Experimenting with disk image formats

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2010, January 4 - 6:54pm

Attila

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Joined: 2009 Apr 22

Experimenting with disk image formats

I had some time to experiment last night and this is what I've learned:

Uncompressed .dmg images (made with OS 10.2.8's version of Disk Copy) can be opened or mounted and used by: Mini vMac (if the image is formatted in Mac OS Standard,) Toast 4 and 5 but not version 3, Virtual CD Imager, and DiskCopy 6.5 for Mac OS 9 as long as the image file still has the proper filetype information (it can be restored manually if lost.) ShrinkWrap can't open it.

Toast images (made with Toast 5) can indeed by opened and used by Mini vMac, BUT... at first the image was refused, although Mini vMac can initialize the image first and then use it. It occurred to me to take a DiskCopy 6 image that already works with Mini vMac, and use Toast 5 to convert it to Toast format, and it worked! I dragged it onto an open emulator window and it mounted just fine.

This is of particular interest because both of these image formats can survive a Windows environment and being zipped.

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2010, January 4 - 7:14pm

IIGS_User

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Joined: 2009 Apr 8

I recently also discovered I can/have to/must initialize a .cdr image in Mini vMac first before using it.

2010, January 4 - 8:07pm

SwedeBear

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Joined: 2009 Apr 18

What are the options creating this kind of images under Windows?

2010, January 4 - 9:53pm

grawlix.computing

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It seems like it would be good to put this information into a grid format. Maybe other members can fill in some of the unknown cells?

2010, January 4 - 10:51pm

SwedeBear

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Joined: 2009 Apr 18

Some info perhaps worth putting on display in this thread;
http://macintoshgarden.org/forum/disk-image-compatibility

2010, January 5 - 4:43pm

Attila

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Joined: 2009 Apr 22

I would certainly contribute to such a grid if it were available. I wouldn't know how to start such a thing though.

BTW I noticed my Toast 5 images mounted with DiskCopy in OS 10.2.8, even after having their filetype information stripped. I'm definitely looking at Toast images as my solution to making my archives idiot-proof. They can be worked with easily enough on the classic Mac OS, and they survive Windows and zipping. And who knows if Macs of the future will even recognize resource forks anymore.

2010, January 5 - 6:06pm

IIGS_User

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And who knows if Macs of the future will even recognize resource forks anymore.

I bet against it.

2010, January 5 - 6:22pm

SwedeBear

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@Attila: did you try with a copy of a 'tricky' CD ie Mixed Mode, Enhanced CD or session burned? Would sure be sweet with a cross-application-system-proof image format.

2010, January 5 - 6:44pm

Attila

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Nah, I'm only interested in Mac files, and don't want anything to do with burning CD's. I just want people to quit bitching about not being able to open up archives on their Winblows machine.

Mostly I just want to think long-term so that I don't have problems accessing my old mac stuff in the future. But I have to be able to use it on real macs...

2010, January 6 - 10:08am

#10

watchsmart

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Yes, we should tell Winblows users to get outta here...

2010, January 6 - 10:30am

#11

Euryale

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Joined: 2009 Jul 22

...you're welcome.

2010, January 6 - 12:14pm

#12

watchsmart

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I'm only kidding. I use Windows.

2010, January 6 - 8:22pm

#13

Euryale

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Joined: 2009 Jul 22

@watchsmart
I know, that was not for you.
next time, I'll have to be picky as to who I'll try to help. 0 - 2