Also see Sound Programs & CD Players.

2M — Format floppies to higher capacities.

* * * *

If you want to squeeze a few more files on your 1.44MB (nominally 2MB) floppies, and save a few pennies in the process, 2M will help. 2M can reformat a 1.44MB floppy to either 1.7 or 1.8MB. These disks are readable/writable only when the supplied 2mdos TSR program is running – you normally can't use these disks on a PC lacking the TSR. Yet each 2M disk can function as a 2M boot disk: simply boot a computer from a 2M disk and the TSR is automatically loaded. A pretty nifty feature.

The distribution archive also contains small drivers that add 1.44 and 1.2 MB drive capability to XTs and earlier ATs. For hardware support the author has you mount a 16-bit multi-function card – yes, even in an 8-bit slot (which also provides functional com and lpt ports). Using this technique I successfully added a 1.44 drive to an XT clone – though in this case the driver supported only one floppy, not the two it was supposed to. However, the standard 5¼ drive was still bootable (of course).

• Booting a computer from a 2M disk can generate antivirus warnings, and it prevents some Windows configurations from starting properly. These warnings can be prevented if the 2mdos TSR is installed using autoexec.bat.
• 2M works fine under Windows 3.1 (I've been using it for 2 years) but some floppy file operations may run slower.
• HD disks formatted to 2M's maximum capacity (1.8MB) seem to be more prone to corruption. In my experience, the default value (1.7MB) produces disks that are as reliable as a 1.44. My subjective opinion.
• OS issues: 2M is fully supported under DOS, Win3.x and Linux, but not Win9x or OS/2. Accessing a 2M disk under Win9x may actually corrupt the 2M disk. However, one reader informed me of a simple solution (which I haven't tried myself) to the 'Win9x problem:'
  1. Load 2M in your Autoexec.bat.
  2. Turn off Windows' 32-bit floppy-drive access – this will allow 2M to work flawlessly!. (Control Panel > System > Device Manager > Floppy Disk Controllers > Standard Floppy Disk Controller). The Standard Floppy Disk Controller (the culprit) MUST have a red X over its icon to allow 2M to work.

Author: Ciriaco García de Celis, Spain.

1995-03-06: v3.0. Cardware.

Download 2m30.zip (251K).

FDFORMAT — Format floppies to higher capacities.

* * * *

This older utility, similar to 2M, has better 3rd party support and remains very popular. English or German interface.

OS note: FDF disks are readable under Win9x; the TSR is not required. FDF is not compatible w/ WinNT4.0.

Supporting 3½"-1.44 MB drives with any BIOS-Versions in ATs and Clones. This saves you a lot of money, you would need for a new BIOS-Version.

Formatting and using of 720/820 kByte disks in AT 5¼"-1.2 MByte Drives using cheap double-density (DD) disks.

Supporting 3½"-360 kByte format. This is useful, when you want to make copies of 5¼"-disks to 3½"-Disks using DISKCOPY.

Improved BOOT-Sector, which automatically boots from harddisk, if the diskette in drive A: is not a system disk. This allows you to leave the diskette in drive A:, when you reboot the system.

Author: Christoph H. Hochstätter, Germany (1991).

1991-07-21: v1.8.

HD-COPY — Fast diskette copier and high capacity formatter.

* * * *

[updated 2005-04-10]

From the docs...

HD-COPY is the fastest copy-program I know (and I know many) --- there's definitely no faster one. You can also use it to format disks at various formats (from 720 Kb to 1.764 Mb in this version of HD-COPY), which is faster than DOS' FORMAT and produce s less errors.

The following DD formats are supported:
* 320 Kb, 360 Kb, 720 Kb; "special" DD formats: 400 Kb, 800 Kb, 820 Kb and similar

The following HD formats are supported:
* 5 1/4 inch drives: 1.2 Mb, 1.44 Mb, 1.48 Mb and similar
* 3 1/2 inch drives: 1.2 Mb, 1.44 Mb, 1.48 Mb, 1.72 Mb and similar

Note: To use non-standard disks (i.e. 5.25" disks with more than 1.2MB, or 3.5" disks with more than 1.44MB) outside HD-COPY, you have to install a TSR program like FDREAD (included), because the DOS/BIOS doesn't like disks with an unusual number of sectors. HD-COPY itself doesn't need FDREAD, since it has its own routines to handle special formats.

