What is a disk image

WinImage is a disk image management utility. A disk image is a file which contains all the floppy data (files, FATs, boot sector, directory...).

By making an image of a floppy disk and writing it to another, we get an exact copy (as with the DOS DiskCopy command). We can read a floppy and write the image on the hard disk. A day later, without using a floppy, we can extract a file from the image. A week later, we can write the image on two new floppies, for instance ( without needing the original), and create two exact copies of it.

We can also create disk images with WinImage. If we want to put 5 files (taking 1.3 Mb) on a 3"1/2 HD unformatted floppy, we create an empty 1.44 Mb image, inject the 5 files into it from the hard disk (this is very fast) and in one operation, we format the floppy and write the image on it.

WinImage can format and use very large-capacity non-standard disks. (3"1/2 HD 1.72 Mb and 5"1/4 HD 1.44 Mb). To use them, you must load, before Windows 3.1, the TSR FdRead, a shareware program from Christoph H. Hochstauml;tter which you can get with the FdFormat utility. I think that having a look at this is a must. You don't need this TSR if you use only standard formats with WinImage.

You can load an image by reading a floppy, reading an image file, or creating an empty image.

You can extract the files of an image onto any device. (hard disk, network unit, or floppy).

You can also add files to the image.

The image can be copied onto a floppy (which must have the same format), or saved in a file.

An image file contains all the floppy sectors. If it's not full, you can truncate it.

WinImage can read the images of a lot of disk copy utilities: Wimage (in FdFormat utility) from C.H. Hochstauml;tter, CopyVit from Seacute;bastien Chatard, DrDos 6 and OS/2 2.x diskimage utilities, DCF (Disk Copy Fast) from Chang Ping Lee, DF (Disk Image File Utility) from Mark Vitt, Super-DiskCopy from Super Software, SabDu from S.A. Berman, Disk-RW from K. Hartnegg, DiskDupe from Micro System Design, internal disk Microsoft and Lotus image utilities and the MFMT sample Windows NT application that comes with Windows NT SDK.