Disk Copy was the default utility for handling

logical volume image 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 usua ...

s 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 Co ...

through Mac OS X 10.2 (usable in System Software 6 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 (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...

it has been replaced by DiskImageMounter for mounting the images and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 p ...

for creating them.

File format support

"Disk Copy 4.2" (DC42) is the common name used to refer to disk images 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 w ...

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 lapt ...

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 Mac OS 9 is the ninth major release of Apple's classic Mac OS operating system which was succeeded by Mac OS X (renamed to OS X in 2011 and macOS in 2016) in 2001. Introduced on October 23, 1999, it was promoted by Apple as "The Best Internet ...

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 ances ...

utility distributed with some of the earliest versions of the

classic Mac OS Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and ending with Mac OS 9. Th ...

. In order to copy 400K

using as few disk swaps as possible on a machine with only 128K of RAM, 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. Moder ...

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) filled with noise while copying was in progress. It was shipped with System 1.1 and System 2.0.

References

Macintosh operating systems Disk image emulators Classic Mac OS emulation software Classic Mac OS-only software made by Apple Inc. {{Mac-stub

File format support

Original Disk Copy utility

See also

References