Duplicating PC Floppies on Mac

[Alumamac]

Hello, was wondering if there were any solutions for creating duplicates of PC software floppies using a Mac. I don't have a PC so don't have anyway of testing on my end.

Thanks.

 

[Nixontheknight]

diskdup+ should work. If you want to avoid the pesky "activate diskdup" notifications, just click on copies and hit space 3 times

 

[olePigeon]

Good ol' DiskCopy will work, too. Version 4.x and 6.x I think.

 

[Alumamac]

diskdup+ should work. If you want to avoid the pesky "activate diskdup" notifications, just click on copies and hit space 3 times

Thanks, I’ll give it a try.

Good ol' DiskCopy will work, too. Version 4.x and 6.x I think.

I’ve successfully created an .image of a PC disk with DC4.2, just don’t have any way to verify its integrity.

 

[Forrest]

i would install a PC emulator on your Mac. Insert the disk and confirm you can read the directory and copy files from your emulated PC. If you have a PowerPC Mac, you can install Virtual PC (old commercial software). If you have an Intel Mac or newer, you can install the free PC emulators VirtualBox or DOSBox.

 

[Alumamac]

Setting up a Windows emulator is on my list of todos, however my only currently working floppy drive is in my Performa 6200...it struggles to update Finder windows let alone do emulation.

 

[Forrest]

You can try VirtualPC 2, which is available on macintoshgarden. You want the DOS version, which has these system requirements:

• Any PowerPC 601, 603, 603e, 604, 604e, and G3 running at 100mhz or faster recommended
• Mac OS 7.5.5 or later
• RAM Requirements:
  20MB installed physical RAM minimum - 24MB installed physical RAM or more recommended
• Hard Drive Requirements:
  130MB available hard disk space minimum - 260MB hard disk space or more recommended
• CD-ROM Drive

 

[Forrest]

Another alternative If you have a newer G3 or G4 Mac, 1.44 MB 3.5 inch floppy drives are cheap. Ebay has multiple listings for VST Technologies, Portable USB Floppy Disk Drive 1.44mb, MAC Sealed for $19.95+shipping.

 

[mikes-macs]

My local public library still has ancient PCs with A drives, for public use. Perhaps you could test your copied disks at your library.

 

[Alumamac]

Quick update....I installed Virtual PC 6 with Windows XP on my PM G4 and tested some Hybrid CD's that I'd imaged with Astarte and all were successful. When it came to floppy images, XP would not recognize any image that DC4 created. However XP would recognize images that I manually created with DC6 formatted as "DOS" and then I copied the files from the original disk onto the created image. I'll give Diskdup+ a try next.