? I was thinking also maybe make everything an iso package then put the actual volume label from the floppy/cd on the iso so when mounted it would be seen like the actual floppy/cd. Opinions, Thoughts, Ideas are welcomed. I know I could just trash it but alot of this stuff I paid GOOD money for back in the day when I was running Amigas with a 386/486 Bridgecard and once everything is on DVD and consolidated I can put the originals in a box out of sight and mind.

Thanks

John

[Ludwig Von Cookie Koopa]

Well what you saying is that you want to confine all your software to one DVD hmm....

For that you would need a multi program loader

1# like the one where you insert disc and the chioces come up in dos

2# The one that comes up automatically in your GUI OS allowing you to choose which installation.

Then again you could convert everything to a IMG ( if the files are on CD in this case ). Use a mount program like MagicalISO to gain access to the startup exe when you need to use it.

For the Command line /DOS programs you would copy the contents of the Floppy and put it in a folder .then when using command line point to the startup exe file.

Finally record the ISO files and floppy data on the DVD as data. So when you need to use the ISO/IMG files just use magicalISO and startup the exe from the IMG and in command line point to the file on the disc. Maybe you would have shortcuts on the top level of the DVD for the commmand line programs.

I had this idea from when I realize I could just record Video game data on a cd and point to the drive using it as a directory instead of mumbo jumbo everything into compression and then unloading or writing the disc.

Edited February 18, 2007 by Ludwig Von Cookie Koopa

[DigeratiPrime]

alot of that software sounds old and unlikely to be used again. I would just put it neatly into a box and out of sight. Otherwise I would create folders for each cd or floppy and copy the contents into each and burn these folders to dvd. Or you could create image files such as iso and specifiy the volume label as you said if you think its needed. I would use ImgBurn for that task.

[Jeremy]

I wouldn't waste space keeping all that old software, especially if you have some old Norton Anti-Virus that only works on Windows 98. I'd just get rid of it all and start fresh with modern free software.

[03GrandAmGT]

@Ludwig Von Cookie Koopa

I was thinking that exacly of just using an ISO image then mount it if I ever needed too.

@DigeratiPrime

Ya, alot of it is very old (Dos 3.1). Thing is my young son want's to learn about computers so instead of handing him windows make him learn a bit of dos. ImgBurn Definately!!

@Jeremy

The primary reason I still have all this old stuff is the fact I still have my original Amigas (500, 1000, 2000, 2500) and they run and are setup on my network. In which with emulation/bridgecard all this stuff works just as good as the new stuff of course with less bloatware. The Symantec stuff will become flying targets for my .45. :lol: :thumbup

Thanks everyone for the input. A rough calculation is about 10 DVD's for all the old Dos/Windows 3.11-Win95 collection I have. Haven't started on the 98 stuff yet but is probably close to the above.

John

[jaclaz]

Actually, and just for the record, the "proper" way to store floppies is to make "RAW" images of them.

This will make it possible to revert back to a floppy when needed, or use the floppy image in a VM exactly as it was.

A very large number of DOS/Win3.x apps needed to be on floppy because some info was "hardcoded" on the floppy itself, possibly in a hidden sector, or in a file that was addressed with direct head/cylinder access rather than through filesystems.

A few of the at the time in use copy protection are however more sophisticated than that, some info and related apps here:

http://retro.icequake.net/dob/

For normal 1.44 floppies a simple freeware app is Dcopy (DOS) or DcopyNT (NT/2K/XP):

http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/applications.html

http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/dcopy.zip

http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/dcopynt.zip

jaclaz

[03GrandAmGT]

Actually, and just for the record, the "proper" way to store floppies is to make "RAW" images of them.

This will make it possible to revert back to a floppy when needed, or use the floppy image in a VM exactly as it was.

A very large number of DOS/Win3.x apps needed to be on floppy because some info was "hardcoded" on the floppy itself, possibly in a hidden sector, or in a file that was addressed with direct head/cylinder access rather than through filesystems.

A few of the at the time in use copy protection are however more sophisticated than that, some info and related apps here:

http://retro.icequake.net/dob/

For normal 1.44 floppies a simple freeware app is Dcopy (DOS) or DcopyNT (NT/2K/XP):

http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/applications.html

http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/dcopy.zip

http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/dcopynt.zip

jaclaz

Thanks jaclaz. Yes I do remember some of this stuff. Didn't realize it was still available.

Thanks Again

John

[jaclaz]

Thanks jaclaz. Yes I do remember some of this stuff. Didn't realize it was still available.

Thanks Again

John

You are welcome.

jaclaz