Exact floppy copy

[javerleo]

Does anyone know if there is some free or shareware utility that allows to exactly copy a floppy disk, even its bad sectors?

Thanks a lot in advance.

[LJE2]

There is a program called WinImage v5.00.5, It's shareware, free to try $30 to buy, I used to use a prior version years ago. You can get it here. http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/utilities/file_utilities.html

Just type WinImage in the search dialogue box, it will also bring up other disk imaging programs.

[krusty the klown]

You can also make an exact floppy copy using DOS. It will copy boot sector stuff, too - so if ur source disk was bootable, the destination disk will be.

Unless you have two floppy drives, open up a toss (DOS!) window within windoze (this way, the system will use the RAM to cache the contents of the source disk), type: diskcopy a: a: (return)

You should be prompted to insert the source disk and when it's cached the contents, you should be prompted to indert the destination disk.

I'm not sure about the bad sector problem, so sorry if you've tried this already. But it's free and you don't need to D/L anything http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[tonym]

Krusty is right. The diskcopy command will do the trick. As for the bad sector part...I don't remember.

Many years ago I used a DOS program called COPYIIPC (copy 2 pc) which took the a disk and copied it bit by bit, including any bad sectors. I needed this to make a backup of a program from a vendor that used a laser (!!!) to destroy certain areas of a 5-1/4" floppy to personalize the disk install. COPYIIPC did the trick!

Today, most of the dupe shareware and commercially available software has risen in sophistication that they do this task (copy even bad sectors) as a second nature.

Have fun...


Tony

[This message has been edited by tonym (edited 05-25-2000).]

[medo]

Hello,

A small addition:

A:\ diskcopy /v will check and verify.

Medo

http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[Gutter Ball]

That's a good question, wouldn't "xcopy" work too? I remember using that command a lot with Win3.1 and DOS 6.2 http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[zim99]

One of the best floppy Duplicators was a DOS Shareware program 'DCF'. I believe that the last version was DCF53 which worked fine in a Windows DOS Box. The program would copy a floppy to an image file on your hard drive or to a floppy.

z