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Please note also - THIS BLOG ENDS HERE WITH THE LAST ENTRY FROM NOVEMBER 9th 2021.

I have prepared a new blog with wordpress at https://vintagecomputing.info !!!

Thank you.

Now the rest of the "gang". QCOPY Professional works quite ok, Blitzcopy seems to be the same but is a trial version for it. It can be used without loaded mouse driver (pressing the TAB key very often), although it's a lot of easier to use it with a mouse.



Remember you have to deselect multiple sources/targets if you just want to copy one disk.
Also, the option "Diskette Change" means the program waits for a DC signal coming from the drive itself, if you exchange the floppy disk. This can be tricky if you are using a floppy drive with READY signal only and an isolated pin 34 (only one side of the pcb !).

CopyStudio looks also really nice, although it is a bit difficult to use (too many buttons with non-standard names) and it's a time limited version (not yet reached the limit/not tested):


The "related link" points to an URL for downloading Blitzcopy.

(for the 3rd part of the article series, go on >here<)
(for the 5th part of the article series, go on >here<)

So I tested also X-COPY from Cachet Software, see below "related link" for a download link.
This seems to be only copying unprotected disks, with some program failures, too :-(
It looked very nice, still:

The version I tested copies, depending on your choise "FATCOPY" or "ALLCOPY", only used sectors or all sectors of a floppy disk. Depending of this choice also, you get an error message dialog from the program itself, if a 360KB drive is select as source or target ... so this X-COPY 1.28 is not really usable for all tasks. In other words: Copying a 360KB floppy disk in a 360KB floppy disk drive seems to be NOT working.
You can use it without a loaded mouse driver (Cursor keys, Function keys, Enter key).

Also, I tested FROGCOPY, which has like X-COPY a nice graphics screen. It copies all unprotected disks very well, so I can recommend it for daily copying.


(for the 2nd part of the article series, go on >here<)
(for the 4th part of the article series, go on >here<)

This is HD-COPY, the status information can be found in the lower right corner:

It's NOT working with the Pentium 200 PC, like VGACOPY.

COPYIIPC (all versions) and also COPYWRIT (all versions) are crashing, they will not even show up a program dialog at all:


DISKDUPE and DOSDUPE are working fine:

Usage of DISKDUPE is a bit difficult, you MUST use a MOUSE driver. Also, it's usually found only as a time limited trial version...



>First part of this article series<
>Third part of this article series<


(related link points to download link for DOSDUPE)

There are so many disk copy programs (aka disk copier), but they are not all working with a Pentium 200 PC. Do you remember the hitlist of the best of them ?
COPYWRIT
COPYIIPC
LOCKSMITH
HD-COPY
VGACOPY
BLITZCOPY aka QCOPY
DISK COPY FAST aka DISK COPY PLUS
DISKDUPE
DOSDUPE
COPYSTUDIO
FROGCOPY
X-COPY
a.s.o. (I can't list all, but I guess I listed the most important ones)

Some of them are showing their beauty in graphics mode, but text mode is very functional and is enough to show all necessary information, of course.

I am starting with VGACOPY and HD-COPY because BOTH of them are NOT working correctly with computers using Pentium or newer CPUs. They're working only with a 386 or a 486 PC.
But some programs are so old, that they do not even work with a 386 PC. COPYWRIT and COPYIIPC are working only with XTs (but I didn't manage to test it on a 286 PC).

I tested VGACOPY 3.3 and also the newest VGACOPY 6.25. Both are NOT able to write to a 360KB floppy disk (in a 360KB floppy drive), producing only yellow errorneous sector blocks on the screen:




Cont'd on >Part 2 of the article series<

(related link points to the VGACOPY web site)

It was a kind of a horror trip, because first I was not able to screw/fasten the drives in it because of missing screw holes,then I got problems with the RS232 interface because of a problem with the 486 mainboard, then I replaced the power supply, and after this didn't fix the RS232 problem, I exchanged the whole mainboard with a Intel FX Socket 7 board.
But now I got all problems fixed so far, all components working:

Pentium 166 (no MMX)
ASUS P55TP4 Intel 430FX Mainboard
64MB RAM (more than enough for Windows 98)
ATI Xpert98XL (PCI-card)
Soundblaster AWE/32PnP (ISA-card)
CD-Burner with licensed Nero 6.0
ZIP100 Atapi Drive
8GB UDMA7 CompactFlash HDD
3.5" Floppy Drive
5.25" Floppy Drive

Even Daytona USA Deluxe (with applied Direct3D patch) is working fine (it's really playable with ca. 20-25fps). And the installed DirectX7 is enough also for Diablo I ;-)

I configured it to use optionally a Command Line only after boot, too. So I am also able to use 22Disk, Alien, Uniform and other CP/M Floppy Disk Reader/Writer/Copier Software.

The board itself even supports a Pentium 200, see related link.