Re: Hardware musings

["sicklittlemonkey" <Nick.Westgate@gmail.com>]

Mark McDougall wrote:
> I think the best approach would be to catalogue the known protection
> schemes and modify/expand whatever disk image file format is most
> appropriate to handle each scheme. When more schemes are
> discovered/documented, then the format is necessarily extended.

While that's a reasonable approach, I think designing a format that
covers 99% of software is quite feasible - given human assistance
during the imaging. And I don't think that that human assistance is
undesirable or even optional. As Michael has pointed out, you can't
algorithmically prove you have successfully captured a complete image.

Bit copy parameters or a Computist crack could provide an invaluable
start, but someone who understands the Deep Magic needs to verify that
an archive quality image has been obtained. The only alternative is
some kind of analogue clone, as discussed. (Quantum entanglement
anyone? ;-)

The image would implicitly document the protection used, and as a
result pare down the data captured to a bare minimum. Putting the image
back on disk then becomes more practicable.

Cheers,
Nick.