[rescue] What to do with AT&T 3b2 disk images?

[Ahmed Ewing]

On 9/14/07, Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at verizon.net> wrote:
> >From: Ahmed Ewing <aewing at gmail.com>
> >Date: 2007/09/14 Fri AM 07:53:44 CDT
> >To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org>
> >Subject: Re: [rescue] What to do with AT&T 3b2 disk images?
>
> <snip>
>
> >* It's actually an internal floppy drive module, but you can use a
> >special cable to hang it externally off the docking station port to
> >free up an internal bay for another battery or optical / ZIP drive...
> >its about as oddball as modern floppy hardware gets. I was actually
> >kinda shocked when it did work, but at the time it was the only floppy
> >drive in my home.
>
> The Toshiba Libretto had a PCMCIA floppy drive - it has a cable that runs from a PCMCIA controller out to an external floppy drive. They became "popular" when Toshiba got stung with a HW problm in their floppy controllers that didn't work as they should under certain conditions. Toshiba offered PCMCIA floppies for many of the laptop owners who preferred a solution to a check/coupon. This problem spanned several Toshiba models for a number of years...
>
> http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/1999_10/pr2902.htm
>
Yeah, I actually have since acquired a Libretto 100ct (scored bare but
in supposed working condition at MIT Swapfest for relatively short
dollars) and had to buy that hardwired drive in order to get an OS on
it--it's the only device that it can boot from other than internal
disk. I basically had to use a Win98SE boot disk with a driver for the
Panasonic 4x PCMCIA cdrom in the other slot. Then I shoehorned Win2K
SP4 onto it. :-) It needs over 5min to boot and programs churn on and
on when launched, but once it's up, it's up. Opera's relatively tiny
memory footprint even allows it to have a modern browser capable of
rendering most any page. Pretty good for 166MHz and 64mb--it's
surprisingly capable as a near-disposable travel laptop, especially
with an 802.11g card.

But I digress. I had no idea Toshiba had the widespread issues... Good
for them for offering these as a solution--It's silly to see class
action remedies where the class is awarded discount coupons for future
use with the company they've already vowed never to support again. :-)

-A