Re: Focus Drive //e woes

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Jerry wrote:
> William Katz (>>) wrote:
>
> If you ran Linux, I'd suggest using 'dd' to copy the entire disk to a file. 
> There are Windows programs that do the same thing.

CiderPress already provides full partition and full device imaging
to a Windows file.  These transfers are bidirectional, so they are
perfect for very fast backups and restores.

This suggests that a "full device" image would have the partition
table in its first (?) block, where it could be patched by any
Windows patcher, and then copied back to the drive.

All that's needed is the exact format of the Focus partition table.

That could also be found by doing the same image transfer on any
"good" Focus drive, then taking a look at it.  It might be necessary
to try a few different partioning schemes to make sure that the table
was well understood, but that's doable.  And, of course, it requires
a IIgs and the Focus Partition program to do the experiments.

> > I have not played around with CiderPress that much last night, but what I
> > would like to do is "image" the entire FocusDrive to a file, then 'fdisk'
> > the ibm dha-2270 (the FocusDrive)... then can i re-image back to the
> > drive? Maybe that will fix the boot sector problem?
> >
> > Right now I am just happy to get the data back : )
>
>
> I'll bet!
>
> Does the Focus drive use an Apple-style partition table?  Those types of
> partitions are documented here:
>
>   http://www.awprofessional.com/articles/article.asp?p=376123&seqNum=3&rl=1
>
> You may be able to reconstruct the partition table seeing as how CiderPress
> could.

The Focus partition table is proprietary.  I'd love to see a good
description of it.

-michael

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