Help dumping Apricot ACT disks

callmejack

I imaged some Apricot disks (ACT format, 3.5", single side, double density). I try to convert SCP format to IMG but I'm not sure that the usual commands I'm using do work :

pfi disk1.pfi -R 1 -r 500000 -p decode pri disk1.pri
disk1.pri -p decode mfm disk1.psi -f -v
psi disk1.psi "%~nf1.img"

Are they appropriate ?

https://mega.nz/file/SHxEHQaR#IKC8z7T8GvVO85jYiQXCl4spPIWb7LixZQhBLt2b--Y

SomeGuy

Basically, yes.

If you know for sure an image is single sided, you may sometimes need to use PRI's -h 0 parameter to avoid decoding junk on the second side. In this case the second side is totally blank, and does not cause any issue.

Also, these disks are not in standard IBM PC format. They use interleaved sectors, so the order will not be preserved in IMG format. I recommend storing a copy in ImageDisk format in order to preserve the geometry. ImageDisk should be able to accurately write the image back.

Finally, even though these are FAT, WinImage will not open the IMG files. It has been a while since I looked at Apricot disks, but I believe the boot sector might need tweaking in order to read them.

pfi "Open Access - DIsk 1 [3.5].scp" disk1.pfi
pfi disk1.pfi -R 1 -r 500000 -p decode pri disk1.pri
pri disk1.pri -h 0 -p decode mfm disk1.psi -f -v
psi disk1.psi disk1.img
psi disk1.psi disk1.imd
psi disk1.psi -L > disk1.txt

callmejack

Thanks ! I will do so.