Re: .IMD diskette image file recovery
On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 11:31 PM, Mark J. Blair wrote: > If you want raw data from an IMD file in some order other than the physical > ordering on the original media, my Python package that I linked to previously > may be helpful. It may also require some coding, but the supplied classes > make it pretty easy for somebody with Python familiarity to access the > contents of arbitrary sectors in a .IMD file. Excellent timing for your message. I was just thinking about Python code to access imd files, and that I might have to spend some time writing such, and there it is. It's like Christmas! Woo-hoo!
Re: .IMD diskette image file recovery
If you want raw data from an IMD file in some order other than the physical ordering on the original media, my Python package that I linked to previously may be helpful. It may also require some coding, but the supplied classes make it pretty easy for somebody with Python familiarity to access the contents of arbitrary sectors in a .IMD file. Even without Python programming experience, the command-line utility that comes with the package makes it easy to take a .IMD file, remove sector interleave so that the physical and logical sector ordering are the same, and then write out a new .IMD file to be processed by any other .IMD-aware programs. For example, to convert "foo.imd" to a new file "bar.imd" with no sector interleave: imdutil.py --load foo.imd --interleave 0 --save bar.imd It doesn't understand any filesystems - yet - but it may still be helpful. Documentation is admittedly lacking... the command-line utility has built-in help which can be accessed by the typical -h or --help arguments, and the classes have embedded docstrings which (savvy Python folks) can access with pydoc. And it has a unit test suite which I think tests it all out with reasonable thoroughness. Here's the --help output from the included utility script, to give y'all an idea of what it does: ~% imdutil.py -h usage: imdutil.py [-h] [-l FILENAME] [-s FILENAME] [-S] [-D] [-i SKIP] [-k SECTOR_NUM] [-u C.H.S] [-U] ImageDisk (.IMD) utility version 1.0.0a1 Copyright (C) 2016 Mark J. Blair, released under GPLv3 https://github.com/NF6X/pyImageDisk https://github.com/NF6X/pyImageDisk Arguments are processed in the order encountered, with cumulative effects upon the disk image buffer. The disk image buffer is discarded at program exit. Arguments may be abbreviated. optional arguments: -h, --helpshow this help message and exit -l FILENAME, --load FILENAME Load disk image buffer from file, replacing previous buffer contents. -s FILENAME, --save FILENAME Save disk image buffer to file. -S, --summary Print summary of image contents. -D, --details Print detailed description of image contents. -i SKIP, --interleave SKIP Interleave sectors with specified skip factor. -k SECTOR_NUM, --skew SECTOR_NUM Rotate sector order to place sectors with specified sector number after index pulse. -u C.H.S, --dumpsector C.H.S Print hexadecimal dump of sector. Specify the sector in cylinder.head.sector format. Use physical cylinder and head numbers, and logical sector number. -U, --dumpall Print hexadecimal dump of all sectors, in physical order. Example: imdutil.py --load mydisk.imd --summary -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X http://www.nf6x.net/
Re: .IMD diskette image file recovery
Yes, Fred is right, I assumed from your question that you wanted the raw binary data without the .imd sectoring info. To get the files back, you then need a way to mount that binary image on your target machine or emulator so it can read the file system. What is the target machine? What file system is on the disk? Marc Sent from my iPad On Feb 4, 2016, at 12:29 PM, Fred Cisin wrote: >> > Is there a utility that will read .IMD diskette archive files and > >> > recover the data? > [...] > curiousmarc3 seems to assume that you want a file containing the bytes on the > disk in the order that they are on the disk (BTW, sectors are not always in > consecutive order, and files can be fragmented all over a disk), whereas I am > assuming that you want a bunch of separate files, each of which contains the > bytes that were in a file on the original disk, and rearranged into the > sequence that they were within those files on the > -- > Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
Re: .IMD diskette image file recovery
