Disk Copy was the default utility for handling
logical volume images in
System 7
System 7, codenamed "Big Bang", and also known as Mac OS 7, is a graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers and is part of the classic Mac OS series of operating systems. It was introduced on May 13, 1991, by Apple C ...
through
Mac OS X 10.2 (usable in
System Software 6
System 6 (or System Software 6) is a graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers, made by Apple Computer It was released in 1988, and is part of the classic Mac OS series. It is a monolithic operating system, with coo ...
as well). In later versions of
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
it has been replaced by
DiskImageMounter for mounting the images and
Disk Utility
A disk utility is a utility program that allows a user to perform various functions on a computer disk, such as disk partitioning and logical volume management, as well as multiple smaller tasks such as changing drive letters and other mount po ...
for creating them.
File format support
"Disk Copy 4.2" (DC42) is the common name used to refer to
disk images
A disk image, in computing, is a computer file containing the contents and structure of a disk volume or of an entire data storage device, such as a hard disk drive, tape drive, floppy disk, optical disc, or USB flash drive. A disk image is us ...
of
floppy disks
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined wi ...
created by the 4.2 version of Disk Copy.
DART is a variant that supports compression, and was initially handled by the DART (Disk Archive/Retrieval Tool) utility.
Disk Copy 6.0 added support for the
New Disk Image Format (NDIF).
Versions of Disk Copy in
Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...
added support for the newer
Universal Disk Format (UDIF) image format, introduced with DMG files in Mac OS X.
Although the last official public release of Disk Copy for
Mac OS 9 was version 6.3.3, there was to be a version 6.5 that supported OS X's UDIF image format. But because Apple had stopped support for OS 9 already, support for the old OS was eventually removed in favor of Mac OS X. As such the OS 9 version of 6.5 only ever made it to beta 13 before development on it stopped. There was also a developer version 6.4 that 6.5 was based on and had most of the same functionality, but as a developer version it was never released. Although version 6.4 and 6.5 will read DMG images when the system is booted into OS 9, they can only do so if the image is not compressed.
Other image formats supported by Disk Copy include DiskSet and
raw disk images.
Original Disk Copy utility
Disk Copy was also the name of an
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
utility distributed with some of the earliest versions of the
classic Mac OS. In order to copy 400K
floppy disks
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined wi ...
using as few disk swaps as possible on a machine with only 128K of
RAM
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* ...
, the original Disk Copy used the
screen buffer
A framebuffer (frame buffer, or sometimes framestore) is a portion of random-access memory (RAM) containing a bitmap that drives a video display. It is a memory buffer containing data representing all the pixels in a complete video frame. Modern ...
to store binary data from the disk being copied; as a result, the screen (other than a small area at the bottom displaying the
GUI
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...
) filled with noise while copying was in progress. It was shipped with System 1.1 and System 2.0.
See also
*
dd (Unix)
dd is a command-line utility for Unix, Plan 9, Inferno, and Unix-like operating systems and beyond, the primary purpose of which is to convert and copy files. On Unix, device drivers for hardware (such as hard disk drives) and special device fi ...
*
Dcfldd
*
DiskImageMounter — The
Mac OS X 10.3 and later successor.
*
Disk Utility
A disk utility is a utility program that allows a user to perform various functions on a computer disk, such as disk partitioning and logical volume management, as well as multiple smaller tasks such as changing drive letters and other mount po ...
— Creates disk images in Mac OS X 10.3 and later.
*
RaWrite and
RaWrite2 for
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...
and
Microsoft Windows
References
Macintosh operating systems
Disk image emulators
Classic Mac OS emulation software
Classic Mac OS-only software made by Apple Inc.
{{Mac-stub