First version of Arjuna, new Windows drivers for Catweasel

[redrumloa]

 Arjuna is a modular, expandable solution to access floppy disks from many different systems. It supports the Catweasel Controller to read and write formats not compatible with the standard PC controller.

Arjuna is written in C++ and uses Qt for it's GUI. The project by Christoph 'Doc Bacardi' Thelen now has it's own homepage and a mirror on our webspace. The first version 0.6beta is available for download there.

Arjuna is a project that reaches very far into the past, digging deep into almost forgotten knowledge about data storage. At the same time it focusses on the future as a universal tool for data restauration and conversion. Hoping to find a lot of developers to contribute floppy disk formats, Christoph is trying to make this a Sourceforge project.

 The Windows version of Arjuna needs an updated driver for the Catweasel to work properly. Download this version here (86K, experimental).

[redrumloa]

Jens has mentioned on ANN that this will be ported to the Amiga platform eventually.

Here is some old info revealed about this project from 2003.

The goal of the development is a software for the Catweasel Controller, which allows accessing disks at the lowest level.

The open-source software, which is developed on Windows, allows combining low-level codecs with filesystems on a graphical basis. This makes the software easy to use for beginners, and gives a wide variety of combinations and data manipulation possibilities for the experienced user. The fully documented plugin-system can be extended dynamically.

Plugins can be inserted at any stage of the signalling pathway. On the lowest level, errors of the media can be detected and corrected. On the highest level, files of operating systems and programs that are no longer supported can be converted to standard formats that allow easy import into popular office solutions.

Areas of application include forensic data recovery (securing evidence), archiving and restoring data to new, durable media, but also reading and writing disks of home computers, even if they have non-standard characteristics.