Re: Archiving Apple ][e discs

["Charlie" <charlied@NOSPAMbboard.com>]

"Rubywand" <rubywand@swbell.net> wrote in message
406F465B.AF7F1BA4@swbell.net">news:406F465B.AF7F1BA4@swbell.net...
> Charlie writes ...
> >
> > "neodem" <nospam_neodem@fast.net> wrote ...
>  ....
> > >
> > > I still have my ][e and my floppy duodisk and I'm pretty sure they
> > > work. What I want to know is this, is there a way to connect the
apple
> > > to the pc so I can move the data and create the images. I know I can
> > > use a null modem cable, but that seems like a huge amount of time and
> > > work to move all 400 disks over.
> > >
>  ....
> >
> > The FAQs are not complete in this regard.  There is a way for some PCs
to
> > read Apple II DOS 3.3 and ProDOS 5.25" floppies.
> >
> > By "some PCs" I mean that the PC must have two floppy drives (only one
has
> > to be a 5.25" drive) and it must be running MS-DOS or Windows 95, 98 or
ME
> > (It won't work with NT, 2000 and XP).
> >
> > You also need a program called "disk2fdi".  A trial version and
information
> > can be found at:
> >
> > http://www.oldskool.org/disk2fdi
> >
> > The program reads the Apple floppy and creates a disk image (.do) on
the
> > PC.  These images will work on most emulators.
> >
> > I have archived at least 150 Apple floppies this way.  The amount of
time
> > it takes for one floppy varies but it is usually one to two minutes, so
it
> > is still going to be a lot of time for 400 floppies.
> >
> > There are some things it can't do:
> >
> > It can't read the back side of the floppies.
> > It won't read most copy-protected disks.
> > It can't write to Apple II floppies.
>  ....
>
>
>      That's kind of a big breakthrough!

I agree, Vincent Joguin, the author deserves a lot of credit for this
program.

> Must be nearly a hundred postings on
> Csa2 over the years explaining why there's NO WAY to read Apple II
diskettes on
> a PC without special hardware.

Don't you just love it when someone does the impossible?

>      Tried DISK2FDI on our Windows PC (with a 1.2MB 5.25" drive) and it
works
> fine for non-protected DOS 3.3 and ProDOS 5.25" diskettes.
>
>      One caveat, DISK2FDI may have difficulty with a few sectors that
read fine
> on your real Apple II. Making a fresh copy using Disk Muncher or some
other
> fast whole-disk copier seems to help.

I have noticed that fresh copies with Copy II+ 7.4 (Disk option) are always
read perfectly and faster by DISK2FDI than ones copied with the old Apple
COPYA program.  I'm not sure why.  I have many disks that have stuff on the
back side and I use Copy II+ to transfer the data to the front side of a
blank disk to use with DISK2FDI.

I have occasionally (about 1 out of 10 disks) had DISK2FDI read a known
good sector as bad.  Just re-reading the disk usually reads the "bad"
sector correctly.  The registered version has an option for re-reading a
track with a bad sector.

Charlie