Hi everyone,
I've been working on archiving a preliminary version of the BPI Accounting System on Twiggy disks. There are two disks in the set - the system startup disk, and the accounting software disk. Each disk has a surface that looks good, but the disks are a bit warped, and this causes some friction when they spin. On my first attempt with Tim Colegrove's Lisa, I was able to get a partial read of the system startup disk with 15 skipped sectors. We carefully transferred the magnetic "cookie" of the system disk to a new sleeve, which helped somewhat, but didn't yield any more data that day. The accounting software disk proved to be more slow-going, and I don't have a partial dump of that disk yet.
I definitely hope to get the rest of the data off, but I'll need a new plan of attack before attempting things again.
I'm uploading what I have now here, and I'll update this post with any new dumps, scans, or findings. Hopefully someone finds this interesting!
Update!
After some more read attempts, we were able to retrieve a full copy of the BPI startup disk - version 3.0.0. Disk image and screenshots attached.
We also recovered a partial copy of the application disk, with 15 bad sectors. Disk image and BLU logs attached.
It's always exciting to see some third-party software running on a real Lisa. Fingers crossed for future attempts...
It's great to see another software package on the list flip from unavailable to available, even partially.
Here's a Twiggy copy of BPI Accounts Receivable version 1.1, attached.
Here's a BPI Demo disk (Twiggy). However, the disk is giving error 10735 on startup, indicating "SYSTEM.LLD is missing."
Quote from: ried on August 10, 2025, 08:36:49 PM
Here's a BPI Demo disk (Twiggy). However, the disk is giving error 10735 on startup, indicating "SYSTEM.LLD is missing."
You should be able to just steal a copy of SYSTEM.LLD from another LOS/Workshop install and put it on there. Hopefully it'll boot then, assuming it's supposed to be bootable to begin with!
Quote from: AlexTheCat123 on August 11, 2025, 08:24:31 AM
Quote from: ried on August 10, 2025, 08:36:49 PM
Here's a BPI Demo disk (Twiggy). However, the disk is giving error 10735 on startup, indicating "SYSTEM.LLD is missing."
You should be able to just steal a copy of SYSTEM.LLD from another LOS/Workshop install and put it on there. Hopefully it'll boot then, assuming it's supposed to be bootable to begin with!
That's what I am wondering. Since the usual BPI disk setup includes
two Twiggies, i.e. System Install (1 disk) and another disk marked "Accounts Receivable" or "Accounts Payable," etc. I am wondering if this
single demo disk runs on top of an existing Workshop installation?
Quote from: ried on August 04, 2025, 01:49:29 AM
Here's a Twiggy copy of BPI Accounts Receivable version 1.1, attached.
I am very pleased to report that, through the use of
BLU 0.94 Beta's new multi-disk read functionality, we have successfully recovered another complete BPI System Install 1.1 Twiggy disk, which reads as VERSION 3.0.0 after booting. I have two BPI System Install 1.1 Twiggy disks, each with a couple of bad sectors. By using skipping the bad sectors on one disk, and then using the second disk to "fill in" the missing sectors, we have a complete read. I have confirmed the image the BLU created works perfectly after writing it to a blank Twiggy.
Bundled here with the BPI Accounts Receivable disk.
Special thanks to
sigma7 for not only making this possible with BLU 0.94 Beta, but also for generously sharing his knowledge on how to accomplish this.