Generate ISO of a diskette (not from files)?

[David_Jones]

Hi,

Is it possible to generate an ISO of a diskette, from a Win98 machine, without Win98 having to understand the file system on the diskette?

I would like to be able to create a CD that is a sector for sector copy of a 1.44Mb diskette (with much space left over on the CD of course!)

However, the diskette is (I believe) Ext2 format, and cannot be read by my CD writing software when it looks for files.

I realise I could do this with Linux, but I don't have a Linux machine to hand!


Mods: Apologies if this should be in either the Win98 or Alt OS forums - I wasn't sure. Feel free to move it if you think it should be elsewhere.

Thanks,

David.

[reboot]

Not having a diskette around to check, I would think that Nero might do it. I'll make a non-dos linux boot diskette later and see if I can find something to .iso it.

[David_Jones]

Hi Reboot,

Thanks for that - much appreciated.

I don't have Nero, but I have a friend who does who would be able to burn the CD for me if it works.

:-))

David.

[Demosthenes]

WinImage

[David_Jones]

Hi Demosthenes,

I couldn't see that WinImage is file system independent, and that it will create an ISO from a diskette (rather than a CD).

Is that correct, or am I missing an option somewhere?

Thanks,

David.

[reboot]

I couldn't get winimage to do it. It only runs in Windows, hence the name winimage.
I did it in Nero though. I had to go the long way about it. Nero won't read the Linux format, so I made a .gz file in Linux, then unzipped it in Winzip, and burned the iso that way.

[Demosthenes]

With all due respect Jim:

"I realise I could do this with Linux, but I don't have a Linux machine to hand!"

From WinImage site: "WinImage can now open/read/write Linux EXT2fs images, but will not interpret the contents of the file system (like Macintosh floppies)."
If you do not care what is in it, but want only the image file, then this should not matter. And yes, it absolutely creates images from floppies. That is what I used it for way back when.

I think WinImage should work. Why not at least try.

Respectfully,

Demosthenes

[reboot]

Cool! Must be my (old) version of winimage then.

[David_Jones]

Hi Guys,

I am floundering a bit here.

Jim:

Is this the correct procedure:

1) GZ the files in Linux, and copy them to a media or partition that I can read from Windows.

2) UnGZ (using, say, WinZip), so that I now have the files in Windows

3) Create an ISO from Windows that contains those files.

That sounds feasible, but unfortunately, I don't have a fully installed Linux machine that I can use at this time. I do have Linux boot diskettes, but I don't think that will help, since I won't be able to use many apps from there.


Demosthenes:

Which version of WinImage do you have?

It sounds form the above, like it should be able to read a floppy (in Ext2 format), and create a sector by sector image in ISO format from what you are saying?

It is not an issue that WinImage (or Windows) cannot interpret the file system, and hence the files. Once I have the files on the floppy written to a CD, it will be accessed by a machine that is running off a Linux Boot Diskette.


Thanks for your company!

David.

[Statica]

Have you tried running http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/rawwrite.htm (RAWRITE) for windows. It works both ways (creating linux fs disks from windows platforms and vice versa).
Simply run it and go to the READ tab .. to create a new img file from floppy.

HTH.

[reboot]

DUH! Excellent point. Should have thought of that...

[David_Jones]

I may be having a dumb week here!

Can it translate into an ISO or otherwise allow the image to be written to CD?

Thanks,

David.

[reboot]

Yes, the image it creates can be burned.