Author Topic: Questions about properly dumping IBM PC disk images  (Read 1339 times)

Offline Ansarya

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Questions about properly dumping IBM PC disk images
« on: September 04, 2021, 10:57:42 AM »
I have a whole bunch of old IBM 3.5" floppies and a smaller collection of 5.25" disks and a bunch of CDs. I have four questions:

I understand the old standard was making dumps using WinImg is this still the case and are there any non-default settings to use?

What should I use for dumping the CDs into isos? (also what settings to use with that tool)

Does anyone know where to get a USB 5.25" disk drive? (Or maybe one that uses sata or some other arrangement that works with a modern computer so I can dump these disks)

What about taking pictures of the disks to preserve the labels, is there a guide or forum explaining this and the procedures for doing so? (Also boxes and manuals)
« Last Edit: September 04, 2021, 11:02:30 AM by Ansarya »



Offline NLS

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Re: Questions about properly dumping IBM PC disk images
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2021, 07:30:40 PM »
1) Not sure if it makes a difference how you reach an ISO, when talking about PC disks without disk protection.

2) 5.25" drive. I suspect you can find in e-bay. As to how to connect it on a motherboard without the appropriate bus, maybe use a USB flux reader like https://github.com/keirf/Greaseweazle .

3) The manuals definitely fit the TOSEC PIX project, but not sure about the rest. Wouldn't be bad to preserved them though.
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Offline Ansarya

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Re: Questions about properly dumping IBM PC disk images
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2021, 02:49:32 AM »
Thank you NLS!

I guess the main question remaining is do we still use WinImg to rip the 3.5" disks? Any special (ie, not default) settings?

Offline Ansarya

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Re: Questions about properly dumping IBM PC disk images
« Reply #3 on: October 14, 2021, 04:40:10 AM »
Seriously, what software/procedures do I use to dump floppy disks and CDs and what options do I use?

And where do I submit the dat changes and where do I upload the disk images themselves?

I have a couple of boxes of floppys and a couple of boxes of cds (and a bunch of dvds, although I'm not sure TOSEC collects those yet)

MOSTLY THOUGH: what software with what options for "IBM/PC Compatible" floppy disks?


EDIT: If you have a working 5.25" disk ripping setup I'd like to hear what you have, although I only have a few of them. (most 5.25" drives on eBay have a "not guaranteed to work, no money back" clause and are expensive and I don't want to pay a bunch for false hope and garbage)
« Last Edit: October 14, 2021, 04:45:33 AM by Ansarya »

Offline NLS

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Re: Questions about properly dumping IBM PC disk images
« Reply #4 on: October 14, 2021, 07:21:17 PM »
I rip using Greaseweazle. Works with 3.5" drives and 5.25" drives. There is software to flux read the disks and then export to popular image formats.
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Offline mictlantecuhtle

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Re: Questions about properly dumping IBM PC disk images
« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2021, 09:41:42 PM »
Not my area of expertise but I asked in the Video Game Preservation Collective discord and the general feeling is that any flux dumper (Greaseweazle, Supercard, Kryoflux, Pauline) should work fine for PC floppies.

In terms of CDs/DVDs, Redump is probably a better fit for game stuff, although they do have certain hardware requirements of their own in terms of type of drive used to dump CDs. If you're not able to dump to those standards I think we can still catalogue them as long as the dumps are working.
« Last Edit: October 14, 2021, 09:44:40 PM by mictlantecuhtle »

Offline Ansarya

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Re: Questions about properly dumping IBM PC disk images
« Reply #6 on: October 16, 2021, 12:38:32 AM »
Thanks guys! I'll get on it this weekend.

Offline Casteele

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Re: Questions about properly dumping IBM PC disk images
« Reply #7 on: March 29, 2022, 09:29:59 AM »
While this is an old (and mostly answered) question:

To my knowledge (which could be entirely wrong, mind you!), TOSEC does _not_ maintain archives of the material (disks, CDs, DVDs), only the "meta data" about the material. (Excepting maybe the images/photos/scans of it, which TOSEC has the IMGs section for.)  Sites like archive.org are more suited to preserving the material itself, while TOSEC is well suited to collecting only the meta data (_names_, check-sums, and other identification data, etc.) of the material.

There is a very fine line in the legal arena between the different parts -- Collecting meta data about something is not illegal and does not violate copyright laws, no more than writing down a list of our favorite song names o share with your friends is a violation of law. Making copies of the "something" itself, however, is at risk of copyright violations, even if you claim "preservation purposes". Using the songs example again, making a copy of the song itself and sharing that is a legal copyright violation.

As for making the actual digital dumps... It varies. For floppies, as long as there are no _intentionally corrupted_ disk sectors (done as a form of copy protection) or some such, there are many imaging tools you can use, besides WinImage. Some are high grade and can attempt to recover corrupted (from age, not intentionally corrupted) sectors, while others will simply place invalid data in those sectors, and others still will simply "zero fill" any it could not read. Some are just software, and others are matched hardware and software designed specifically for making dumps.

I will assume you are on Windows[tm], and not about to spend money for a "pro" rig. You can probably find a Windows[tm] version of "ddrescue" (Google found one on SourceForge), which does a decent job of imaging many minor corrupted disks. Or, you can set up a fairly cheap/low end older PC with a Unix/Linux OS and do the imaging from there. I have an _old_ (as in around late 1990, early 2000) computer running (modern) Debian Linux 9 for imaging and "old school" purposes. (I personally started doing this kind of thing with my first computer, an Apple IIc, in the mid 1980's.)

You can also find USB 5.25 inch floppy drives, although I do not have info on how much they cost. (The real trick is finding an 8 inch floppy drive, or a Winchester hard drive controller...)
« Last Edit: March 29, 2022, 10:07:18 AM by Casteele »