imaging MO disc

ezrateboul

New Tinkerer
Jul 6, 2026
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Hi everyone! first time poster (let me know if I'm following proper procedure!)

I'm a historian of electronics and electronic sound. I've obtained a NeXT disc from an american computer music composer that I'd like to image, but I haven't been able to find a MO NeXT reader / station around Montréal, where I'm based.

Is this a regular question you get? I've reached out to a few people, who've all pretty much said "oh tough one". If you have any leads for functioning MO readers in north america, I'd be curious to know more. The software on the disc is likely later 80-early 90s NeXT computer music programs which would be relatively valuable to recover.

Thanks very much,

Ezra
 
I do have a working MO drive, and have imaged some beta OS/Application disks successfully. 'Forensically' imaging MO disks can be a bit tricky, but folks have actually updated the NeXT emulator (previous) to work better with what is possible from the hardware side. (The drive isn't attached over SCSI so BlueSCSI initiator mode can't help us.)

I'm based in California/Nevada however. The biggest collection of people with working MO drives are probably on the nextcomputers.org forum, and/or the Discord that recently split off from that group.
 
Thanks! I will check on that forum / discord to see if there is anyone closer... If not, I may circle back to you about copying the data disc. Thank you for the link regarding imaging - sadly I can't seem to see how to register for the forum to read that post? Is there someone I can reach out to to get an account and/or access the discord?

much appreciate your help,

Ezra
 
I'm a historian of electronics and electronic sound. I've obtained a NeXT disc from an american computer music composer that I'd like to image, but I haven't been able to find a MO NeXT reader / station around Montréal, where I'm based.
You might want to get in touch with the good folks at https://nextcommunity.net/forums/ who delight in any such matters.
Forum administrator Rhetorica is also located in Canada, so this migt be a very good contact to aim for in your case.
 
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