[MiNT] Diskette Image Mounting

[jhperez <jhperez@hawaii.edu>]

Greetings,

Is there any provision in Mint to allow diskette images in any format to 
be mounted as drive A:?

Due to the declining reliability and availability of floppy diskettes 
and new Atari compatible floppy drives, I am interested in archiving my 
disks to some image format such as MSA that can be used directly from 
the image format.

The main reason for this specific need is for use with programs 
distributed on installation diskettes, with an installer program that 
must be run from floppy, and prompts for each disk in the set during 
installation.  While I can image these disks, it is still necessary to 
write them out to disks before use.  The other catch is that these 
installers most often only use the A: drive, so any mount would have to 
be able to take over that drive letter.

I tried DIMFILE, which works under TOS, Geneva, or Magic for single 
diskettes, and allows an MSA image to take the place of the chosen drive 
letter, A: in this case.  Under these alternatives, another problem 
occurs as it is sometimes impossible to change disk images if an 
installer dialog is open due to lack of access to the desk accessory 
menu.  This led me to try DIMFILE in Mint which _does_ permit access to 
the accessories while such an installer is running since the dialogs are 
kept in their own windows.  Unfortunately, DIMFILE does not appear to be 
compatible with Xaaes with the following error.

pid 90 (dimfilea): block_10
(A): bio_readin: RWABS fail
(-8))

Any suggestions or alternatives would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your consideration,

John