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FIMAGE.DOC
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1992-02-29
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FIMAGE.DOC Floppy Disk Image Utility 3/92
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
FIMAGE is a floppy disk utility program which can:
1. Copy an ENTIRE floppy disk into a file on your hard disk
(called an "image file").
2. Restore an image file to a floppy disk. FIMAGE will format the
floppy disk "on-the-fly" if necessary.
3. List the root directory stored within an image file.
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ FIMAGE is a shareware program (and an inexpensive one, at that!) ║
║ If you like FIMAGE, and continue to use it, please support the ║
║ shareware concept and send $5.00 for a registered copy of FIMAGE to: ║
║ ║
║ ┌─────────────────────┐ ║
║ │ John Gill │ ║
║ │ P.O. Box 86 │ ║
║ │ Sutton, MA 01590 │ ║
║ └─────────────────────┘ ║
║ ║
║ You will receive a copy of FIMAGE which doesn't display the shareware ║
║ notices. You wil also get the complete source code in "C" (Borland ║
║ & MicroSoft compatible). If any significant improvements are made ║
║ to FIMAGE, you will get an updated copy automatically. Please ║
║ specify whether you would like FIMAGE on a 5 1/4" or a 3 1/2" ║
║ floppy disk. ║
╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
FIMAGE is useful when...
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
.. you want to make many copies of a floppy disk, using
a single floppy disk drive, but the DOS DISKCOPY program
requires you to change between Source and Target disks
many times..
Use FIMAGE to copy the source floppy disk to an image file on your
hard drive. Then use FIMAGE to create (and format if necesary)
each target floppy disk with a single command.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
.. the original installation for a software package comes
on many 360kb floppy disk, and you want to make a more compact
copy for your archives ..
Use FIMAGE to create an image file on your hard disk for each
floppy disk in the set. Use an archive utility (like PKZIP or
LHARC) to make a single archive of the all the image files.
Sometimes a compressed archive of eight or ten 360kb floppy images
can fit on a single 1.44mb floppy disk!
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
You can run FIMAGE three ways:
1. FIMAGE d: file
FIMAGE will copy the floppy disk d: track-by-track
into the file. The default extension is .IMG
2. FIMAGE file d:
FIMAGE will restore the floppy disk d: from the file.
If the floppy disk is not formatted, or has the wrong
format, FIMAGE will format as it goes.
3. FIMAGE file
FIMAGE will list the root directory
(sorry, no subdirectories) for the floppy disk whose
image is stored in the file.
Note that FIMAGE doesn't use any switches, just one or two command line
arguments. If you type FIMAGE with no arguments it displays a short
summary.
FIMAGE works by reading a floppy disk track-by-track, instead of
file-by-file, and puts the contents into an "image" file. The "image"
file (default extension .IMG) also contains information about the type
and capacity of the original floppy disk. When you restore this image
file to a floppy disk, you get an exact copy of the original.
FIMAGE works with the following size floppy disks:
160 kb 5 1/4" 40 tracks 8 sectors 1 side
180 kb 5 1/4" 40 tracks 9 sectors 1 side
320 kb 5 1/4" 40 tracks 8 sectors 2 sides
360 kb 5 1/4" 40 tracks 9 sectors 2 sides **
1.2 mb 5 1/4" 80 tracks 15 sectors 2 sides **
720 kb 3 1/2" 80 tracks 9 sectors 2 sides **
1.44 mb 3 1/2" 80 tracks 18 sectors 2 sides **
2.88 mb 3 1/2" 80 tracks 36 sectors 2 sides
** These are the most common floppy disk sizes.
FIMAGE can only restore an image file to the same size floppy disk it
was created from. FIMAGE never changes or re-arranges the data, so it
cannot convert one size floppy disk to another size.
The image file will sometimes be much smaller than the size of the
floppy disk. This is OK because FIMAGE takes advantage of empty tracks
which have never been used and makes a smaller image file. If you
format a floppy disk (using FORMAT /U) and put only a few small files on
it, the image file that FIMAGE makes will be quite small. If, on the
other hand, you have a floppy disk which has been nearly full at one
time (even if the files are now deleted), the image file will be about
as big as the floppy disk.
If FIMAGE encounters an error while reading or writing a floppy disk,
you can:
Continue - FIMAGE will complete the operation as if no error
occured. This may result in an unusable image
file or floppy disk. If the track doesn't contain
anything important, you might get away with it!
Retry - FIMAGE will try again to read or write the track
Abort - FIMAGE will stop immediately
Some technical notes about FIMAGE:
FIMAGE is written in "C" and compiled with Borland Turbo C++. FIMAGE
uses the DOS function IOCTL to read, write, and format floppy disk tracks.
FIMAGE does not make any direct BIOS calls.
The registered version of FIMAGE is FIMAGE.COM (instead of FIMAGE.EXE)
and is smaller. It has no shareware messages. You get the complete "C"
source code with the registered version.
I considered putting a serious compression formula into FIMAGE, but
decided against it because:
1. It would slow down FIMAGE, especially on an 8088.
2. Many archive utilities do a good job of compression. You can
always use PKZIP or LHARC or PAK to shrink your .IMG files.
3. Many floppies (most of mine, anyway) already have compressed files
on them. Trying to compress the image file just eats up CPU
cycles without gaining anything.
FIMAGE checks each track it reads for repeating trailing characters. If
so, FIMAGE truncates the track to include only one copy of the
character. When FIMAGE restores a floppy disk, it duplicates the last
character of the track from the .IMG file to pad it out to the correct
length. Whenever a new floppy disk is formatted, it contains all hex
'F6' characters. Tracks which have never been used are compressed
nicely by FIMAGE.
When DOS deletes a file, it does not erase the data until the space is
used for a new file. This is why DOS 5.0 can have an UNDELETE command.
Files on floppy disks restored by FIMAGE can be UNDELETE'd just as on
the original.
Copy-protected disks can be saved and restored by FIMAGE, as long as the
copy-protection scheme doesn't use any physical methods (like little
holes in the disk), and doesn't have non-standard sectors or tracks. In
general, if DISKCOPY can copy a disk, FIMAGE can make an image file from
it.