Missing drivers for Value Stor external parallel port hard drive \ VOGONS

Missing drivers for Value Stor external parallel port hard drive

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First post, by Kahenraz

Posted on 2021-08-17, 02:01

Kahenraz Offline

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I bought this recently on eBay after first doing a search on the internet to see if I could locate the drivers. Unfortunately, I got duped by a fake driver website that only contained once valid file names and zip contents but now only redirect to useless driver scanning software.

These files used to exist as their source is from driverguide.com, according to archive.org, but I can no longer find a source for these files.

http://www.storagedrivers.com/companies/1109.htm

I removed the drive to test it and it still works. There is a bat file on the drive which appears to be a backup of what was used to load the drivers VSMOBILE.SYS but they were loaded from a floppy and are nowhere to be found on the drive itself.

Value Stor was formerly known as Sysgen. I've been unable to find any reference to either company's web address to see if there is anything on archive.org.

Does anyone have a copy of these drivers?

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Last edited by Kahenraz on 2021-08-17, 02:04. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 13, by Kahenraz

Posted on 2021-08-17, 02:02

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Reply 2 of 13, by BitWrangler

Posted on 2021-08-17, 02:05

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It was my impression back in the day that all the cheapie ones used the same wiring, chips and driver. So I would try any parallel port CD drivers I could find.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 3 of 13, by Caluser2000

Posted on 2021-08-17, 02:45

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See if any of the BackPack drivers work with it https://winworldpc.com/product/backpack-drivers/2002

There's a glitch in the matrix.
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Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 4 of 13, by Kahenraz

Posted on 2021-08-17, 03:47

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I tried it with the Backpack driver for hard drives and it said that no Backpack hard drive was found.

Reply 5 of 13, by lolo799

Posted on 2021-08-17, 08:57

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Who doesn't like a good driver hunting on vogons!

Try onide1.zip (Dos/Win3.x) or onide2.zip (Win9x) , there is one for Win2k too, from:
https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.part … upport/driver/*

Last edited by lolo799 on 2021-08-17, 10:22. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 6 of 13, by PC Hoarder Patrol

Posted on 2021-08-17, 09:17

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Kahenraz wrote on 2021-08-17, 03:47:

I tried it with the Backpack driver for hard drives and it said that no Backpack hard drive was found.

DAMN!! - beaten to it @lolo799 😀 😀

Not sure how much closer this'll get you to a working drive, but here goes...

According to some of the Valuestor inf files listed on StorageDrivers (but found elsewhere) it's possible that this drive was made a company called OnSpec Electronic, Inc. - https://web.archive.org/web/19961220083025/ht … .onspecinc.com/

They list generic / uncustomised drivers on their site, but again the links are dead. StorageDrivers also list the OnSpec files, but again all that gets you is driver scanning misery. However, one of the attached comments lists a site called www.part2.com which also had the OnSpec drivers, and a quick check on archive.org finds that those files are still available for download.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060616221938/ht … echsupport.html

On a sidenote, here's a link to someone selling those same original disks - https://www.delcampe.net/en_GB/collectables/s … 5-77147977.html

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Reply 7 of 13, by lolo799

Posted on 2021-08-17, 10:00

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PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2021-08-17, 09:17:
DAMN!! - beaten to it @lolo799[/b] :) :) […]
Show full quote

DAMN!! - beaten to it @lolo799[/b] 😀 😀

Not sure how much closer this'll get you to a working drive, but here goes...

According to some of the Valuestor inf files listed on StorageDrivers (but found elsewhere) it's possible that this drive was made a company called OnSpec Electronic, Inc. - https://web.archive.org/web/19961220083025/ht … .onspecinc.com/

They list generic / uncustomised drivers on their site, but again the links are dead. StorageDrivers also list the OnSpec files, but again all that gets you is driver scanning misery. However, one of the attached comments lists a site called www.part2.com which also had the OnSpec drivers, and a quick check on archive.org finds that those files are still available for download.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060616221938/ht … echsupport.html

Yes, that's where I got the link to the part2.com website from.

The archived ValueStor website for reference and faqs:
https://web.archive.org/web/19990508140509/ht … com/ValuStorTS/

And if you search "valustor.zip" on
https://ia601805.us.archive.org/view_archive. … ragedrivers.zip

You can find two different versions of the drivers, one is from 1996 and the other from 1998, renamed and joined to this post.

Those files were saved by Deksor this year as part of his project to backup the various xxxx-drivers websites, start reading Re: Link Repository for Vintage PC Driver\Documentation Archives, FTPs, Websites to see how it started.

Last edited by lolo799 on 2021-08-17, 10:21. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 8 of 13, by PC Hoarder Patrol

Posted on 2021-08-17, 10:11

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Doh!!! - just noticed it says ONSPEC on the controller board IC

@lolo799 - your part2 links dont work right (you've missed the last asterisk from the url insert)

Reply 9 of 13, by lolo799

Posted on 2021-08-17, 10:23

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PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2021-08-17, 10:11:

Doh!!! - just noticed it says ONSPEC on the controller board IC

@lolo799 - your part2 links dont work right (you've missed the last asterisk from the url insert)

Oh, thanks, I fixed the link now.

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-08-17, 02:05:
It was my impression back in the day that all the cheapie ones used the same wiring, chips and driver. So I would try any parallel port CD drivers I could find.

No, there were many parallel to IDE chips available:
ATEN EH-100
Microsolutions backpack
DataStor (older type) commuter adapter
DataStor EP-2000
Shuttle EPAT
Shuttle EPIA
Fidelity Intl. (older type)
Fidelity Intl. TD-3000
Freecom Power
Freecom IQ (ASIC-2)
KingByte KBIC-951A and KBIC-971A
KT Technology PHd adapter
OnSpec 90c20
OnSpec 90c26

Sourced from https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/blockdev/paride.txt
http://cyberelk.net/tim/parport/parport.html

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Reply 10 of 13, by douglar

Posted on 2022-02-24, 21:41

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Here's what the disk looks like--

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Reply 11 of 13, by Kahenraz

Posted on 2022-02-24, 21:55

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Thank you for all of the links. I managed to get this working some time ago and it's great. The speed is pretty good for a parallel drive but nothing exciting. The biggest advantage I see of such a thing is that, because it's for parallel, I can use it on almost any system for transferring files. It's also more reliable than a ZIP or JAZ drive because it has no moving parts. I swapped the stock 1GB drive with an SD card adapter and now it's completely silent.

The drivers for DOS will only work for FAT16 partitions but the format utility supports multiple partitions; I don't recall how many exactly. But the Winodws drivers work fine with FAT32 for larger partitions.

I'm very happy to have what is effectively a parallel port to SD card reader that works in DOS and Windows. I think that's pretty amazing all by itself.

Reply 12 of 13, by douglar

Posted on 2022-02-25, 21:02

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I was going for that same setup, but I kept getting "divide by 0" errors with a 32GB & 16GB SD cards. I ended up using a 1GB WD caviar and that worked.

My ValuStor wanted older drivers than the ones posted in the thread.

I put a copy of my old disk + the ones posted in the thread here: http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/index.php?catid= … &menustate=37,0

Reply 13 of 13, by Kahenraz

Posted on 2022-02-25, 21:39

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Try it with a smaller SD card like a 4GB or 8GB.

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