I'd like to create as accurate of a backup as possible, but what do I need to do? I own a FC5025 right now, but don't mind purchasing additional equipment if necessary.
Also my current attempts at backing up the disks have resulted in approximately 8 sector errors on disk 1. Does anyone know if this is the copy protection showing up or is this disk now bad?
In December 2005, a fan-made three-dimensional remake of Ultima V called Ultima V: Lazarus was released as a modification for Dungeon Siege
http://www.u5lazarus.com/
If you looked really hard (not really)
I'm sure you would find a pre backed up version - allegedly
Guardian of the Sacred Five Terabyte's of Gaming Goodness
And somewhat OT, but a good copy is also just a $5.99 problem 100% legit at Gog.com: http://www.gog.com/game/ultima_456 - but not a help if you are trying to archive real images for your project, I know. 😀
However, back on topic, I haven't had any luck in years getting good quality IBM disk reads myself, but I mostly stopped trying. I like my FC5025, though it's gathering dust, and I look with curiosity on the “Catweasel mk4 Plus” and the KryoFlux ( http://www.softpres.org/glossary:kryoflux ) but I haven't tried them.
Back in the day, the best diagnostic tools I found were the Ultra Utilities that were able to detect, report, and imitate/duplicate many of the funny sector copy protections. I've got a copy, and think I've found them around the net, though the name is common enough to not be disk utilities sometimes. I'll try to dig them up. But some games copyprot (no idea about ultima) required custom hardware to do things real drives couldn't, and I didn't use any of the super cracking disk duplicator tools out there - some of those were supposed to be good. And of course, your funny sectors could just be degraded disks, not copy protection schemes, as you say. Sorry, no idea.
Here's a fun link on the topic I hadn't seen before: http://archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Rescuing_Floppy_Disks
I don't think Ultima had copy protected disks, at least I don't remember hearing that. Still no definite answer, sorry
I have a CD collection of Ultima I-VI., so there are at least a few official non copy protected copies (at least not disk based copy protection) around.
