Backup within emulator & Restore on real CPC

[pmeier]

Hi folks,

I was looking for a backup utility that can do this:
Backup a copy protected disk within an emulator (dump a bunch of BIN files) and restore them on a real CPC.

I guess you wonder why?? Let me explain...

   
• I have no 3.5"/5.25" etc. and after destroying a 3.5" floppy drive I stopped heading into this direction

   
• I have 5 original disk games which became unreadable and I wanted to have them again, but with their copy protection. (Everything else would be too easy... )
• I can only transfer files to my real CPC through tape.

So let's check some backup utilities:

   
• Xexor:Would be the perfect solution, but it crashes inside an emulator. Like many disc copiers... Obviously the focus for the emulator developers is reading disks, but not deep reading or writing protections.
• WriteDSK: Is able to restore DSK images on the CPC side. Unfortunately it requires a 3.5" to host the image. And his author Targhan confirmed that it doesn't support protected images. (Got his answer within minutes. Great. The CPC community is really working.  )
• DISC-RSX: A bunch of RSX commands to read, format and write tracks/sectors. I just had to write a program. And it turned out, that it worked, but not for all disks. (It worked for Bubble Bobble, Zynaps and probably for They Stole A Million, but my tape transfer flipped some bits which I noticed much later  )
• Ultradisc: A very good disc copier. User interface is written in BASIC and quite readable. So I had the chance to modify it. And unbelievable: it worked also for Wonder Boy and Super Sprint.

Long story, but with a happy ending. 

Finally I'm very glad that my games collection is now restored again. And I had quite fun writing some lines of code.
Of course the whole project wouldn't be possible without the cpc-power archive of original disk images... (and the sector view)
Indeed I have never expected that someone is accurate enough to create such an archive. I noticed that 6 years ago (OMG), so I had no excuse not to start this project...

Any comments? Have I overlooked a better backup utility? I'm just curious...

[rpalmer]

pmeier,

There is the option of trying again with an external 3.5 inch drive as there is documentation about what is needed to do this any many say it works.

Bryce has put information to create a cable adapter, however for power you either connect an external one or "modify" the internal one (swap red and orange).

rpalmer

[pmeier]

Thanks, but

after destroying a 3.5" floppy drive I stopped heading into this direction

And what is quite funny: There are tons of disc copiers around. Looks like this is the hello world on the CPC (even my favorite mag Happy Computer published at least four of them), but I found only one which could do backup to bin files: Xexor

Yeah, I could publish my backup/restore solution, but I think there is no market for it... 

[NiNxPe]

Hello
I also have this type of problem that I never managed to solve:
A CPC 6128 with internal HxC + AMSTRAD 3" external drive.
I wanted to copy the contents of the HxC to the drive, on a 3" floppy disc.
But I never managed to use Discology or any other software to copy from HxC to Floppy Drive. Discology does not recognize anything :-(
So if someone has a trick or possibly a software to advise to carry out this kind of operation.
Thank you in advance.

[pmeier]

@NiNxPe You are you talking about copy protected images, right? Well I have no HxC, but you could try Ultradisc:
http://cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=5066
The user interface is German, but the shouldn't be a problem.
It requires 128kB otherwise it crashes. I think I forgot that to tell kukulcan when I uploaded it ...

For my purpose it's the best copy program: It doesn't crash as often as other copiers do in an emulator, maybe it's also good for HxC...

[NiNxPe]

@pmeier :
I'm Talking about protected AND unprotected images.
My probleme is due to the CPC unrecognize "something", and I suppose that the probleme is the HxC : because I have the problem with it in Discology :
- I can't make a copy with the "toast methode" with only the hxc in internal drive
- I'can't make a copy with Hxc in internal and the 3" FDD
- I can't make a copy with a 3" drive in internal and the HxC in external

[pmeier]

But you can load something from HxC?
For example
LOAD"B:disc.bas"
SAVE"A:disc.bas"

where A is your 3" and B is your HxC.
Then a simple file copy should work. Which one have you tried?

[tjohnson]

I'm quite interested in this topic as i would like to backup the handful of 3" discs i have.  I'm not having much luck, copying to 3.5" using xexor or discology doesn't seem to render a disc that i can save on the pc.  I'm currently limited to Windows 2000 as my pc only has 32mb ram and xp requires 64mb minimum.

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

[pmeier]

@tjohnson You want to transfer your 3" disks to PC/DSK images?
Copy protected games? Then you probably can find them here http://cpc-power.com
Or your own stuff? Then you don't need an advanced disc copier like Discology. A simple disccopy should do it.

To read a disk on the PC use CPDRead.

[tjohnson]

@tjohnson You want to transfer your 3" disks to PC/DSK images?
Copy protected games? Then you probably can find them here http://cpc-power.com
Or your own stuff? Then you don't need an advanced disc copier like Discology. A simple disccopy should do it.

I think some of them are copy protected for example I have a disk of tornado low level, when I backed it up onto 3.5" using CPCDskXP it showed tracks missing.  I would quite like original backups rather than games with all the cracks.

[pmeier]

Good news: cpc-power has all the originals... 

[BSC]

Ultradisc: A very good disc copier. User interface is written in BASIC and quite readable. So I had the chance to modify it. And unbelievable: it worked also for Wonder Boy and Super Sprint.

Great to see that my old tool is still being used. Somehow found your extended version, good work!

[pmeier]

Great to see that my old tool is still being used. Somehow found your extended version, good work!

I guess you found Ultra Disc 1.99

This wasn't me. Indeed I never published my changes, not end-user ready  Some time later the new version appeared. Too bad that I didn't wait longer for my project, would have saved me a lot of time...

Your original Ultra Disc was the only 1:1 disk copier I found which runs in an emulator and on a real machine. Awesome!