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superdrives and dos .dsk images

Hatta

Member
If I understand correctly, the superdrive in my Mac Classic is able to read and write dos formatted disks. Is there image software available to write a dos .dsk? It's just a raw image file, I'd use rawrite on dos or dd on unix.

The goal is to write a bootable floppy for my new old Tandy 1000TX. Unfortunately the only 3.5" dsdd MFM drives I have are these.

Looking at the Wiki, it appears that DiskCopy 4.2 images are just raw images with a header. Is my best bet to hand craft a header from the (excellent) documentation?

 

techknight

Well-known member
Well your mac wont mount DOS disks unless the PC file exchange extension is in place. Keep that in mind.

as far as writing a DOS bootable disk image, I am unsure. I know ive used disk copy to make images from DOS diskettes and write them back to new ones.

 

Hatta

Member
I can report success. I created the header in a hex editor ( I had to write a little C program to do the checksum), concatenated it with my raw image, transfered it to the mac, and created the resource fork as per the wiki. It loaded right up in Disc Copy and reported the correct checksum. I had some problems booting the disc, but I tracked that down to a loose cable. After I fixed that it booted right up.

This is going to be a convenient way to make disks for my Tandy until I get serial set up on it. So I'll probably be expanding the program I wrote to do the whole conversion automatically. When I do, I'll post the code here in case anyone else finds it useful.

 

tt

Well-known member
Nice work, it is an interesting practical application. Keep us posted on your future progress... :b&w:

 
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