CPC disks to pc

[kribjo]

Hi,


Now that I have a working CPC 664 after replacing the keyboard membrane, I have started checking the content of my disks. Unfortunately I have some disks which gives are unreadable. Not a big surprise really, it's been almost 23 years since I last played around with it. But now I want to convert them to disk images for storage on a pc. What alternatives is there to look at? I have read about the HxC SD Card option. Can I connect it to my CPC664 at the same time as the floppy to make backups? What about games that have odd formatting of the disk?


Regards,


Bjørn

[Gryzor]

Yes you can use the HxC to copy disks - just create a blank dsk image on it and use Discology or something to do that (Discology, IIRC, runs only from |A). Not sure about strange formats though - I've copied a few originals with no problem, but I'd say it's more of a copier issue you're talking about rather than an HxC issue...

That said, your data disks probably are bog-standard, while your game disks have already been dumped? Or do you have something rare?

[Bryce]

the HxC is fine for getting DSKs from a PC to the CPC, but not for getting real disks to DSK on a PC. The disk image on the HxC will be a HFE file and as far as I know, you can't convert a HFE back to DSK.
My suggestion would be to connect a 3.5in external floppy to your 664, copy the 3in disks to 3.5in and then use ManageDSK ManageDsk - CPCWiki on your PC to create a DSK file from the contents.

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

Bryce, actually, here's a nice attachment.

Krakout (UK) (1987).dsk->Krakout (UK) (1987)_dsk.hfe->Krakout (UK) (1987)_dsk_hfe.dsk .

Use the export option. Works with the CLI and the GUI versions of the HxC manager.

[arnoldemu]

I believe both can be used together, 3" internal and hxc for external.

If it's standard format discs, with files on and no copy protection you could use "pip" under cpm to do the copy.
B:=A:*.BIN I think... long time since I used it.

A better alternative, is to use Nirvana and it's file copy, much simpler and more friendly.
For this, create a blank dsk for the hxc and use nirvana file copy to transfer the data from 3" to hxc.

For copy protected, I'm not sure how the hxc handles writing this datI am sure somewhere there was a tool that could read copy protected discs and createa, ideal solution would be to get discology onto the hxc, run that and do a "copie integral" from the 3" to the hxc drive, but this means that the hxc has to reproduce the disc write perfectly.. maybe there is some kind of "unformatted" disk you could use for the hxc to simulate this.. Jeff would know.

If that doesn't work, I am sure we could come up with other solutions. May already be some cpc tools that read from 3" and can write a dsk onto a pc formatted 720K disc (hxc would host this 720K disc image, and the cpc tool would write to it). Is it dskcpc that does it???

EDIT: dskcpc does the reverse. it reads a dsk file on a 720K disc and writes it to a 3" disc in the cpc.
http://www.genesis8bit.fr/frontend/ddisk.php

[Bryce]

Bryce, actually, here's a nice attachment.

Krakout (UK) (1987).dsk->Krakout (UK) (1987)_dsk.hfe->Krakout (UK) (1987)_dsk_hfe.dsk .

Use the export option. Works with the CLI and the GUI versions of the HxC manager.

Seriously cool. I didn't realise you could do that Was that always there, or am I possibly using an older version of the Manager?

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

It's been there for at least a couple of years, if I judge from this thread here. I know I used it in late 2011 myself... It's just not that obvious from the interface - that you can actually load an HFE and export it as a dsk (among others). 

[kribjo]

Thanks to everyone in this thread for valuable input. I will order a SD Floppy Emulator REV C and a power and cable.


Regards,


Bjørn

[Gryzor]

Money well spent, enjoy