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- Fractal Bonsai Software present....
- ___ __ __
- | \ | / / __ __
- | \ | |___ | / \ | \ \ / Bulk Disc Copier
- | / | | | | ||__/ \/
- |___/ | __/ \__ \__/ | /
-
-
- Introduction
- ------------
-
- Discopy is a simple bulk disc copier. It has been designed to be as simple
- and straightforward to use as possible and to this end, it has several
- limitations:
-
- • Reconfiguration is done via the !Config file. However, reconfiguration
- should really be unnecessary due to the way the application is structured.
- • Perhaps most significantly, it relies on the discs being formatted first.
- A correction to this will follow when other format discs have been added.
-
- Discopy uses disc image files (ie. it reads the entire contents of each disc
- and saves this in a single file) to store its data. Because of this, it
- requires large quantities of disc space. However, because of the way it has
- been coded, large amounts of memory are not needed.
-
- Use
- ---
-
- To use Discopy, you will need:
-
- • RISC OS 3.1 or above
- • A hard disc (it is possible to use Discopy with a single High Density
- floppy drive. However, unless you like a lot of disc swapping, this approach
- is not recommended)
-
- It is recommended that you create a new directory with !Discopy in, and
- create within this directory a subdirectory called Images, viz:
-
- Discopy --\
- |
- > !Discopy
- |
- > Images --\
- |
- > ...
- > ...
- > ...
-
- Once you have installed Discopy, double click on it to run. It will install
- on the icon bar. Clicking on its icon will open up the toolbar and status
- window. The status window indicates what image file you have currently loaded
- (if you have one loaded) and what Discopy is currently doing.
- The toolbar is very simple:
- • Click on the left hand icon (disc with arrow pointing down) to read a disc
- image
- • Click on the right hand icon to make copies of the currently loaded disc
- image.
-
- Reading a disc image
- --------------------
-
- First of all, choose a disc format from the icon bar menu (in the options
- dialogue box) (ADFS 800k is either E or D, DOS 720k will also cover Atari
- 720k - it is the size of the disc that matters, not the format. Note that if
- you select a disc size smaller than the size of the disc you are reading,
- everything will appear to go smoothly. However, the image will not write
- properly when you try to copy it, as some of the data will be missing)
- Then click on the left hand icon in the tool bar. A save window will pop up
- with two writeable fields in. Enter the filename into the upper field (it is
- usual to use the disc name here), and a description of the disc into the
- lower field (eg. 'Shareware disc no.1')
- Insert the disc you wish to make an image of into drive 0, then drag the
- icon (or press return if you have entered a full path name) to your Images
- directory. Reading will start, and an hourglass will pop up giving an
- indication of progress.
- After a while, the hourglass will disappear and the image will have been
- read and saved.
-
- Making copies of a disc
- -----------------------
-
- First, load a previously created disc image. If you have just created a
- disc image, then this will be loaded automatically. The image name and the
- disc size will be displayed in the status window (note, due to a bug, the
- format will not be selected in the icon bar options dialogue. This should be
- fixed soon)
- Next, click on the right hand icon. A window will pop up asking how many
- copies you wish to make. Enter the number and press Return (or click OK).
- Copying will then start. You will be prompted to insert the discs as
- appropriate.
-
- Other
- -----
-
- Image buffer: By default, Discopy uses a buffer of 256K - this means that
- 256K chunks of the disc are read or written in one go. To alter this amount,
- change the figure in the Resources.!Config file. Bear in mind that if you
- increase this amount much beyond 256K that you will also need to alter the
- wimpslot value in the !Run file.
-
-