[Coco] .DSK Partition extract/inject tool?

[Melanie and John Mark Mobley]

I believe the following message came from Boisy Pitre.

 

I've attached a RAMDISK.BIN program which works with DW3 and a 512K 

Coco3. This particular version of the RAM disk is set for drive255. If that
is 

not convenient for you, because there are files on that drive you want to 

access, I can send a version for any drive number you want.

 

Here is how the program is used. Just LOADM"RAMDISK" and the program will be


ready to use. You will no longer be able to access any DW3 drive255 because
that 

will be the RAM disk. Before it can be used, you will need to DSKINI255.
Don't 

be concerned about a warning message.

 

Let's say you want to copy a program from DRIVE#1 on drive137 to DRIVE#0 on 

drive5. The command sequence would be:

DRIVE#1

COPY"file.ext:137"TO255

DRIVE#0

COPY"file.ext:255"TO5

 

Replace 'file.ext' with whatever the correct name is for the file.

 

You could revise your own transfer program to incorporate this syntax or you


could just do a full backup of one drive to another. With the RAM disk ready
to 

go just:

DRIVE#1

BACKUP137TO255

DRIVE#0

BACKUP255TO5

This would copy every file and all unused sectors from one drive to the
other.

 

One interesting point about the RAM disk. The contents will stay intact
until 

you power down the Coco3. So, even if you do a CTLR/ALT/RESET, you can 

LOADM"RAMDISK" and find the contents of drive255 have not changed. That
means 

while you can DSKINI255 at any time to clear the RAM disk, you only need to
do 

that after a power up.