Re: Disk imaging

["Roger Johnstone" <rojaws@es.co.nz>]

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In article <ee1s4.12234$mK.937069@brie.direct.ca>,
mystix@direct.ca@direct.ca wrote:


>In <38B09738.B5706126@intergate.bc.ca>, Wayne Stewart 
><waynes@intergate.bc.ca> writes:
>>I personally think it's a tossup betweem Shrinkit and the Macintosh Disk Copy.
>>The nice thing about Disk Copy is you can produce disks on both a Mac and
>>an Apple II.
>
>Could you tell me a little more about the Disk Copy program?


I use Disk Copy for making disk images for use with the GS emulator Bernie
][ the Rescue. Bernie can read and write uncompressed Disk Copy images, but
when they're opened using Disk Copy they show up as a disk icon on the Mac
Finder's desktop. You can then drag files in or out, just as you would for a
real floppy. Then unmount the disk image, start up Bernie and mount the same
disk image in the emulator.

Disk Copy can also handle disks formatted in ProDOS, Mac HFS or MS-DOS in
sizes from 400KB to 2GB. However it can't handle images of Apple 5.25"
floppies.


>>About 4 years ago I used ShrinkitGS to make disk images of the 500+ disk
>>ApplesBC IIgs library. Shrinkit balked at almost any kind of corruption.
>
>Heh, I'm afraid I had a part of why that collection was that big. I wonder
>how many people remember the dreaded "Herbster" uploads.
>
>>Usually the first thing I tried with a problem disk was to make a bit copy of it.
>>
>>That helped where the disk wasn't really corrupted but the patern was so weak
>>the IIgs had difficulty reading it.
>
>That's an idea. Is there anything that can be done with disks that refuse to mount?
>
>Also, is it a good idea to "refresh" an old disk with a copy, or is the media
>degraded to a useless state. If the latter is true, that would be sad as I would
>prefer to keep the original disks with their labels.

First make backup copies. Then when the original disk fails use the backups
to recopy to the original. If it works, fine. If not, you haven't lost
anything. I don't really think there is any point in refreshing a disk
before it fails, unless you are relying on it as one of your backups, and if
it's a floppy in regular use that is a risky thing to do. Besides, using
something like Disk Copy you can image an 800KB floppy, compress it and
store 2 or 3 on one 1.4MB floppy, or several hundred on a Zip or SuperDisk.


Roger Johnstone, Invercargill, New Zealand
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~rojaws
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If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a
damn fool about it.
~ W.C. Fields