VOGONS


First post, by telecommand

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Hi all,

I've been using DiskWrite to write .img files to floppy disks, but it doesn't appear to do the reverse. Can you recommend a tool that does both, or at least just a tool to use to copy floppy disks to .img files?

I came across my first failing floppy disk in my games collection recently so I'd like to start backing everything up to avoid further data loss!

Cheers

Reply 2 of 14, by telecommand

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Thanks I''ll check it out 😀

Reply 4 of 14, by kaputnik

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Using Win32 Disk Imager in Windows and dd in Linux. The latter is probably a default console command in OSX aswell. As always when working this kind of apps; be extremely careful with them, they can potentially overwrite your hdd if you get the paths wrong.

Reply 5 of 14, by derSammler

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bakemono wrote:

Winimage is good, but not free.

Actually, you can test the standard version as long as you want. It doesn't force you to register. Just like WinRAR and many other tools, which are not really free but can be used for an unlimited time.

I'm using the same copy of WinImage 8.50 since 2009, and apart from having to click on "OK" when the program opens, there are no restrictions.

Reply 6 of 14, by xjas

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If you'd rather stick to DOS, give EDICT a try. It's brand new. I was messing around with it the other day & it seemed to work well, but I haven't tested it super in-depth yet.

That said, I usually use dd under Linux or ddrescue for problematic disks. ddrescue is extremely powerful.

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Reply 7 of 14, by yawetaG

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kaputnik wrote:

and dd in Linux. The latter is probably a default console command in OSX aswell.

Or just use Disk Utility.

Reply 8 of 14, by bjwil1991

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Microsoft made a floppy program that allows you to write diskette images to a floppy, or in reverse (floppy to image file) for MS-DOS. I have that program on my Windows 98SE machine at home when I have to re-write the MS-DOS installation diskettes if one has read errors.

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Reply 9 of 14, by derSammler

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For DOS, I use FIRM. Single file, command-line driven, and completely free. Can read and write images, of course.

Reply 10 of 14, by telecommand

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Thanks for the suggestions! I'll give these a go tonight.

Reply 11 of 14, by leileilol

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I use VGACOPY.

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Reply 12 of 14, by Jo22

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On an 8088 machine, I'm sometimes using Disk Copy Fast to write WinImage files to real floppies (360K).
Maybe it also works in reverse, not sure.

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Otherwise, I'm using WinImage most of the time.
Before I knew of it, I used Floppy Image, a little Win32 utility.

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Reply 13 of 14, by beastlike

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I've always had good luck with this version of DD for windows;
http://www.chrysocome.net/dd

definitely be careful of your paths though as kaputnik stated

Reply 14 of 14, by derSammler

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leileilol wrote:

I use VGACOPY.

I use that too, it's a classic. But while it can handle disk images, I would not recommend it for that task.