CP/M archive to image 8" CP/M floppies

[Kevin Handy]

Vintage Computer Festival wrote:

>On Sat, 17 Sep 2005, Barry Watzman wrote:
>
>  
>
>>While images are nice, for CP/M there is another alternative that may be
>>more widely useful and easier, although it's less historically accurate.
>>That is just to copy the files over to MS-DOS disks, where they can then
>>exist in folders on a modern hard drive or be put on CDs or DVDs.  I can
>>really see no advantage to a strict "image", as long as one has the files.
>>
>>The issue that this leaves out is the system tracks, but that is easily
>>dealt with:  Runs "SYSGEN", exit, and then do a "SAVE 34 SYSTEM.COM" and you
>>have the system tracks as a disk file in a format that is easily restored
>>simply using SYSGEN.
>>
>>This method also has some actual advantages, in terms of being able to
>>actually use the software with a CP/M emulator on a PC.
>>
>>Since I'm not aware of any CP/M programs that did copy protection or any
>>other type of manipulation that would require an exact disk image, I don't
>>really see the drawback of this approach.
>>    
>>
>
>The one main drawback is that this is not an accurate or appropriate way
>to create an image for historical preservation.  For this reason I
>recommened against what you describe.
>
>  
>
Another one: If you have the machine in question and need
a boot disk, how do you create one from this? You can't run
sysgen because you can't boot, and you can't boot because
the system tracks aren't in the right place.