As part of getting back in to RISCOS I have begun to explore 'Arculator' and seem to have the basics sorted out. However unlike many emulators there does not seem to be a native process to create blank floppy-drive images. Am I missing something? Alternately I wonder if anyone could suggest a third party programme for doing so?
As of yet I have only found programmes such as 'ArcImg' and 'OmniFlop' for creating cloned images from real diskettes, not producing empty images of a given size.
Blank disk image creation
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- flaxcottage
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Re: Blank disk image creation
I don't know of a third party piece of software for this.
I had the same problem using RPCemu, so I used OmniFlop to archive an 800K disc and a 1.6M disc. This created two ADF images which I loaded into RPCemu and deleted the contents giving me two blank images.
They can be downloaded from the RISCOS section of the educational archive (link in the signature below).
I had the same problem using RPCemu, so I used OmniFlop to archive an 800K disc and a 1.6M disc. This created two ADF images which I loaded into RPCemu and deleted the contents giving me two blank images.
They can be downloaded from the RISCOS section of the educational archive (link in the signature below).
Re: Blank disk image creation
These are just sector images, so you can get away with an empty file of the correct size then "format" it - either 800kb or 1.6mb. In so far as getting that file, format an existing disk image to blank it, or here are a variety of methods in Unix/MacOS to make a file of a specific size:
https://ostechnix.com/create-files-certain-size-linux/
And under windows:
https://winaero.com/create-file-specifi ... indows-10/
Edit - just to confirm, under windows at an admin command prompt I did
Then loaded it as the disk in arculator, formatted it to 800kb and it worked fine. For 1.6mb you'll need to use 1638400 as the number of bytes
d.
https://ostechnix.com/create-files-certain-size-linux/
And under windows:
https://winaero.com/create-file-specifi ... indows-10/
Edit - just to confirm, under windows at an admin command prompt I did
Code: Select all
fsutil file createnew test.adf 819200
d.
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Re: Blank disk image creation
Many thanks indeed chaps!!!
I was wondering if it was just a case of perhaps using a hexeditor--but it makes things easier still if there is no header data to fudge.
I was wondering if it was just a case of perhaps using a hexeditor--but it makes things easier still if there is no header data to fudge.
- geraldholdsworth
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Re: Blank disk image creation
You'll be pleased to know that I'm currently working on creating ADFS blank images with the Disc Image Manager. So far, it can do ADFS S, M, L and D. By the time I post this version on GitHub, it should also be doing E, E+, F and F+.
But I also use the above method for creating blank images, then hex dump them, to look at the numbers, to make sure that Disc Image Manager will create a proper formatted image.
(although under macOS, it is mkfile -n <size> <filename> e.g. mkfile -n 1600K ADFS_F.adf)
But I also use the above method for creating blank images, then hex dump them, to look at the numbers, to make sure that Disc Image Manager will create a proper formatted image.
(although under macOS, it is mkfile -n <size> <filename> e.g. mkfile -n 1600K ADFS_F.adf)
Gerald Holdsworth, CTS-D
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Twitter @radiogezza
Re: Blank disk image creation
If you have an existing ADF, copy it, mount it with Arculator and then format it to create a blank ADF.morelenmir wrote: ↑Sun Nov 29, 2020 10:57 pm However unlike many emulators there does not seem to be a native process to create blank floppy-drive images. Am I missing something? Alternately I wonder if anyone could suggest a third party programme for doing so?
If you don't have a donor ADF, use ADFFS to create blank ADF's within RISC OS.