Date   : Sat, 01 Apr 2006 18:52:23 +0100
From   : "David Hunt" <dm.hunt@...>
Subject: Re: 'Sector not found' - disc copyable?

> I'm trying to rescue some control software from an old 5.25"
> disc before it heads for magnetic heaven. It's a 40 track DFS
> disc which I presume has copy protection - hence the 'sector not
> found' error when I try to back it up. Is there a way around
> this using available ROMs or whatever? I'm trying to archive it
> to hard disc using a dual 5.25"/3.5" drive and DFSreader on an
> RPC.

What you could do is use a program like Basil Bloom's All Copy (you need an
8271 or register compatible disc controller) and copy the 5.25" disc to a
3.5" disc then use Omniflop to copy it to a disc image on the PC. 

With Basil Bloom you can also tell it to format "bad sectors" so you can
then see if it is indeed copy protection or just a decaying disc when you
try the "fixed" version. 

Then you can spend some time hacking the program on the disc to remove the
copy protection (unless there is an actual fault on the disc!).

Dave ;)