PDI, the new MSX FILE FORMAT for Protected Disks is Finally Created

Champion (432)

03-10-2015, 04:38

People, the day has arrived! Now we can dump a Protected MSX Disk into a PDI file, the new format for Protected Disks.
Of course, the tool that handles this files is DSK-PRO 9.0 that is not published yet.
And using a MSX computer. All in a single file.

For example, to dump the version of NEMESIS that is disk based, not the megarom version, and is very well protected, just use DSKP-PRO with the option (COPY MODE = PROTECTED) and the option (OPERATION = DISK->FILE) and set the name as "NEMESIS.PDI".

Press ENTER and after a few minutes the file NEMESIS.PDI is created. You can take the file anywhere you want and create the protected disk again in another computer with the option (OPERATION = FILE->DISK).

It is unbelievable! The future is here, with DSK-PRO 9.0 still to come...

Van giuseve

Paladin (789)

03-10-2015, 08:34

Wow
Time has come to:
- dump a lot of dsk and share the PDI files on MSX.ORG, maybe a dedicated page?
- add the support of PDI to all emulators
- add the support of PDI to flash devices:megaflashrom, eseram, zemmix, ocm etc etc

Where can we download msx-pro ?

Van Grauw

Ascended (10772)

03-10-2015, 14:02

Great to see the continued development on DSK-PRO! Backing up protected disks is a really nice feature.

However, why create a new file format in stead of using the existing DMK file format? DMK is already supported by openMSX and PC tools, and documented. Creating unnecessary fragmentation with different disk image file formats is not good, I think. It causes troubles for the users, not being able to use the one format with the other program…

Van cbsfox

Champion (432)

03-10-2015, 15:52

Forget DMK file format. PDI is the future!
And we can dump and undump protected disks using our MSXs not PCs.
DMK can only be created using PCs, and PC sucks a lot.

Lets celebrate the new file format. PDI is the future!

Van cbsfox

Champion (432)

03-10-2015, 15:57

I will give a complete manual of PDI file format to the OPENMSX developers.
And BlueMSX's developers as well.

So, it will be emulated soon. Lets celebrate!

I have here 20 protected disks dumped by DSK-PRO 9.0. It works great.

Van cbsfox

Champion (432)

03-10-2015, 16:47

And DSK-PRO 9.0 will be released very soon. I am just doing the final tests.

Van Manuel

Ascended (19471)

03-10-2015, 21:02

DMK's are actually created by the MSX for the most part! (The actual dumping is. All that is done on PC now is combining the track dumps into one file, just because it was quicker to write that on PC than on MSX; it definitely can be done on MSX too if you insist.)

Giving the format description to openMSX (or other) developers is no guarantee it will be emulated soon.

I agree with Grauw: there was no reason to invent yet another format, as DMK is already there to use... and already implemented in openMSX, and having several tools to manipulate them too.

Van Randam

Paragon (1431)

03-10-2015, 21:16

But making DMKs isn't possible on all MSXes atm right? IIRC turbo R couldn't dump disks with the current tool or am I wrong?

Van cbsfox

Champion (432)

03-10-2015, 21:52

Manuel, lets explain it for the last time. I am the author of DSK-PRO and this tool it the best tool by a mile to dump protected disks.

I don't care about DMK. It's not the best file format to work with DSK-PRO, so I decided to create the best for the MSX users, and that is PDI. Just that.

I can later implement a conversion tool to transform a DMK file into PDI. But PDI is the best format for our MSX just because I am an expert in direct disk access and I know what I am saying.

So, lets stop talking about DMK. Let the people involved with DMK project work with their project. I am not involved with it and DSK-PRO will work with PDI, which is the best file format for protected disks.

PDI is simple and efficient. I will create a manual with all details.

Thrust me! PDI is the future!

Van Louthrax

Prophet (2465)

03-10-2015, 22:23

Hi cbsfox,

I could be interested in implementing protected-disk support in SofaRunIt (a tool that emulates a ROM disk in MSX-DOS2 to launch disk-image files, see here). I have not chosen any disk format yet, just thinking about it. I would (ideally) need something simple and easy to parse "on the fly" in the emulated disk ROM, on a MSX machine with limited CPU and RAM.

Let me know if you can send me a description of the PDI format (even a draft one) !

Van Grauw

Ascended (10772)

03-10-2015, 22:58

cbsfox wrote:

I don't care about DMK. It's not the best file format to work with DSK-PRO, so I decided to create the best for the MSX users, and that is PDI. Just that.

I can later implement a conversion tool to transform a DMK file into PDI. But PDI is the best format for our MSX just because I am an expert in direct disk access and I know what I am saying.

Can you elaborate? I’m interested in the downsides and upsides between these file formats. Also, can the conversion be done the other way around?