Date   : Sat, 05 Jun 1999 13:24:40 +0100
From   : Steven Flintham <steven@...>
Subject: Re: BBC software to grab DFS disc images

On Wed, Jun 02, 1999 at 10:17:01PM +0100, Steven Flintham wrote:
> I'm thinking of (gradually!) copying all of my BBC discs onto my PC's
> hard disc, so that I don't need to worry about them dying of old age
> and so that I can use them conveniently in an emulator. Most of them
> are DFS (only 40T SS as well), so I thought I might as well store them
> as straight disc images - IIRC there's a `standard' format (.ssd/.dsd
> extension) for this. Assuming I'm not imagining it:
[...]
> While I'm asking, is there any similar `standard' for ADFS discs? I
> don't have many of them, but I'd still like to keep permanent copies
> of them, and if possible I'd like the images to be emulator-friendly.
> (Most of them are in S format, so there'd be no problem with fitting
> the disc image onto a BBC disc. L format discs could be tricky without
> a hard disc. :-) )

Thanks to everyone who responded. I've thrown together a BBC BASIC
program to do what I wanted with DFS discs, using the information
posted to the list, and that should keep me going for a while. In the
unlikely event that anyone wants a copy, please feel free to e-mail
me.

(I wasn't too clear about how I was going to do the transfer
originally, so I should perhaps say that the program creates the image
file on a BBC disc in another drive, rather than sending it directly
over a serial link to the PC. As has been pointed out to me, by using
DOSFS on my Master (which has a 3.5" drive) I can then take the disc
with the image files on directly to my PC with no messing around.)

As for ADFS, I'll probably use Stuart McConnachie's .ADF format, from
his pcBBC emulator, although I haven't committed to this yet - I'm
going to postpone the decision until I've done all my DFS discs.

Steven