What about .ADF?

[mrknight]

I'm in the process to back up my original floppes as .ADF and so far so good. The headache is about to start with those games that have a copy protection.

1. How exact are .ADF copies of the real floppies? If I make an. ADF of a copy protected floppy, will I be able to mount this .ADF in WinUAE and will it will still work? I'm pretty sure I can't write a copy protected .ADF back to a floppy but if I'm able to run it in WinUAE or a ADF-floppy simulator I'm happy.

2. Is there are good programs that are able to mount a .ADF as a floppy from either the console or WB GUI? I have heaps of FAST RAM is that is needed.

[Ral-Clan]

1. WinUAE will read ADF files (and DMS files) and the emulated Amiga will treat them as if they were floppies
2. There is software available to allow one to mount an ADF or DMS file as a "virtual floppy"...RAD: volume, on a real Amiga.  I have used this software and found it on Aminet (can't remember the title now - there are various options).
3. There is also software available available on Aminet to write ADFs and DMS images back to real Amiga floppies.

[nicholas]

You need special hardware and software to make functioning images of copy protected floppies.

http://www.kryoflux.com/

To use those images in UAE you need:

http://www.softpres.org/download

You can find all the images the SPS have archived from here:

http://capsdi.free.fr/

To mount disk or iso images on the Amiga you can use this nice little tool.

http://aminet.net/package/util/rexx/isomount124

[Ral-Clan]

Need special hardware to make an ADF of copy protected Amiga disks?

I had never encountered this, but perhaps there are some really tricky disks I've never encountered.

Anyway, I wonder if you could do it by mounting a blank disk image on your Amiga Workbench (using one of the ADF to RAD: mounting utilities) and then using one of the Amiga nibbler or really thorough disk copying utilities to copy the real copy protected floppy to the RAD:, then DMS'ing or ADF'ing the RAD: back to a disk image.

[Thomas]

You cannot create ADF images of copy protected disks. The ADF format can only store pure unprotected user data. There is no space for magnetic tricks in this format.

The same applies to RAD. It cannot store copy protections, it only takes user data, no magnetically encoded bits.

You need IPF or other image formats to store encoded bits on the magnetic layer.

[mrknight]

Seems like Kryoflux is a neat solution, but quite expensive. And the  drive you are using must be able to read beyond track 80 since some copy  protection schemes are using these tracks for storing data. I don't  know how common or uncommon it is for drives to be able to do this. It  seems Kryoflux is using regular PC floppy drives.

.IPF seems to  be supported by the version of WinUAE I'm using. That's good. But I need  to find a way to mount them on a real Amiga.

Are there any  differences between Amiga and PC floppy drivers? Except that Amiga  usually are DD and PC HD. The Amiga floppy controller is much better  that the PC controller but this controller shoudln't be on the actual  drive but on the mobo. Is the cable interface the same of Amiga and PC?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

The Amiga floppy controller is much better that the PC controller

I think this statement is debatable. For example the Amiga floppy controller (controlled by Paula) is incapable of reading the higher spin or data rates of HD disks without hacks or work-arounds, which is why Amiga HD disk drives are much rarer and more costly than PC HD drives. Other than that I'm afraid I don't have much input into this thread. Good luck with your project!

[mrknight]

I think this statement is debatable.

I didn't mean better as such but I didn't find a better word when I wrote it. The Amiga controller is more flexible and allows you to do more low level stuff compared to a PC controller. That's why you can read PC floppies on Amiga, but not the opposite, despite being coded differently.

[bloodline]

The Amiga floppy controller, Paula, is simpler than the PC equivalent... With most of the hard work done in software, hence why we always had more flexibility with formats and blizzard copy protection schemes

[orange]

I think you can make .ipf with standard Amiga floppy, no need for kryoflux.