Available in English and German. Both packages have the same opening screen, showing a choice of installation language. But each package contains one version only: You must select the language package that you need. The German package is larger, with a complete manual that is not translated into English.

Author: Oliver Fromme, Germany (1995). Cardware.

1995-01-13: v2.0a.

More in these pages from Oliver Fromme.

VGA-COPY/386 — VGA floppy diskette copier, formatter, and image manager.

* * * *

[added 2001-10-29], updated 2005-07-01]

This respected shareware disk copier is now freeware. Beneath the VGA GUI interface (and included screen savers and game) is a good disk copier, formatter, and disk image file creator. VGACOPY is best used under plain DOS – in my experience it corrupts floppies when formatting or writing to floppies under Win9x.

Among disk copiers, VGACOPY is a good choice if you need to back up a collection of aging floppies to more reliable media. By default VGA-COPY will generate compressed VCP disk image files. These compressed files are actually ARJ archives and they can be optionally encrypted within VGA-COPY. You can also provide a 40 char. descriptive comment which is also included in the ARJ archive (as a file_id.diz file).

VGA-COPY stores image files in a user-defined directory and conveniently displays all image files with their associated descriptions (but if you have a very large collection of image files, VGA-COPY's list box can only display the first 22 or so files). German and English language versions – user selects at installation. Requires 4MB RAM, VGA, 80386+.

• Displays system information and floppy hardware info (but again, only accurately under plain DOS).
• Can create high capacity non-standard format floppies (which include a tsr for reading these under dos- automatically created on every non-standard disk).
• Visual graph displays weak/problem sectors (i.e., identify potentially problematic floppies before they degrade beyond repair/recovery).
• Includes antivirus scanning option (uses external scanner, F-Prot and an internal heuristic bootsector analyzer).
• Help File can be edited (multilanguage possibilities)
• Command line options allow modification of some default settings.

Author: Thomas Mönkemeier / VGA-Software GmbH, Germany (2001). Suggested by Lars-Erik Sandberg.

1997-04-20: v6.23. This version has manuals – useful for learning shortcut keys, etc. Default language is English: After installation (unzipping), German-language users should copy / move files from the \german subdir to the main program dir. Note: VGANLEIT.EXE (manual), VGASCAN.EXE (heuristic virus checker) and VGAORDER.EXE (obsolete) are in German only. MANUAL.DOC is in English, and MANUALFR.DOC is in French.

2001-03-28: v6.25. No manuals. Default language is German: After installation (unzipping), English-language users should run english.exe – overwrites German-language message files with English.

D2D (D2D/98) — Floppy copier uses conv, ems, (ram)disk and/or xms memory.

* * * *

[added 1999-07-12]

D2D/98 is a 35K command-line driven interactive disk copy utility for floppy disks. Use extended memory, expanded memory or your hard/ram disk to store the data that won't fit into conventional memory. Make multiple copies with a single source read. Includes destination formatting capability. For FAT-based floppies, unused tracks at the end of a disk are neither read nor written. Uses device drivers rather than hardware allowing non-standard formats to be read. GPL license w/ source.

usage: C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\D2D-2.EXE from: to: [/#] [/a] [/b<str>] [/D]
                [/e#] [/n] [/o] [/q] [/r] [/td:[<path>]] [/u]
                [/v[s]] [/w] [/x#] [/?]
/#      number of copies (/12)
/a      copy all tracks
/b<str> override BPB of disc (/b720kB)
        (<str> is one of: 160k,180k,320k,320S,360k,360S,720k,1.2M,1.4M,2.8M)
/D      disable boot code on destination
/e#     specify EMS usage in kB (/e128)
/n      non IBM-compatible BIOS (seldom helps)
/o      keep old serial number
/q      don't use bell
/r      data recovery -- continue after read errors
/t<str> temporary drive [and path] for swap file (/tC:\tmp)
/u      unconditionally format destination disk
/v[s]   [smart ]verify after write (/vs)
/w      write destination disk without asking
/x#     specify XMS usage in kB (/x1024)
/?      display this explanation

Author: Ulrich Windl, Germany (1998).

