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Floppy disk images useage.

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bettablue

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I have been doing a lot of research into using my old IBM 5150 with vintage softeare programs. Most of the programs I am able to download comes in disk images. So, OK, I'm not the smartest guy on the planet, and never will be, but this is still kind of confusing. Some files come as disk images, while others are in some form of zipeed file. The Zip files, I have no problem with. The ones I can't seem to figure out are the disk images.

I have one program in partivular, It's a stipped doen version od DOS 6.22 in disk image format with an ectension of "img". Others have an "exe" extension. All were written for the IBM PC and compatibles running only 360 Kb floppy diskettes and 640 Kb of internal RAM. Can someone point me to a tutorial for loading these disk images onto my 5150 to write new floppy disks for them? Is there some sort of step by step walkthrough for loading these programs onto my 5150? What do I need to do to start uding the programs? I'll be using a 100 Meg zip disk temorarilly, until I can locate the correct neteork card acd connect it to my Windows 7 computer.

I know it's going to take a lot of work, but I'll be writing diskettes for programs in my library, and will begin selling them as soon as I can get everythingg moving.

Next, I want to buy an older model 296 or 386 computer to use as a file transfer station. The file transfer station will have a CD/DVD ROM drive, a single 5.25?" DSDD 359 Kb drive installed so I can take all of my software over to it for confersion and writing to diskette for my 5150 system. Then I'll be able to build my library of floppy disks quite nicely. Any suggestions? In effect, I could jave most of my programs and games afailable in a couple og week.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks again
 
I'd recommend a Windows 98 or Windows 95 capable machine for a transfer machine. You can use the network functionality to transfer files from you modern machine, then actually write the 360k or bigger images on it. Plus you also have the option for a pure DOS environment if you need it.

This is how I do it, I have a 360kb drive in it and a 1.44mb drive, so the only disks I cannot create are the 5.25" 1.2mb Disks (but my 486 has a 1.2mb drive in it if I ever do need to make one).

Download WinImage (google it). It will run on Windows 7 and Windows 98, and with it you will be able to write just about any disk image file to a disk. *.img files are image files, the *.exe files are more than likely self writing images (ie you click on it, it tells you to put a disk in the drive and it then writes the data to the disk). In my experience there have been no images out there that WinImage has not been able to read/write (.imz, .img, .exe, .ima etc).

I also use WinImage to backup my software disks (that arent copy protected). I create the image on the Win98 machine I have, then simply copy them to my Win7 machine over my network for archiving. If I ever want to create a disk, I simply do the reverse. Copy it from the Win7 to the Win98 machine over my network, then use WinImage to write out the disk. Very easy, and very straight forward.
 
Like Lutiana said, a 486 with Windows 98, 3.5 (1.44mb) drive, 5.25 (360k) drive, and Winimage will work.

Winimage is a great program (I use it almost every day), but I have seen it hit a (few) speed bumps with writing 360k images.

The .ZIP files are the ones you actually have to extract the files from the ZIP file. The .EXE files are the ones that you click on them, tell you to insert a floppy disk, and automatically write the image to the floppy disk. The .IMG and .IMZ are files that you have to open with an image writing program (most likely WinImage) to edit/add files before you write or just make sure everything's there before you write the image to the disk.
 
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WinImage also has self-extracting EXE's - I came across some floppy images only a couple of weeks ago that were EXEs, but could be opened directly in WinImage :) It's a great bit of software but doesn't support DOS 1 format I don't think.
 
pearce_jj said:
WinImage also has self-extracting EXE's - I came across some floppy images only a couple of weeks ago that were EXEs, but could be opened directly in WinImage :) It's a great bit of software but doesn't support DOS 1 format I don't think.
Click to expand...

What do you mean doesn't support DOS 1 format?

Also, it looks like I'll be getting another computer to write disks with... Hmmm. I was hoping to get by without having another computer set up just for disk conversions. Guess I'll be looking on E-Bay. If y'all have one I could buy, let me know. I'll start searching for an old Win 95/98 machine with USB and a 360 K floppy drive.
 
I have over 600 kinds of floppy disk images dumped from my retail package.
I'm using Winimage 8.5 to dump 3.5" disks mainly on Windows.
But to dump disks, disk must be write protected.
(If not, boot sector / root area will be modified on Windows.)
To dump copy protected disks and 5.25" diskette, I use other DOS dumping utility on real DOS 6.2x
(Teledisk 2.1x / Anadisk 2.0x / IMD 2.17 / Transcopy Option board)

Transcopy Option board runs on old PC with ISA.
But it runs correctly under Pentium III 500MHz without Cache Off.

Teledisk / Anadisk / IMD 2.17 runs on new PC under real DOS.
 
For non-copy protected disks, I use our own Mike Brutman's DSKIMAGE program. Its free and I like that it works in any machine with DOS. It also allows for control over cylinder, head and sector values. Most importantly, it allows you to set the number of times it retries a sector, so while the first read may produce an error, the fifth will get a good read. Unlike Winimage, it capitalizes the whole file name, not just the extension. Nor does it add Win9x nonsense to the file attributes.

IMA and IMG are exactly the same thing when doing an ordinary sector dump, although the Transcopy Manual program also uses IMG for its extension. IMZ is really a ZIP file with a different extension.

I have also used CopyIIPC and Snatchit with some good results. I know the less rigorous among us tend to shy away from it because Teledisk can handle a good number of protections and works with any speed PC. But Teledisk and other software copiers have a tendency to make images that will get by in an emulator but will not work when written back to a disk.

As far as copy protected disks go, I am not particularly confident in any solution. Option Boards have software weaknesses, namely incompatibility among the original and Deluxe Option Boards, issues with 720K drives and protections it can but will not copy. Catweasels are rare, expensive and their software is reportedly not easy to use or PC oriented. Kryofluxes are still rather new with writing and the image file sizes are huge.
 
I was under the impression that Kyroflux's write capabilities were still under wraps for the time being?

That said, I've begun to see some Kyroflux floppy images showing up in torrents lately... Rather interesting to me.

Can anyone elaborate on the Snatchit/CIIPC method of imaging with the option board? I've heard mention of it, but never seen it documented on how to do it (and as of yet, haven't located Snatchit to even try it with my own board)
 
Maverick1978 said:
I was under the impression that Kyroflux's write capabilities were still under wraps for the time being?

That said, I've begun to see some Kyroflux floppy images showing up in torrents lately... Rather interesting to me.

Can anyone elaborate on the Snatchit/CIIPC method of imaging with the option board? I've heard mention of it, but never seen it documented on how to do it (and as of yet, haven't located Snatchit to even try it with my own board)
Click to expand...

CopyIIPC and Snatchit do not use the Option Board. CopyIIPC was purely for disk to disk copying, Snatchit intercepts the copying and makes a disk image instead. It is admittedly confusing. Kyroflux now supports writing, and may be the savior of all our copy-protected disks.
 
I've worked with both sampler floppies using foreign format as well as mac disks, i think i remember the application to use is Teledisk. I have no idea how it manage to do what it does but it works quite well.

JT
 
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