[Please excuse the lack of threading - I read cctalk in digest form.] On Wed, 3 Feb 2016, Jim Simpson wrote: > Is there a utility that will read .IMD diskette archive files and recover > the data? I've found a wealth of BigBoard & BigBoard II data (and lots of > other stuff too) on many different sites, all saved in .IMD format. Is it > possible to read these files and recover the data instead of writing a > floppy disk with DiskImage? Jim (and other cctalkers), Grab a copy of the SIMH Altairz80 simulator from http://schorn.ch/altair.html and the zip file of my cpmplus for the CompuPro Disk1 controller from the Other Operating systems link at http://schorn.ch/altair_5.php This supports IMD disks in BB II 1.4Mb (1024byte x 9 sector) format. You can attach the IMD file and use the "W" command to extract files to the host operating system - mini:cpmplus tony$ altairz80 cpm3bk Altair 8800 (Z80) simulator V4.0-0 Betagit commit id: 4ff1e317 LDRBIOS for SIMH System - V3.2-Y2K 01-AUG-2008 DISK1 8" boot floppy CPMLDR3 - CP/M V3.0 Loader Copyright (C) 1982, Digital Research BNKBIOS3 SPR FA00 0600 BNKBIOS3 SPR C600 1A00 RESBDOS3 SPR F400 0600 BNKBDOS3 SPR 9800 2E00 61K TPA CP/M Plus for SIMH System - V3.2-Y2K 06-AUG-2008 Banked memory CCP loads from A: and reloads from bank 0 DISK2 dual 20Mb M20 winchesters (A-F) DISK1 8" (I-L) [BB-II] floppies A>SETDEF * A: [ORDER=(COM,SUB) DISPLAY UK] Drive Search Path: 1st Drive- Default 2nd Drive- A: Search Order - COM, SUB Program Name Display - On Date format used - UK A> Simulation stopped, PC: 0FE8F (AND 02h) sim> att disk1a3 ../s100/BB2-011.IMD sim> go A>l: %FDDISK1 unit 3 is type BigBoard-II 1024x9 Read-Only L>dir L: BULLETIN : BYE COM : CALL-JAN PQN : COMMANDS HLP : DIR COM L: ELAPSED COM : HELP COM : HELP HLP : INFO : MAGAZINE HLP L: MBOOTASM : NEWS : PAMSFEB1 0Q6 : PASSWORD COM : RBBS COM L: TYPE COM : USERDISK CQT : WHATSNEW HLP : XYAM COM : XYAMHELP T SYSTEM FILE(S) EXIST L>w A:WCOM WRITE V-1.17 (01-Mar-08) SIMH Interface V004 Usage: WRITE [B|T] Copy to host environment. Default is text, B for binary, T for Text Examples WRITE BDOS.MAC copy BDOS.MAC as text file WRITE PIP.COM B copy PIP.COM as binary file WRITE PIP.COM copy PIP.COM as binary file [.COM .REL .DAT imply B] WRITE TEST.DAT Tcopy TEST.DAT as text file WRITE *.COM copy all files matching *.COM as binary files WRITE SRC/BDOS.MAC copy BDOS.MAC to directory SRC as a text file WRITE COM/*.COM B copy *.COM to directory COM as binary files L>w type.com b A:WCOM WRITE V-1.17 (01-Mar-08) SIMH Interface V004 Write "TYPE.COM" to "TYPE.COM". 3.5kB written (Binary). If you need to support other CP/M disk formats, the BIOS source files and submit files to put them together are in the A1: directory on the hard disk image. There's also CP/M program to make IMD disk images natively under CP/M-Plus in A3: (it will span the IMD file across multiple floppies if the image file is too large). I used this to copy all my 8" floppies (including BB II ones) to IMD images. Tony -- Tony Nicholson
Re: .IMD diskette image file recovery
> Is there a utility that will read .IMD diskette archive files and > recover the data? "Data"??!? Well, you already have the DATA, every last bit. Maybe what you want is the INFORMATION, in the form of the FILES. All too often, people will use "data" to describe the contents, which could be at MANY different levels. And, of couse, some will be shocked, amazed, and offended that anybody could possibly interpret something so obvious in any way other than as they do. From .IMD files, with appropriate additional software, it is possible to recreate a "clone" duplicate on a disk, a binary image file of all of the bytes on the disk (in the order that they appear on the track), as mentioned next: On Thu, 4 Feb 2016, curiousma...@gmail.com wrote: Yes, if you download the original imd, in the package there is a simple to use command line utility to do just that. Writing from memory, IMD2BIN.EXE or something like that. OR, a copy of one or all of the sectors on the disk (with or without the "metadata" of the headers), the files from the disk (requires software that understands the filesystem), or the information within the data within the files (obvious with a glance at a Wordstar file without Wordstar, and grossly and horribly apparent trying to derive text from Weird, WordPervert, or any other "modern" word processor) [And, of course, in situations OTHER than this one, one can not always look at the world as "files" consisting of a sequential stream of bytes.] While it is, of course, obvious [to you] what you mean, you need to be aware that some of us have bizarre alternate interpretations