1998-12-25: v2.32.

Download d2d-98.zip (68K).

XDSKCPY (Extended DISKCOPY) — Copies diskettes in one drive.

unrated

[updated 2004-08-07]

From the docs:

Copies entire diskettes in one drive...using Extended Memory (XMS) or hard disk space for buffering to avoid disk swapping. Also make several copies of one diskette with a single read of source diskette.

Author: Sverre H. Huseby, Norway (1993).

Download xdcpy200.zip.

Sverre H. Huseby's Old Freeware for MS-DOS and MS Windows.

More in these pages from Sverre H. Huseby.

QUIKCOPY — DISKCOPY replacement: Copies floppies in one pass using extended memory.

* * *

[updated 2006-08-21]

QUIKCOPY is a replacement for DOS's DISKCOPY command. Like DISKCOPY, which is found in DOS 6.2, QUIKCOPY can copy an entire disk in one pass, but it uses extended or expanded memory rather than a RAM disk. It can also speed the process by copying only used clusters.

If you plan on running QUIKCOPY under Windows, you'll need an adequate chunk of contiguous XMS memory. Doesn't compare read clusters with written clusters.

Authors: Bob Flanders and Michael Holmes, for PC Magazine (1994).

1994-09-04: v1.10.

Download quikco.zip (50K).

IMG — Create / restore floppy image, add-extract files to / from image.

unrated

[added 1999-01-23, updated 2006-03-14]

Writes a floppy disk to an image file on your hard disk allowing you to restore it to a floppy at a later time. IMG is unique because individual files within an image can be extracted (you don't have to restore to floppy first). IMG also has the ability to add files to an existing image file, or create a brand new image file using a list of individual files. "Supports disk images created by HD-Copy and VGA-Copy (uncompressed) or other programs which create raw disk image files in any way." Included is FDRW which images floppy disks to a file and also writes the image back to floppies.

Author: Falk Huth, Germany (1996).

1996-01-04: v2.0.

Download img2_0e.zip (51K).

FIRM — Floppy disk imager; can write to floppies having larger capacities than original.

unrated

[added 2000-02-26]

FIRM.COM is a simple to use DOS Floppy image reader/maker. It is compatible with files used by many other disk image reader/writers. It is capable of reading/writing disks of other systems, Unix, Linux, later Mac and some other disks. Image files can be written back to disks of a larger capacity than the original for at least FAT systems. [e.g., a 1.2MB floppy image can be written to a 1.44 floppy].

FIRM cannot create a floppy image without a floppy (cf. IMG). Performs limited BIOS-level error checks. Includes graphical progress bar.

Author: Dave Burley (1999). Suggested by Bjørn Simonsen.

1999-08-05: v3.21.

Download firm.zip (12K).

DiskImager — 1.44MB floppy disk imager can also create self-extracting (EXE) images.

unrated

[added 2000-03-08]

This simple tool can create/restore imagefiles or self-extracting (EXE) imagefiles from 1.44MB floppy disks. Major limitations: only supports 1.44MB floppy format.

Author: Fredrik Johansson / Port Jackson Computing (1999). Suggested by Michael Wann.

1999-07-19: v1.1.

Download dskimg11.zip (7K).

Floppy Tool Kit — Floppy drive analyzer, tuner, cleaner utilities.

unrated

From the documentation:

... a collection of 8 small utilities which will help you use your floppy disks more effectively. Since you probably worry more about how to get better speed and storage out of your hard disk, this may not be a matter of pressing concern to you. However , floppies are going to be used for quite a while and by spending a few minutes with these utilities you can make things go a little bit faster each time you use a floppy. Programs are provided to:

• set the mechanical parameters of operation for your floppies.
• test for the maximum reliable step rate of a floppy drive.
• test a drive or disk for read errors.
• measure the seek performance of a floppy system.
• determine the optimal skewing parameters for formatting disks.
• test the rotational speed of a drive for accuracy.
• show the formatting parameters for a floppy disk.
• aid in the use of a head cleaning disk.

