I'm actually a bit of a collector (or want to be when I have the space) of the vintage 80s micros. My only decent one at the moment is the Epson HX-20 (first laptop), it has a built-in dot matrix and micro cassette, I use it for printing out wallet seeds and passwords private keys etc. Very cool. Also, my son enjoys learning to type on it, because of the printer.
heh i have a bit of a collection of early (early to me, i envy you guys with the serious old iron stuff) computers too.
* timex sinclair ts 1000 (zx-81 clone) with 16k ram expansion and sparky printer - my 1st computer
* commodore 64 with tape drive and 2x1541 floppy drives
* trs-80 model 100, looks very similar to your Epson HX-20 but minus the printer (very early portable laptop type computer) with 2400 (or maybe 1200 baud) modem
* trs-80 model one with expansion interface, 48k ram, tape drive, 4x5.25 floppy drives
* lnw-80 (trs-80 clone, uses trs-80 5.25 drives plus two shugart 8 inch drives)
* trs-80 model 4P (two) with 128k ram, bank switched, runs cp/m as well as native trsdos - a portable computer the size and weight of a sewing machine, but it has a handle and is fully self contained. find an outlet and youre up and running, has two 5.25 drives and a green screen plus a built in 2400 baud modem
* apple mac classic and mac plus (plus an external apple hard drive)
* apple lisa (two) - the later lisas, not the 1st model
* one of the 1st ibm clones (cant remember the name), 8088 (8086?), 8 bit expansion slots.. love that HUGE red power lever. took the hard drive like 5 minutes to spin down on power off.
everything boots.
all work but the floppies are getting to be hit or miss now. there are various software/hardware adapters to use another computer to simulate floppies/hard drives.. gotta seriously look into them.
i cut my teeth on those things. all have a fond place in my heart, many many hours of fun and learning.
IIRC norton utilities has a diskette refresh recovery utility but I'm not sure if it was os dependant. I think it was sector based.
