PDI <> DMK Converter analyser and extractor

By tcm1998

Expert (120)

07-04-2017, 22:04

It took me quite a bit longer than expected, but my PDI - DMK converter is finally ready

It can ...
- Convert PDI to DMK and vice versa
- Analyse both PDI and DMK to check for overlapped sectors, crc-errors, unformatted tracks, etc
- Extract sectors from either PDI or DMK (just a little helptool for myself)

It was tested by
- Converting all PDI's into DMK and testing them in openMSX (almost 100% succes *)
- Converting all DMK's I have to PDI and back and testing them in openMSX (100% succes)

*) One disk version of Nemesis doesn't seem to work on openMSX, but it was verified that the copy protection was succesfuly converted.

Sources included.

Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p7gmlyk387ucx24/PDT.zip?dl=0

I will submit it for the MRC downloads aswell.

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By Louthrax

Prophet (2497)

08-04-2017, 00:36

So we now have a way to write-back DMK images to real disks with DSK-PRO? That was impossible before if I'm not mistaking. That's great!

Can all DMK images be converted to PDI (no limitations due to the PDI / DMK format differences ?)

By tcm1998

Expert (120)

08-04-2017, 05:12

Louthrax wrote:

So we now have a way to write-back DMK images to real disks with DSK-PRO? That was impossible before if I'm not mistaking. That's great!

Can all DMK images be converted to PDI (no limitations due to the PDI / DMK format differences ?)

So far, I haven't found any limitations in the pdi format itself, however there are still limítations to what diskpro can process. And with the knowledge I have now, I can easily come up with a protection that won't fit the format. Whether there are disks around that actually use such a protection, I don't know, but thanks to Manuel, my testset was quite extensive and contained products from parallax, bcf, bit2, fac, microcabin and a few others. I can give the full testset list if you want, but not right now, because I'm not going to type it on my phone.

By tcm1998

Expert (120)

08-04-2017, 15:23

Minor update. There was a closing bracket missing in the explanation section (Thanks to Manuel for pointing that out). And in the sources there was a .cs file that was no longer used, which could cause confusion.

Download link is still the same

By wernerkai

Champion (357)

06-05-2017, 04:03

Very Nice ! Are there any hardware specifications/limitations to run your tool in the PC's ?

By Manuel

Ascended (19691)

06-05-2017, 11:09

The tool can only convert between file formats, not write to physical disk. For that you need to use dskpro, with the limitations TCM mentioned.

By wernerkai

Champion (357)

07-05-2017, 01:15

Sorry, I missed this point. I will test the tool. Thanks.

By wernerkai

Champion (357)

07-05-2017, 01:22

I have one IMD disk image of Nemesis. In my PC running Windows XP Pro 2002 SP3 @ AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core 4400+ it crashed at command prompt:

C:\>pdt a NEMESIS1.IMD
Legend:
T: tracknumber in sector header
H: headnumber in sector header
S: sectornumber in sector header
RS: real size of sector
CRChi: header CRC as found in the image
CRChc: calculated header CRC
E: Error code (0x8 = Data CRC error, 0x18 = Header CRC error, 0x20 = DAM deleted

CRCdi: data CRC as found in the image (only valid when created in hardmode
CRCdc: calculated data CRC
CRCM: Quickview which CRC(s) don't match

Processing NEMESIS1.IMD

Exceção Sem Tratamento: System.NullReferenceException: Referência de objeto não
definida para uma instância de um objeto.
em PDT.ProtectedDiskImage.PrintAnalysis()
em PDT.Program.HandleAnalysis(DiskContents dc, String[] args)
em PDT.Program.HandleFiles(HandleFile handler, String[] args)
em PDT.Program.HandleCLArguments(String[] args)
em PDT.Program.Main(String[] args)

By wernerkai

Champion (357)

07-05-2017, 01:29

Same for convert. I will try it in MS-DOS 6.22

C:\>pdt c nemesis1.imd nemesis1.dmk
Processing nemesis1.imd

Exceção Sem Tratamento: System.NullReferenceException: Referência de objeto não
definida para uma instância de um objeto.
em PDT.ProtectedDiskImage.FindMaxTrackSize()
em PDT.DMKImage.WriteDMK(String DMKName)
em PDT.DMKImage.Write()
em PDT.Program.HandleConvert(DiskContents dc, String[] args)
em PDT.Program.HandleFiles(HandleFile handler, String[] args)
em PDT.Program.HandleCLArguments(String[] args)
em PDT.Program.Main(String[] args)

By tcm1998

Expert (120)

07-05-2017, 09:05

PDT uses the file extension to determine how to read the source disk. Please rename it to .dsk, .pdi or .dmk and try again

By wernerkai

Champion (357)

07-05-2017, 10:17

Sorry, I completely missed the topic... In my mind I thought it was for IMD <> DMK files. I don't use PDI format since DSKPRO has many limitations. Thanks...