Author: William Luitje (1995)

1995-03-13: v1.1.

Download flpkit11.zip (67K).

RESQFLPY — Generate clone(s) of damaged or unreadable floppy disks for recovery purposes.

unrated

[added 2000-09-10, updated 2006-03-14]

Data recovery attempts sometimes go wrong, making problems worse. Sometimes you might want to compare recovery methods against each other. RESQFLPY helps in both situations.

...Defective sectors are ignored, or read by force where possible, during generation of the image file... Once you have successfully created an image file, run RESQFLPY again to copy the image to a CLONE disk...When the boot sector of the source floppy is bad then you can install a fresh one to the clone with FIXBOOT [included]...You are now ready to perform any recovery procedure you might wish on the CLONE floppy without fear of causing any further damage to the original.

Don't run this in a Win9x DOS box — boot direct to DOS and then run it.

Author: Zvi Netiv / NetZ Computing, Israel (2005).

2005-03-05 release.

Download resqfloppy.exe (75K). WinZip SFX, can be unzipped .

Also on this page: D2D, which has a data recovery option /r – continue after read errors.

IDE-ATA — Displays detailed IDE-ATA drive identity information.

unrated

displays...useful information about ATA drive(s) attached to your PC. ATA-1, ATA-2, ATA-3 specifications are supported...Useful features: Support of four EIDE standard controllers, user-defined hardware addresses to find ATA drive, polling / interrupt methods to detect ATA drive, read / write identification sector from / to file.

Notes: Older, doesn't ID some newer drives.

Author: Dmitry V. Stefankov, Russia (1997).

1997-08-02: v2.60.

Download ideata26.zip (26K).

unrated

[added 1999-10-30]

Shows which ATA/IDE ports are active and to which ports drives are connected; Will detect and display data for a drive when the drive has not yet been recognized by the BIOS; Will detect and display data for drives on an active ATA/IDE port, even if the primary port is disabled or non-functional; Reports on the "command queuing" capability of the newest drives; Reports the spindle rotation speed of almost all drives; Recognizes up to 8 ATA/IDE hard drives using the standard port addresses of 1F0h, 170h, 1E8h & 168h; Small, fast program will fit on just about anyone's emergency boot floppy; Supports drives larger than 8 gigabytes.

Runs from DOS only, not under Windows.

Author: Michael B. Mallory (1999).

1999-09-09: v2.0.

Download atahd20.zip (27K).

unrated

...displays...useful information about ATAPI CD-ROM drive(s)... ATAPI v1.2, ATAPI 2.5 and ATAPI 2.6 specifications are supported...Useful features: Support of four standard EIDE controllers, user-defined hardware addresses to find ATAPI drive, polling / interrupt methods to detect ATAPI drive, writing raw dump of identify information to files.

Author: Dmitry V. Stefankov, Russia (1997).

1997-08-05: v2.03.

Download atacd203.zip (40K).

unrated

[added 2000-09-11, updated 2005-07-01]

ADQ detects drive type, supported PIO modes, supported DMA modes, drive vendor, serial number and other hardware data. Run it from a DOS boot disk. ADQ does not: Test OS-dependent information; test drive speed; run reliably under multitasking OSes; support drives higher than ATA-2.

Requires: DOS 3.3+, 80286+, ATA/IDE drive & controller, 200K memory. Released under GNU General Public License.

Author: WTY Soft, Netherlands (2005).

2005-01-16: Part of the drive util suite, WATADIAG v1.01.

Download watadiag101.zip (218K).

Go to the WATADIAG page for more info.

unrated

[added 2005-07-17, updated 2006-08-21]

DRVEXCH rearranges partition letters of two hard drives according to physical hard drive number: The first physical drive will have its partitions designated C:, D:, E: etc, and the second physical drive will have partitions F:, G:, etc. But why would this be necessary?

