Exact clone of diskette ?

[MoiMeme]

Hi,

is there a way to perform an exact clone of a diskette ? I mean not
file-based by low-level clone as for hard drives imaging.


TIA !

 

[old jon]

Hi,

is there a way to perform an exact clone of a diskette ? I mean not
file-based by low-level clone as for hard drives imaging.


TIA !

Are you talking about a `protected` floppy ?.

 

[MoiMeme]

yes. need backup, but copy stops at 30% whatever I do. I imagine some error
is there. But do not want to live with a single copy of so fragile support

 

[MM]

Are you talking about a `protected` floppy ?.

look for a old dos based disk copy program called : Disk Copy Fast , or
something like that. It will do a sector by sector copy regardless of bad
sectors.

MM

 

[Roger Johansson]

is there a way to perform an exact clone of a diskette ? I mean not
file-based by low-level clone as for hard drives imaging.

As far as I know the partition/disk image programs work
just as well for diskettes as for hard disks.

Freeware: "Partition Saving".
http://damien.guibouret.free.fr/en/

This freeware program works just as well as the payware equivalents
"Norton Ghost" and Powerquest's "Drive Image". PS is actually the
quickest of them.

You can tell these programs to save only used sectors, or all sectors.
You can choose to make an image of only one partition or the whole
disk.

If you run one of these programs from a floppy you can remove the
floppy after the program has loaded, so you can use the floppy unit for
copying or restoring other floppy disks in the same floppy unit.

You can use a DOS boot diskette, with Partition Saving on it, then
insert the floppy you want to make an image of, store the image file on
a hd, then insert the floppy you want to write the image to.
That creates a perfect copy of the floppy disk.

For modern computers without a floppy unit you can burn the program to
a selfbooting CD and use it like you run it from a floppy unit.

"Partition Saving" is already included on many selfbooting rescue CD's.

 

[hummingbird]

Hi,

is there a way to perform an exact clone of a diskette ? I mean not
file-based by low-level clone as for hard drives imaging.


TIA !

Try newsgroup "alt.msdos." if you aren't satisfied here.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?J=F6rg?= Schneider]

Am Sun, 15 Jan 2006 22:05:39 +0100 schrieb MoiMeme:

is there a way to perform an exact clone of a diskette ? I mean not
file-based by low-level clone as for hard drives imaging.

VGACopy:
http://www.vgasoft.de/files/vgacp625.zip

HTH,
Jörg

 

[Al Klein]

look for a old dos based disk copy program called : Disk Copy Fast , or
something like that. It will do a sector by sector copy regardless of bad
sectors.

DCF won't copy bad sectors (if they can't be read, they can't be
copied), but it's a great program.

I found two good links at
<http://www.programmersheaven.com/zone16/cat922/3065.htm>

 

[REM]

"MoiMeme" <[email protected]> wrote:

is there a way to perform an exact clone of a diskette ? I mean not
file-based by low-level clone as for hard drives imaging.

Floppy Image?

http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32/floppyimage.html

 

[Doc]

Hi,

is there a way to perform an exact clone of a diskette ? I mean not
file-based by low-level clone as for hard drives imaging.


TIA !

From the documentation of Floppy Image ....
v1.5.2 is last freeware
v2.3.2 is current shareware, 14 day free trial.
http://www.rundegren.com/

<quote> from v2.3.2, v1.5.2 does not have a help file, but the same
options ('emergency mode' and 'recreate bad sectors') and present in
v1.5.2

Copy protected disks often contain bad sectors so in order to create an
image file you should read the floppy disk using the emergency mode as
described previously. This will create an image file that contains
information about the copy protected disk.

The next step is to write the image file back onto a floppy disk that
doesn't contain any bad sectors. First make sure that Format floppy disk
before writing to it and Recreate bad sectors when writing disk are
checked under the Floppy Disk tab in the Settings as seen below. Please
note that this requires that you are running Windows 2000 or later since
previous versions of Windows doesn't support this mode.

 

[Doc]

From the documentation of Floppy Image ....
v1.5.2 is last freeware

V1.5.2 is available from http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32/floppyimage.html

 

[Peter Seiler]

Roger Johansson - 15.01.2006 22:43 :

As far as I know the partition/disk image programs work
just as well for diskettes as for hard disks.

