Personally I find SamDisk fine even for writing most things back to real floppies (doesn't work on all), although I wouldn't mind a Kryoflux
Spectrum +3 disk images via Kryoflux
Re: Spectrum +3 disk images via Kryoflux
I'm no expert but if you are just backing up your collection for use on Emulators or a Gotek then SamDisk is most likely all you need as it does a very good job, including preserving/recording most if not all of the copy protection schemes. I think Kryoflux or SuperCard Pro (SCP) are really for hardcore preservation as they produce very fine resolution images of the disks running into the many megabytes. Probably best if you want to write back to real floppies though.
Personally I find SamDisk fine even for writing most things back to real floppies (doesn't work on all), although I wouldn't mind a Kryoflux
Personally I find SamDisk fine even for writing most things back to real floppies (doesn't work on all), although I wouldn't mind a Kryoflux
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Retro enthusiast and author of Flynn's Adventure in Bombland, The Order of Mazes & Maze Death Rally-X. Check them out at http://tomdalby.com
Re: Spectrum +3 disk images via Kryoflux
A Kryoflux is much better at preserving the image than SamDisk. SamDisk at the end of the day has to go through a floppy disk controller chip. While it does a fantastic job with that limitation it still can only read the disk as the FDC sees it.
Additionally it is limited by what information it can put into the DSK file (although it has extended it slightly to deal with some copy-protection such as faking weak-bits by storing multiple copies of the same track). Emulators often have hacks in them to spot and skip over copy protection so these images can work. You can also see the limitations if you try to write a DSK file back to a physical 3" disk and attempt to boot it on real hardware. It will often fail as the tricks it does like the multiple-copies-of-a-track can't be physically written back.
The Kryoflux is a direct USB to physical drive interface with no floppy controller. It records magnetic flux variations on the disk which let it image (or write back) any format for any machines with any copy protection in great detail (a 200KB Speccy disk images at about 8MB).
In summary: SamDisk is a great tool and it's fine for emulator users. For actual software preservation however the Kryoflux is the way to go.
Note: SamDisk also has a mode where it can produce DSK files from Kryoflux raw stream files
Additionally it is limited by what information it can put into the DSK file (although it has extended it slightly to deal with some copy-protection such as faking weak-bits by storing multiple copies of the same track). Emulators often have hacks in them to spot and skip over copy protection so these images can work. You can also see the limitations if you try to write a DSK file back to a physical 3" disk and attempt to boot it on real hardware. It will often fail as the tricks it does like the multiple-copies-of-a-track can't be physically written back.
The Kryoflux is a direct USB to physical drive interface with no floppy controller. It records magnetic flux variations on the disk which let it image (or write back) any format for any machines with any copy protection in great detail (a 200KB Speccy disk images at about 8MB).
In summary: SamDisk is a great tool and it's fine for emulator users. For actual software preservation however the Kryoflux is the way to go.
Note: SamDisk also has a mode where it can produce DSK files from Kryoflux raw stream files
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Re: Spectrum +3 disk images via Kryoflux
I bought a Kryoflux a few years back but haven't gotten around to hooking it up yet (have hundreds of Amiga disks to archive).
The +3 was my first computer, and having regretted selling it since I was 14 I finally answered the nagging call of nostalgia and purchased a replacement. Unfortunately I don't have any original disks for it, but have adorned it with a Multiface 3 and DivMMC Future and an external Gotek.
If you do set up an archive/repo, I'd very much like to get involved. Don't know if archive.org can help? I noticed they host some kryoflux images.
The +3 was my first computer, and having regretted selling it since I was 14 I finally answered the nagging call of nostalgia and purchased a replacement. Unfortunately I don't have any original disks for it, but have adorned it with a Multiface 3 and DivMMC Future and an external Gotek.
If you do set up an archive/repo, I'd very much like to get involved. Don't know if archive.org can help? I noticed they host some kryoflux images.
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