SPIN Disk Manager is a Windows application for examining and manipulating disk images in the Extended DSK format used by many Spectrum and Amstrad emulators.

The application was intended to complement the SPIN Spectrum emulator but is a complete standalone application. Many of this tools features and functions were driven by the Spectrum Disk Preservation team which use this format and tool to help manage the selection and testing of disk images archived to The World of Spectrum and The TZX Vault.

These images are traditionally created with CPDRead under DOS but I prefer to use Simon Owen's fantastic SamDisk tool which works under Windows XP just great.

The SDP team were last seen looking at archiving the disks to a more accurate degree using custom hardware and software connected to Amiga systems via the people at the Software Preservation Society.

Features

Images

• Conversion between standard and extended image formats
• Identification of tool that created the image
• Fingerprinting with SHA1 hash algorithm
• Remember workspace files and position option

Analysis

• Display of extended disk parameter block (XDPB)
• Boot compatibility:
  Amstrad PCW 9512, Amstrad PCW 8256, Amstrad CPC 664/6128, Sinclair Spectrum +3
• Identification of disk formats (even when deskewed by image tools):
  Amstrad PCW 9512, Amstrad PCW 8256, (CF2 & CF2DD variants), Amstrad CPC system, Amstrad CPC data
  Spectrum +3, Ultra 208 (Chris Pile), HiForm 208/203 (Ian Collier), Supermat 192/XCF2
  MGT SAM Coupe BDOS, SAMDOS, MasterDOS
• Identification of copy-protection schemes both signed and unsigned versions:
  Alkatraz +3, Frontier, Hexagon, Paul Owens, Speedlock +3 1987/1988, Speedlock 1988/1989, Three Inch Loader type 1/2
• Visual customisable map of space utilisation, track structure and controller flags
• Save map to bitmap
• Hex and ASCII display of sector data
• Search sector data forASCII data

Modification

• Manipulation of controller flags, actual sector sizes and indicated FDC size
• Formatting and unformatting of specific sectors & tracks
• Compress out unused tracks and sectors option

Creation

• Formating of new disk images to known formats
• Formatting of new disk images to custom tailored formats
  Sides, tracks per side, sectors per track, sector size, first sector ID, interleave, reverse tracks, skew tracks, skew sides, gap read/write, gap format, directory blocks, block size, filler byte
• Writing of disk boot sectors as part of the image formatting process

Download

Download SPIN Disk Manager v0.48 (Windows) (348KB)

Download SPIN Disk Manager v0.48 Source (Delphi 6) (90KB)

Licence

The application is free to use however the source is currently copyrighted. Should there be interest from another party to extend or maintain it I will consider changing it to a more liberal licence.

Screenshots

Screenshot identifying a disk format and details.

Screenshot showing the visual map feature.

Screenshot showing the find sector data and hex/ASCII viewer.

Screenshot showing advanced formatting options.

Revision history

Build 48 (08 November 2005)

• New
  • Now detects a number of SAM formats - SAMDOS, MasterDOS and BDOS
• Changes
  • Copy protection can be on top of an identified format e.g. "Spectrum +3 with Three Inch Loader..."
  • The "oversized" part of format detection now ignores unformatted tracks at the end of the disk

Build 46 (07 November 2005)

• Fixes
  • Fixed runtime range error encountered with some disks during format detection
• Changes
  • Improved copy protection where signatures are damaged or missing on Frontier, Hexagon, Paul Owens and Speedlock.
  • Three Inch Loader now detected as type 1 and type 2 based on signature.

Build 45 (03 November 2005)

• New
  • Right-click the list view to copy selected information to the clipboard
    Note: That this means sector properties must now be accessed from the tree view.
  • Added detection of unmarked Hexagon copy protection