DSK-PRO 9.01

DSKPRO 9.0 is a new tool to create disk image files from physical disks, supporting all memory expansions in any slot/subslot, and which supports direct physical access to the floppy disk controller. So, it is able to read disks with CRC errors to create DSK files without a problem. It supports unprotected and protected disks being able to manage .dsk as well as the new PDI ("Protected Disk Image") format.
This tool has also a full "Disk Zapper" to allow you to edit the disk sectors in hexadecimal code or in ASCII, and you can search for a string through all of the disk. There is an option that shows the complete "Track Information". All copy protections can be revealed, and it's possible to see the FDC's addresses or ports. You can also format disks physically with this tool. Forget about the messages from the DOS like Disk Error after a format command; it has advanced routines to go deep into the track sectors to format your disks. On top of that, you can activate the "Verify Disk Option" to increase the chances to get a well formatted disk. And last but not least it is a full disk copier.
To summarize: Disk Zapper, DSK Disk Manager, Disk Copier and Formatter in the same tool. Those features combined serve to make things easier for you.

Relevant link: DSK-PRO 9.01
Relevant link: DSK-PRO 9.01 (at our download section)

Comments (25)

By Manuel

Ascended (19677)

18-10-2015, 23:18

Can you give a few examples which non-Brazillian copy protected disk software it supports?

By hbarcellos

Hero (649)

19-10-2015, 02:00

@Manuel
All Paraguayan and Bolivian MSX protected formats are also supported. Now, stop asking MDBlanco about it, ok? He could use some rest now after this HERCULEAN effort.

I would say DSK-PRO is the new DE FACTO standard tool to create disk image files from Brazilian, Paraguayan and Bolivian MSX physical disks.

By TheKid

Paragon (1238)

19-10-2015, 07:47

@hbarcellos: 'Stop asking MDBlanco' ?? Excuse me, Manuel is just asking one question, it's not like he is spamming the guy. Any developer who just released a new program would be thrilled to get some response. So I don't understand your reaction.

By Jipe

Paragon (1625)

19-10-2015, 14:12

testing with original shrines of enigma -> no work , find bad sectors but don't write it
test on 8280 mod 2+ with 4mo ram and 2 FDD

By Samor

Prophet (2220)

19-10-2015, 15:35

I like the over-the-top logo+image. I assume it's to emphasize the power of this tool and is not to be taken literally

By edoz

Prophet (2501)

19-10-2015, 15:35

It would be nice to have a DSK to DSK feature as well. So you can just copy a floppy to a floppy if you have 2 drives!

By Jipe

Paragon (1625)

19-10-2015, 15:48

i testing C (copy) with my 8280 4Mo , detect W.Digital FDC don't work with disk A source et B target , just a square and wait , wait .......
work if disk source A and disk A target

By cbsfox

Champion (445)

19-10-2015, 16:27

Actuay it works with 2 drives when you have 2 working physical drives.
But remember not to press CONTROL.

If you save the MegaFlashRom with new bios, you have to press CONTROL to activate the 2 drives.

It happens because DSK-PRO works with logical drives created by DOS.

Regards
Marcos Daniel

By cbsfox

Champion (445)

19-10-2015, 16:29

But if you have just one physical drive, don't choose letter "B" because it's the same physical drive. Choose just letter "A".

By Jipe

Paragon (1625)

19-10-2015, 17:16

i have 2 physical drives and don't push ctrl because i work with just the drives ( no cartridge i slot )
if my choise is A and A is correct reading and writing
if i choise A and B the disk reading is done ( only one pass with the 4Mo ) but don't writting
have you a printing user for help ?

By cbsfox

Champion (445)

19-10-2015, 17:28

Strange! It was supposed to write perfectly. I don't have your machine here to test but now I am using a Turbo-R ST with 2 external physical drives and it works perfectly.
The external FDC is a National one, with Fujitsu chipset.

Can you ask a friend with another computer with 2 physical drives to test it?

I did not have the time to create a full manual. I will do it soon.

Regards
Marcos

By cbsfox

Champion (445)

19-10-2015, 17:30

BTW, what type of copy did you try? Protected disk or unprotected one?
Disk to Disk?

Try both please.

Regards
Marcos Daniel

By Jipe

Paragon (1625)

19-10-2015, 17:48

i try format the B: with DSKPRO i have a problem with the floppy detect ( bad work ok if i push the disk )
i try another then solve it

regards
Jipe

By cbsfox

Champion (445)

19-10-2015, 17:52

I did not understand. You did format your disk in drive "B" OK or not?

Regards
Marcos

By edoz

Prophet (2501)

19-10-2015, 17:54

I have to floppy drives. I see drive A and B. But I can only do DSK to PDI not DSK to DSK.

By Jipe

Paragon (1625)

19-10-2015, 18:11

sorry for my english
format with disk in drive "B" start but after few seconds i have a message :
this disk is write protected / press any key to return
then i push down the floppy the format continue but i have Disk offline then type "files"
the drive is bad , i think the floppy detect switchs no works fine
i retry then solve it

By cbsfox

Champion (445)

19-10-2015, 18:15

So, that may be the reason why it did not work when you tried to copy a disk A to B.
I think you drive B may have a problem.

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

23-10-2015, 01:20

The version of this tool has been updated in our Download section:
http://www.msx.org/downloads/dsk-pro-701
It's version 9.0 now.

By ren

Paragon (1947)

23-10-2015, 10:46

@John: Instead of overwriting/updating, wouldn't it be an idea to keep previous versions of downloads for archival purposes? ((+) A previous version might come in handy when one encounters problems/issues with the latest version.)

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

23-10-2015, 13:04

ren wrote:

Well, I asked the author about it, but he preferred literal replacement. So that's what I did.

By anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

30-10-2015, 16:15

New update: the download links lead to version 9.01 now.

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

30-10-2015, 17:12

Quote:

We have the .ROM version, that can be written in a cartridge and to call the program it's necessary to do the following:

When in BASIC, just write CALL DSKPRO

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

30-10-2015, 17:13

Quote:

DSK-PRO 9.01 The World is Not Enough Twin Pack Edition RELEASED!

Improvements:

1 - Internal Kernel totally rewritten.

2 - The speed now, with unprotected disks is insane. It copies an entire 720k disk in just 88 seconds.

3 - Now it creates images of protected disks too. The new format file format is called (PDI = Protected Disk Image). And the tool supports most of the locks in the world.

4 - Minor bugs fixed.

5 - Versions .COM and .ROM included in this pack.

PS: There are some japanese protected disks that the tool doesn't support yet. Maybe in a future version? The strongest users will see...

*********** ATTENTION ***********
Don't use another DOS1 except the one inside the DSK file. If you use another one, it may not load the file DSKPRO.COM correctly.
If you use DOS2, no problems.
*********************************************************

Enjoy it!

The new DSKPRO 9.01 is the best tool to create image disk files from physical disks, supporting all memory expansions in any slot/subslot, and supports direct physical access to the floppy disk controller. So, it is able to read disks with CRC errors to create DSK files without a problem.

It supports unprotected and protected disks being able to manage DSK and the new PDI files.

This tool has also a full disk zapper to allow you to edit the disk sectors in HEXA or ASCII. And you can search for a string through all the disk.

There is a option that shows the complete Track Information. All copy protections can be revealed. And it possible to see the FDC's Addresses or Ports.

You can also format disks fisically with this tool. Forget the messages from the DOS like "DISK ERROR" after a format command. It has advanced routines to go deep into the track sectors to format your disks. And you can activate the Verify Disk Option to increase the chances to get a well formatted disk.
Your PC doesn't format your MSX disk? Well, PC sucks. Formatting a disk was never so easy.

And at last but not least it is a full disk copier.

Disk Zapper, DSK Disk Manager, Disk Copier and Formatter in the same tool. Everything to make things easier to you.

We, fans of this excellent 8 bit computer, still have lots of disks but because of the years they are all with CRC Errors and can not be recovered, not using normal tools.

But DKSPRO 9.01 can do that accessing the Floppy Disk Controller directly. To do that, it is necessary to identify the chipset inside the interface. There are 3 different chipsets in the market: Western Digital (used by Philips and Sony computers), Fujitsu (Used by National computers) and Toshiba (used by Panasonic and Sony computers). All these 3 chipsets are used inside interfaces from all over the world (Japan, Korea, USA and Europe), and are accessed just by memory addresses. For example, the Panasonic Turbo-R computer uses the Toshiba chipset inside its drive interface. Sadly, there are no tools in the market to access them directly.

There is another one from Brazil(Microsol), that uses the Western Digital Chipset but it is accessed by PORTS (IN/OUT). In this case, there are lots of tools here in Brazil that can access these interfaces directly, recovering disks with CRC errors for example.

DSKPRO 9.01 can access all floppy disk interfaces directly, no matter the chipset and access type, so it possible to recover your damaged disk with CRC errors, transforming it into a lovely disk image file to be used in your preferred MSX emulator.

The main features of DSKPRO 9.01 are:

1 - Detects automatically all memory expansions (Memory Mapper and brazilian Megaram) in any slot/subslot.

2 - Detects automatically all disk drive interfaces connected to the computer and you can choose the one your prefer. You may have a Panasonic WSX Computer with a broken disk drive, but its interface is still there. The tool will detect it automatically and set it to be used, but the disk drive is broken. So, you can connect an external disk drive, and you can choose the external one, to use with the working disk drive.

3 - Supports 3 floppy disk controller chipsets, detecting them automatically:
3.1 - Western Digital
3.2 - Fujitsu
3.3 - Toshiba

PS: If you use an "Alien" Disk Drive Interface, the tool will still work using the BIOS Access option, but you will not be able to recover disks with CRC errors.

4 - It supports from letter "A" to "H", so you can save your disk image file inside a harddisk connected to the computer.

5 - During the process, you can see all the information you need as:
5.1 - Physical Track Position
5.2 - Physical Disk Side
5.3 - Logical Sectors
5.4 - Bytes saved to the disk

6 - The sources are included in the package with comments, so you can modify the program as you wish to increment the features. Just let me know about that and put the original credits on it.

Have fun!

You can download this tool in this link: http://1drv.ms/1N1Avbg

Credits:
Author: Marcos Daniel Blanco de Oliveira
Auxiliary Routines: Rudolf Arthur Frans Gutlich
Testers: Ulisses Araújo, Werner Augusto Roder Kai e Fernando Manuel Garcia

Emotional Support: Bubuzinho and Luluzinha

By tingis53

Paragon (1121)

05-11-2015, 19:22

Hello everybody, I have tried DSKPRO 9.01 but it really doesn't work on my machine. I have a Philips NMS 8250 with two drives , upgraded to MSX2+. it reads a protected disk but is no able to write it. Even more when I guive a name of the PDI file to read I receive the msg " not a valid PDI 2.0 file". What can be the problem?

By cbsfox

Champion (445)

30-11-2015, 04:20

Hello tingis53. Can you send me a snapshot?
Please, lets talk by email. I will try to help you. Email: mdblanco.br@gmail.com

By the way, DSK-PRO 9.20 is almost done and It will support overlapping sectors lock and also twin sectors lock as well.

It will copy more protected disks now. Be prepared because the impact will be huge.

Regards
Marcos Daniel

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