How DOS works: In a two-drive system, if the second drive has a primary DOS partition, MS-DOS will call it D:, even if there are extended DOS partitions on the first drive. An original partition D: on the first drive will be relabeled as E:, etc. So if you start out with one drive, and set up software to look for data on partition D:, adding a second physical drive will, in effect, lose data. Or, if you set up a two-drive system with D: on the second drive, and then remove that drive, letters after C: on the first drive will change, and data will again seem to disappear.

Switching DOSes will not likely help: DR-DOS, e.g., does its own, different rearranging of letters when physical drives are added or removed.

DRVEXCH fixes all of that, by assigning letters in strict sequence across drives. Floppy drives and RAM drives are also kept in line (but not CD or network drives). DRVEXCH can also be used narrowly to swap any pair of drive letters, possibly to make MS-DOS assignments look like DR-DOS's, or DR-DOS's look like MS-DOS's. Thorough, detailed manual. Requires 8086+ or compatible, DOS3.0+ or compatible.

DEVICE=DRVEXCH.COM [letters]

Cautions: "With three disks it may work or not, depending on IDE channel and master/slave settings of the added/removed drive". Program also has an experimental command line option, which might be hazardous to your data.

Author: BTTR Software, Germany (2001).

2001-11-10: v0.4.2. Free under GNU General Public License.

Download drvexchb.zip (14K).

Get more info & source at the DRVEXCH page.

More in these pages from BTTR Software.

ZPart — Compresses / restores IDE disk partitions on multiple computers.

unrated

[updated 1998-07-20]

ZPart is a DOS 32-bit utility developed to compress the contents of a hard disk partition into a disk file, to load compressed partition and to save or load current contents of master boot record (MBR). ZPart has been tested only on IDE-compatible HDDs. Starting from version 1.00, ZPart can move partitions across HDDs with differing geometries (if there's enough room).

ZPart may be useful if one needs to maintain easily restorable uniform software configuration on many computers with identical system components...Maintaining a computer class is a good example. 150-200 MB partitions...compress in 10-30 minutes, depending on contents, and decompress in 5-7 minutes (our computers are 5x86 133MHz)... Another way to use ZPart is to store the boot partition of fragile and administrator-hostile systems such as Windows 95...when your '95 goes crazy and dismembers beyond recognition...you can easily restore it in several minutes.

Requires 80386+, 2MB+ RAM, DOS 5.0+ or compatible. Program messages and manuals in English and Russian.

• Can't move extended partition (with all logical volumes inside) to a hard disk of different geometry
• Can't move the contents of the whole hard disk to a hard disk of different geometry
• Can't create multi-volume archives (thus limiting their size to 2Gb)
• Development of ZPart appears to have ended / stalled

Author: Konstantin Boyandin, Russia (1998).

1998-07-12: v1.11.

Download zprt111.zip (198K).

unrated

[added 1998-08-16]

Untested

The commercial viability of this shareware package likely evaporated when DOS 6.x appeared with disk compression software. JAM appears to represent a compact, memory-efficient package that is apparently still living on some older computers and palmtops. Includes a full suite of diagnostic and optimization utilities. Shareware, but registration is not required for individual, private use.

Can I recommend it? Not until I try it, or receive feedback from experienced users. The risk of data corruption is significant when using disk compression software. In short, I wouldn't "play" with a program like this unless you have the luxury of owning a second PC that you can use for program testing.

Authors: JAM Development Team, Ukraine (1995).

1995-03-10: v1.25.

Download jam125sw.zip (210K).

Defragment FAT-16 disks only – not for Win32.

DEFRAGR

* *

[updated 2006-08-21]

I can only recommend this to faithful users of DOS 5.0 (DOS 6.x and OpenDOS come bundled with good defrag utilities). I don't know if it works with earlier DOS versions. You'll want to run a disk scanning / repair program first (DEFRAGR will not run if it detects any errors in the drive's structure.). Defragr is small (39K) and has worked flawlessly on the uncompressed portion of my laptop hard drive.

Authors: Michael Holmes and Bob Flanders, for PC Magazine (1993).

1993-01-06: v1.0.

Download defrag.zip (59K).