of what it means to extract the "data" from a disk or disk image. curiousmarc3 seems to assume that you want a file containing the bytes on the disk in the order that they are on the disk (BTW, sectors are not always in consecutive order, and files can be fragmented all over a disk), whereas I am assuming that you want a bunch of separate files, each of which contains the bytes that were in a file on the original disk, and rearranged into the sequence that they were within those files on the original disk. From Data, we can derive Information. From Information, we can derive Knowledge. (That is the "DWI pyramid" of Information Science.) Most of us have extended that to include: From Knowledge, we can derive Enlightenment. (literally thousands of independently derived postulates) A few of us have extended that to include that Data is derived from Chaos, and that Chaos is derived from Enlightenment. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
Re: .IMD diskette image file recovery
Yes, if you download the original imd, in the package there is a simple to use command line utility to do just that. Writing from memory, IMD2BIN.EXE or something like that. Marc > On Feb 3, 2016, at 4:56 PM, Jim Simpson wrote: > > Is there a utility that will read .IMD diskette archive files and recover > the data? I've found a wealth of BigBoard & BigBoard II data (and lots of > other stuff too) on many different sites, all saved in .IMD format. Is it > possible to read these files and recover the data instead of writing a > floppy disk with DiskImage? > > Thanks, Jim Simpson > > > >
Re: .IMD diskette image file recovery
I've been developing Python code for dealing with .IMD files off and on. It's not complete by any stretch of imagination, but if you're comfortable with Python then you might be able to use it to do what you want: https://github.com/NF6X/pyImageDisk At this time, extracting meaningful data would require more coding. Using the provided classes to pull out raw sector data would be easy, but it does not yet have any understanding of filesystems. I do play to add support for at least some filesystems in the future, but at this time the filesystem code is just some nonfunctional skeleton classes that I'm still working on. The provided command-line utility will at least reveal details about the low level format, such as sector sizes, interleave factors, use of different sector address marks (i.e., the use of DDAM marks on the directory track of some TRS-80 formats), or weird cylinder and head numbers in the headers. It'll also do hex dumps of the entire disk image or individual sectors. And it can change interleave factors and first sector after the index pulse if that might be helpful. -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X http://www.nf6x.net/
Re: .IMD diskette image file recovery
On Wed, Feb 3, 2016 at 6:56 PM, Jim Simpson wrote: > Is there a utility that will read .IMD diskette archive files and recover > the data? I've found a wealth of BigBoard & BigBoard II data (and lots of > other stuff too) on many different sites, all saved in .IMD format. Is it > possible to read these files and recover the data instead of writing a > floppy disk with DiskImage? This tool is new to me but I'm looking forward to trying it out: http://simonowen.com/samdisk/formats/ It claims to be able to convert between many formats, including ImageDisk's IMD. Might be worth a try. j
Re: .IMD diskette image file recovery
On Wed, 3 Feb 2016, Jim Simpson wrote: Is there a utility that will read .IMD diskette archive files and recover the data? I've found a wealth of BigBoard & BigBoard II data (and lots of other stuff too) on many different sites, all saved in .IMD format. Is it possible to read these files and recover the data instead of writing a floppy disk with DiskImage? You can use the IMDU program (part of the ImageDisk package) to convert those files to a vanilla sector image. From there, cpmtools is your friend for extracting the files. IIRC, the BB used the same format as the Xerox 820 machines and they'll probably already be a useable diskdef. If not, it's fairly straightforward to write one. --
.IMD diskette image file recovery
Is there a utility that will read .IMD diskette archive files and recover the data? I've found a wealth of BigBoard & BigBoard II data (and lots of other stuff too) on many different sites, all saved in .IMD format. Is it possible to read these files and recover the data instead of writing a floppy disk with DiskImage? Thanks, Jim Simpson