Re: Archiving DOS 3.2 software

[noone@nowhere.net]

Such complex questions for so early inthe morning...

How particular are you?  Do you want to actually use native DOS 3.2 disks?  DOS
3.2 disks with 16 sector boot track?  All you want is the files?

Ideally you would find a 12 sector controller for a Disk ][.  By the time you
get that someone here should be able to get you a copy of Copy II Plus 4 or 5
which can do file manipulatioon on DOS 3.2 disks.

IMO the best was to save old DOS 3.2 disks is to convert them to 16 sector
format.  By this I mean copy the data in sectors 0-12? to 0-12 of a DOS 3.3
disk.  The rest of the sectors will be ignored.  FRom what I recall, you may
use the COPYA program from the DOS 3.3 disk to do this with just a poke or two
to skip 'bad sectors'.  That may not be correct, I'll look it up if you call me
on it.

Another option would of course be to bit copy them, reproducing any bit errors
that me be accumulating on your disks.

The 2nd best option is to boot 3.3 System Master and bload FID out of the way.
Boot into dos 3.2, and init a slave disk.  Move FID back and run it.  Use it to
transfer files to the freshly formatted 3.2 disk.  Use a sector copier to copy
sector 0 from a 16 sector disk.  (I think.)

Of course for emulation you would almost have to use a nibble image unless you
converted them to 16 sector format.

Maybe someone who has done this in the last few years could assist.  Last time
I did this was normalizing my 13 sector Castle Wolfenstein disk.  (It was all
files so the OS was irrelevant to the program.)

Hope this helps.
Thankx,
Ed


Mark Cummings wrote:

> 1. Has anyone got any ideas on how to keep backups (archives) of DOS 3.2
> software, most disk archiving software I've dealt with only likes 16 sector
> disks, not 13 sector.
>
> 2. I once had a DOS 3.2 system master, but no more, is there a way to make
> one ?
>
> Mark