Disk OrGanizer

unrated

[updated 2005-12-09]

I haven't tried this one – but it offers more options and safety features than DEFRAGR. Thanks to Yves Bellefeuille's freeware list for pointing me to this one. "No license is required to run Disk OrGanizer on a computer that is not used for business."

Disk OrGanizer will test the disk (like CHKDSK), give you a report, analyze the disk to determine the best place to have the directories and files on the disk. Tell you how many directories need to have deleted files removed (packed), tell you how many directories can be made shorter (truncated), and tell you the number of clusters that it will have to move to defragment the files and directories on the disk.

You will then be asked if it is OK to write to the disk. If you answer no to this question, Disk OrGanizer will quit without ever having written to the disk. If you answer yes, Disk OrGanizer will pack the directories, truncate the directories, and then start moving clusters.

Author: G. Allen Morris III / Soft GAM's Software.

1992-03-30: v3.16.

Download dog316.zip (54K).

XMSDSK & EMSDSK (FU_RD) — RAM disk (ramdisk, ramdrive) can be created, resized, destroyed from c-line.

unrated

[updated 2005-03-28]

A RAM disk is much faster than a hard disk but its contents only exist while your computer is on. I rarely use a RAM disk – and have little knowledge of the comparative benefits of available shareware and freeware programs. The FU_RD RAM disk suite caught my eye primarily because the RAM disk can be created, resized, or destroyed from the command line. In short, you don't have to reboot your machine to adjust the size of the RAM disk or to reclaim its memory for other uses. Note: Resizing will destroy any files present in the RAM disk.

XMSDSK.EXE & EMSDSK.EXE use XMS or EMS memory, respectively. and run on a 286+. A third program, EMSDSK86, is included for 8086 machines.

• Under DOS (not Windows) disk is resizable down to zero, or up to 2 GB.
• When loaded from command line, user can specify the drive letter used.
• Can also be loaded from autoexec.bat.
• Known to be compatible with: MS-DOS 3+ including Win9x (see documentation for issues), DR-DOS/OpenDOS 7, IBM PCDOS 7, DOSEMU + Linux, DBLSPACE/DRVSPACE, GUEST/GUEST95, Stacker 4.
• After creation of a ramdisk of suitable size (preferably 64MB+), Win9x can be installed into it.
• Thorough docfile, in English, French, German.

Author: Franck Uberto, France (1998).

1998-08-12: v1.9i.

Download furd19_i.zip (75K).

SleepHDD — Power-saving hard disk spindown (sleep) util.

unrated

[added 1999-10-18]

SleepHDD lets you turn the motor of each hard disk on/off immediately, or after a user specified wait (e.g., 10 minutes)...SleepHDD is distinguished from similar programs by offering several options including a program to test your disk(s) for compatibility...The usual use for these programs is power saving...Tools such as SleepHDD can be annoying since they turn off the drive after n minutes of no disk activity, not n minutes of no keyboarding.

SleepHDD has been found to work correctly with about 80% of drives it was tested with.

  Usage: SLEEPHDD.COM Drive0 [Drive1]
                        ŔÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄ commands for the two hard drives

Supported commands
HELP, ?      Display this help screen
1..18        Specify sleep time (in minutes) for the Auto Power Down mode
0            Turn off the Auto Power Down mode
INFO         Display the drive's model, parameters and current power state
POWEROFF     Turn off the power (Standby Mode)
POWERON      Turn on the power (Idle Mode)
OFF          Turn off the drive completely (Sleep Mode)
RESET        Recalibrate the drive
CACHEOFF     Turn off the on-drive cache
CACHEON      Turn on the on-drive cache
SELFTEST     Perform the self-test
COMPTEST     Perform the compatibility test, TRY IT!

Requires 80286+. Works on IDE drives only.

Author: Solar Designer / BPC Productions (Brutal PPE/PCE/PRO Coders), Russia (1995). Suggested by Howard Schwartz.

1995-12-14: v5.5.

Download bpc-sh55.zip (10K).

1995-12-14: v5.5.

[ Go to Top | Front Page ]

©1994-2004, Richard L. Green.
©2004-2006, Short.Stop.