10.017 How can I create 'blank' .dsk, .nib, etc. disk images?
Description
This article is from the Apple II Csa2 FAQ, by Jeff Hurlburt with numerous contributions by others.
10.017 How can I create 'blank' .dsk, .nib, etc. disk images?
The simplest way to get a new .dsk or .nib is to copy an existing one and
delete the files. Under Windows, you can just Right-click drag-and-drop a file
in the same folder to get a copy. If you want a DOS 3.3 formatted image, pick a
DOS 3.3 image to copy. If you want a ProDOS formatted image, pick a ProDOS
image to copy. You can use a utility like Copy II Plus v7.4 to delete the
files.
If you want a DOS 3.3 image, it's a good idea to boot DOS 3.3 and INIT
HELLO the new image. This guarantees that the new image is correctly formatted.
Doing an INIT also allows you to pick the version of DOS 3.3 that the new image
will boot-- i.e., it will be the version of the DOS 3.3 (e.g. regular DOS 3.3,
ProtoDOS, EsDOS, ...) which does the INIT. And, the INIT command allows you to
set Volume Number on a .nib (which may be important if the image is supposed to
work with a game, etc. which looks fo
r a particular Volume Number).
DOS 3.3's INIT works fine as a way to format images; but, the routines
used by many utilities are not reliable. In general, you should be wary of
using utilities like Copy II Plus and Apple's ProDOS Utilities to handle
formatting of images on an emulator.
Another way to obtain fresh disk image files is to download 'blank' .dsk
and .nib images from the Apple II archives which offer them.
However you create or obtain a 'blank' disk image of the sort you want,
once you have one, you can save future bother by making multiple copies of it-
- e.g. via multiple drag-and-drop copies-- and naming the copies something like
"D33blank1.dsk", "PDblank1.dsk", "D33blank1.nib", etc..
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