Imaging old floppies?

[rib]

I have some old DOS games I'd like to image and archive. Problem is they are boot floppies with (what I suspect) are intentional bad sectors on the disk. In Linux, I can use the dd command to read an image from the floppy, but after the first sector or so the read fails and I only get a portion of the disk.

It would be cool to have DosBOX boot from the floppy, load the game and start it and then I could "save" my DosBOX session somehow. When I want to play the game, I could just re-start my saved session. Don't know if there's a way to do that without using KVM or some similar vm.

Above all, I'd like to at least get the images from these disks saved somehow. I used to use Teledisk which would save the bad sectors in the image, and you could re-write a floppy exactly. Problem is, Teledisk is no longer around.

Figured there was probably a better solution, so asking here.

Thanks!

[The Fifth Horseman]

I've seen something called Floppy Disk Analyser (produced by Medicom, last known version 6.1) recommended for dumping copy-protected disks. There are two difficulties with that:
First, the format it uses to store those images is proprietary and incompatible with any virtual floppy drive tools I am aware of (essentially limiting its' usefulness to dumping floppy images and then re-writing them onto new floppies).
Second, it's an ancient DOS utility - not unlike Teledisk itself.

As for save states, IIRC there was an unofficial build of DOSBox with that feature. Been a while since I've seen that mentioned, though.

[Smiling Spectre]

I think, DOSBox itself can read real floppies - and then it means that you can use Teledisk. But I am not sure about it.

Ykwong's build have save states several years in row. It was some problems with it, though, but I think it was resolved in this year builds.

[Scatty]

Never used that feature but I know that UltraISO (http://www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/) can create and read floppy images. Easy to use and good program, too. Problem is, it isn't freeware so you'll probably have to buy it to use all it's features.

[Japo]

These save state functions found in game emulators don't include everything loaded on memory. They give small files that specify the state, but you still need the rom or whatever to load it.

I hear WinImage (http://www.winimage.com/) can create images from floppies, but I haven't tried that in particular myself. And I don't know if it will copy your bad sectors. It's shareware: you will have all the features for a limited time, so if it can do that disk then problem solved.

For CDs and DVDs I use ImgBurn (http://www.imgburn.com/), I wouldn't know if it does floppy as well, I wouldn't think so.

The "diskcopy" command in FreeDOS (http://www.freedos.org/) can create image files, I've used it. Again I don't know about your bad sectors.

If it works inside DOSBox as you say, you can use a disk imaging program for DOS. Those weren't very needed or popular at the time, and there was no standard format. I'd post a link to a website where they have oldwarez including utilities like this, but it's against Abandonia's rules. And as Horseman says, it's not as useful if you can't read the resulting image file with another programs, starting with DOSBox.

[The Fifth Horseman]

WinImage is no good for floppies containing errors, though (much less copy protection schemes masquerading as errors).

[Wicky]

I've never heard about such a program, that can make an image from a copy protected floppy disc:
Back in the pre-CD times, there used to be only 2 ways to play a game, running the original disc and playing a cracked version.

[Ermuli]

http://www.kryoflux.com/

[Smiling Spectre]

These save state functions found in game emulators don't include everything loaded on memory. They give small files that specify the state, but you still need the rom or whatever to load it.
I think, Ykwong's DOSBox still honestly dump all memory.

Catch is, most of game is not in memory, but loading from files instead. :) So if your game is not one-file, you will be in problem without original files. :)

[rib]

Thanks for the info. I'll do some experiementing and with any success I'll post back.

[rib]

Just and update, I found a linux utility to read raw data from the floppy drive. It seems I can get more data off the floppy this way without running into read errors. If I get an image written, how do I store the track info in the image file (ie: for use with dosbox)?

The floppy I'm reading is DSDD so it was two sides (two heads). Not sure if I store each track of data and alternate each side (track-0-side-0, track-0-side-1, track-1-side-0, track-1-side-1) or if I write all of side 1 to the image file, and then append all of side 2?

Link to the utility for anyone interested: http://www.fdutils.linux.lu/index.htmll