Re: [MiNT] Diskette Image Mounting

[Paul Wratt <paul.wratt@gmail.com>]

On Fri, May 28, 2010 at 5:15 AM, Michael Bernstein <mint@mbernstein.de> wrote:
> Hi John,
>
>> Is there any provision in Mint to allow diskette images in any format to
>> be mounted as drive A:?
>
> I had a similar idea a few years ago. After a wrote a small software
> to access such images and copy from/to such images i had to idea to
> mount these images. To avoid to much work by my own i had the idea
> to use MetaDOS (or under mint a .xdd). But my work was a little bit
> frozen because there was no FAT driver for MetaDOS and some other
> interests in the last year.
>
> The bios driver (without disk change) is present. Maybe i can make a
> try with BetaDOS. But use the driver with MetaDOS was also nice because
> MetaDOS has a .slb loader.
>
> But i dont know if it is possible to map such a drive to A: if no
> physical floppy was present.
>
> I would like to continue with this driver. Maybe it is a nice extension
> for the Coldfire.
>
>> Due to the declining reliability and availability of floppy diskettes
>> and new Atari compatible floppy drives, ...
>> The main reason for this specific need is for use with programs
>> distributed on installation diskettes, ...
>
> Is there really any need? I had made a big backup session from floppys
> to CDs of all my atari software. But in the first stage i copied only
> the contents of my disks and of my harddisk from my TT. The second
> stage will make disk images of all my original disks. But i think, to
> install software on a new atari (compatible) i can use the backup of
> my installed software from my TT. It is not like windows with parts
> of the software (.dll) in /windows/system32 folder and information in
> registry.
>
> Best regards
> Michael
>
You are right about a floppy image mount driver being useful. It will
become more an more of a requirement as time goes on (while there is
still actual hardware with floppies)

betaDOS would be the way to go, but I am sure that the guy who wrote
MetaDOS still has his sources (saw a DVD driver update somewhere)

There are possibilities for SLB or related (LDG), have a hunt around,
maybe chat to or ask someone. Your driver (if it were to be an .xdd)
may be the required catalyst to get dynamic libraries in the kernel...
(maybe)

Paul