?

for example the wellkown Acronis TrueImage doesn't handle diskettes.
Same with Ghost, AFAIK.

 

[thoss]

Hi,

is there a way to perform an exact clone of a diskette ? I mean not
file-based by low-level clone as for hard drives imaging.

The obvious way is DISKCOPY. It's part of DOS and Windows.

 

[Bob Adkins]

Hi,

is there a way to perform an exact clone of a diskette ? I mean not
file-based by low-level clone as for hard drives imaging.

WinImage. (google it)

It's not Freeware, but the free trial version can get you out of trouble.

 

[Roger Johansson]

?
for example the wellkown Acronis TrueImage doesn't handle diskettes.
Same with Ghost, AFAIK.

Quoting from the web site:

"Partition Saving is a DOS program that is used to save, restore and
copy hard-drive, partitions, floppy disk and DOS devices"

http://damien.guibouret.free.fr/en/

 

[Sauli Suikkanen]

yes. need backup, but copy stops at 30% whatever I do. I imagine some error
is there. But do not want to live with a single copy of so fragile support

D2D with /r parameter (option) should be able to copy such diskettes:

http://short.stop.home.att.net/freesoft/disk1.htm#d2d

 

[MoiMeme]

Yes and have tested Ok. However, all other imaging softs I know of only
detect and image hard drives

 

[MoiMeme]

Seems it cannot copy bad sectors

WinImage. (google it)

It's not Freeware, but the free trial version can get you out of trouble.

 

[Al Klein]

Copy protected disks often contain bad sectors so in order to create an
image file you should read the floppy disk using the emergency mode as
described previously. This will create an image file that contains
information about the copy protected disk.

The next step is to write the image file back onto a floppy disk that
doesn't contain any bad sectors. First make sure that Format floppy disk
before writing to it and Recreate bad sectors when writing disk are
checked under the Floppy Disk tab in the Settings as seen below. Please
note that this requires that you are running Windows 2000 or later since
previous versions of Windows doesn't support this mode.

It also requires that the original disk wasn't abort-formatted, since
the only way to recreate that pattern is to abort-format the copy in
the same way the original was abort-formatted ... and the original
floppy gives no clue to exactly what the abort-format pattern was.
(The data address mark is written, then the formatting for that sector
is aborted and the next DAM is written, etc. There are "this is the
beginning of sector x" marks, but no sectors.)

In fact, not even a human being using sophisticated software tools can
do any better at producing a usable copy of such a diskette than trial
and error.

And, since there are a few hundred possible patterns, the cost of
another original diskette had better be more than the cost of a good
technician's approximately 60 hours (about the average time to hit
upon the correct pattern by trying every one, one after the other).
IOW, except as an intellectual exercise, it's cheaper to buy another
one (or two or three or many) than to copy one, if this is the
protection scheme.

That's for PCs. Apples have another gimmick - since each diskette
defines the diskette format for that diskette [RWTS reads its data
from one track of the diskette before knowing how to read the rest of
the diskette, and which track has the instructions can be different
for each diskette], there are copy protection schemes that make the
above seem like child's play. Apple's "disk controller" is nothing
more than a D/A converter/clock pulse separator. The actual disk
controller function, which is a piece of hardware in other computers,
is done in software in the Apple - and the data for that software is
on the diskette being read.

For my next totally self-referential piece of spaghetti ...

But we used to have fun writing protection schemes back in the 70s and
early 80s. Ashton Tate wrote "closed" to that little exercise.

 

[Al Klein]

D2D with /r parameter (option) should be able to copy such diskettes:

http://short.stop.home.att.net/freesoft/disk1.htm#d2d

It skips the bad sector. This may or may not work, depending on the
copy protection scheme. Most likely it won't.

What's really needed is what's called a "nibbler" program, and they
don't work with hardware disk controllers. An old Apple II (or Apple
IIe) would work with 5-1/4" floppies. I don't know of any computer
with 3-1/2" drives that uses a software disk controller.

In almost every case the bad sector can be copied as a sector with the
same problem by nibbling software, since its granularity is bits, not
sectors, and a bit is either one or zero, so the nibbler will read
every bit. There's no such thing as a "bad bit". Maybe someone
better with disk controllers than I am can figure out how to trick a
normal hardware controller into reading bits.

Then, again, is copying a protected diskette (even for archival
purposes) a violation of the ECPA or something?