• How should I archive old floppies?
• I've got a lot of floppies that have drivers and software for
• old hardware. I'm trying to decide what's the best way to
• archive them for others to use.
• 1) Create an ISO file so it can be mounted as an image
• 2) Create a zip of the contents and that's fine
• 3) Create both separately so people can choose
• 4) Create both a zip and ISO and include them in a zip file
•  
  You cannot vote on this poll.

Re: How should I archive old floppies?
By: nelgin to on Wed Jun 18 2025 04:55 pm

I've got a lot of floppies that have drivers and software for
old hardware. I'm trying to decide what's the best way to
archive them for others to use.

I a not familiar with floppies specifically, but as a rule of thumb it is better to just create an image from the media you are archiving and then compress the images themselves. You never know if a piece of media stores information that is not contained in the files themselves but in some non standard way - a good example is CDs storing information in subchannel data.
--
gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken

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I've got a lot of floppies that have drivers and software for
old hardware. I'm trying to decide what's the best way to
archive them for others to use.

If you are running a Win platform, you can try winimage. It will compress
the entire floppy into an .img file. Later you can use the application to
uncompress back to a floppy or to some other location.

Cheers...


... White dwarf seeks red giant for binary relationship.

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
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þ Synchronet þ CJ's Place, Orange City, FL - cjsplace.thruhere.net

Re: How should I archive old floppies?
By: Arelor to nelgin on Sat Jun 21 2025 06:56 am

Re: How should I archive old floppies?
By: nelgin to on Wed Jun 18 2025 04:55 pm

I've got a lot of floppies that have drivers and software for
old hardware. I'm trying to decide what's the best way to
archive them for others to use.

I a not familiar with floppies specifically, but as a rule of thumb it is better to just create an image from the media you are archiving and then compress the images themselves. You never know if a piece of media stores information that is not contained in the files themselves but in some non standard way - a good example is CDs storing information in subchannel data. --
gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken

Not to mention, keeping the image will ensure that the file attributes remain intact, and that the floppy disk label remains.

Floppy disks have labels, and these are sometimes important for the operation of the software. For example, an installer may use the disk label to determine what disk number it is. PKZIP does this too.

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Re: How should I archive old
By: Cougar428 to NELGIN on Sat Jun 21 2025 09:23 am

I've got a lot of floppies that have drivers and software for
old hardware. I'm trying to decide what's the best way to
archive them for others to use.

If you are running a Win platform, you can try winimage. It will compress
the entire floppy into an .img file. Later you can use the application to
uncompress back to a floppy or to some other location.

Cheers...

... White dwarf seeks red giant for binary relationship.

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20

I used a DOS program to make images a while back, I can't remember what it was called but it used it own format.

I would STRONGLY recommend to use a format that is cross platform, and not tied to some specific piece of software to read.

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Re: How should I archive old
By: Boraxman to Cougar428 on Sun Jun 22 2025 10:28 am

I used a DOS program to make images a while back, I can't remember what it was called but it used it own format.

TeleDisk?

Nightfox

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Re: How should I archive old floppies?
By: nelgin to on Wed Jun 18 2025 16:55:04

Some interesting arguments were made for creating ISO files which includes keeping file attributes and the disk label which is sometimes used for installers. Considering that a 1.44mb floppy is tiny in comparison to todays storage, I'll probably create an uncompressed ISO and a zip file.

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Re: How should I archive old
By: Nightfox to Boraxman on Sat Jun 21 2025 08:07 pm

Re: How should I archive old
By: Boraxman to Cougar428 on Sun Jun 22 2025 10:28 am

I used a DOS program to make images a while back, I can't remember what was called but it used it own format.

TeleDisk?

Nightfox

No, not that one. Might have been Disk Image for DOS. Afraid I can't remember, but it had its own extension which started with .D something.
Had the option of internal compression for the image file.

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Re: How should I archive old floppies?
By: nelgin to All on Sun Jun 22 2025 01:34 am

Re: How should I archive old floppies?
By: nelgin to on Wed Jun 18 2025 16:55:04

Some interesting arguments were made for creating ISO files which includes keeping file attributes and the disk label which is sometimes used for installers. Considering that a 1.44mb floppy is tiny in comparison to todays storage, I'll probably create an uncompressed ISO and a zip file.

there is a compressed disk format for floppy images.
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Quoting Boraxman to Cougar428 <=-

Re: How should I archive old
By: Cougar428 to NELGIN on Sat Jun 21 2025 09:23 am

I've got a lot of floppies that have drivers and software for
old hardware. I'm trying to decide what's the best way to
archive them for others to use.

If you are running a Win platform, you can try winimage. It will compress
the entire floppy into an .img file. Later you can use the application to
uncompress back to a floppy or to some other location.

I used a DOS program to make images a while back, I can't remember
what it was called but it used it own format.

I would STRONGLY recommend to use a format that is cross platform, and
not tied to some specific piece of software to read.

Hi Bo - Yeah, I can see your point. However, the .img format can be
re-written using software on multiple platforms. IBM, *nix, Mac etc. Since
I use Windows currently, I mentioned that specific software. I realize
people trying to help sometimes cause unintended problems. However, my
intentions were good as that is the way that I do it.

Check out this video from Adam's Digital Basement on YT:

https://rb.gy/f31lkk

It's an informative presentation on the archiving/unarchiving process.

Cheers!
... On the other hand, you have different fingers.

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
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þ Synchronet þ CJ's Place, Orange City, FL - cjsplace.thruhere.net

Re: How should I archive old
By: Cougar428 to BORAXMAN on Wed Jun 25 2025 10:21 am

Quoting Boraxman to Cougar428 <=-

Re: How should I archive old
By: Cougar428 to NELGIN on Sat Jun 21 2025 09:23 am

I've got a lot of floppies that have drivers and software for
old hardware. I'm trying to decide what's the best way to
archive them for others to use.

If you are running a Win platform, you can try winimage. It will compres
the entire floppy into an .img file. Later you can use the application t
uncompress back to a floppy or to some other location.

I used a DOS program to make images a while back, I can't remember
what it was called but it used it own format.

I would STRONGLY recommend to use a format that is cross platform, and not tied to some specific piece of software to read.

Hi Bo - Yeah, I can see your point. However, the .img format can be
re-written using software on multiple platforms. IBM, *nix, Mac etc. Since
I use Windows currently, I mentioned that specific software. I realize
people trying to help sometimes cause unintended problems. However, my
intentions were good as that is the way that I do it.

Check out this video from Adam's Digital Basement on YT:

https://rb.gy/f31lkk

It's an informative presentation on the archiving/unarchiving process.

Cheers!
... On the other hand, you have different fingers.

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20

The IMG format is, I believe, just a raw dump of the data. It is cross platform because it doesn't require any proprietary translation.

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