Disk Jockey is a retro disk picture formatter.
Disk Jockey is an app that means that you can create disk picture information for quite a lot of retro computer systems and emulators. Here is how one can use it.
Retro computing is in style as of late, and one side of classic computing is managing the varied disk and file codecs one has to take care of when utilizing these machines.
Utilizing Disk Jockey, you possibly can create disk photographs for quite a lot of retro computer systems. It’s also possible to examine the contents of current disk picture information for overseas file methods in your Mac or Home windows pc.
Utilizing Disk Jockey, you may as well create picture information for a lot of of right this moment’s fashionable emulators corresponding to Basilisk II, Mini vMac, the SP2SD gadget for Apple II, and the WinUAE Amiga emulator.
Disk Jockey additionally has assist for the BlueSCSI and PiSCSI SCSI drive alternative units, and the Floppy Emu gadget from Massive Mess ‘o Wires.
Supported computer systems
Disk Jockey means that you can create disk picture information for the next computer systems and codecs:
- Macintosh HFS, HFS+, MFS, Disk Copy 4.2, .iso, and Toast photographs
- BlueSCSI, PiSCSI, RaSCSI
- Basilisk and Mini vMac
- Apple II DOS 3.3 and ProDOS photographs
- Apple II SP2SD SD card reader units
- Atari ST TOS .ST and .MAS codecs and ST Pi emulators
- Commodore Amiga ADF floppy and HDF WinUAE photographs
- Commodore Amiga partitions utilizing HDInstTools and Workbench
- AKAI Pattern disk photographs
Retro pc timeline
Earlier than the Mac appeared in 1984, two different main corporations competed within the 1980’s pc area: Atari and Commodore. Apple offered a pc known as the Apple II within the early 1980’s.
The Apple II was designed extra for enterprise customers, and is taken into account the machine that began the non-public pc revolution. However gaming on the Apple II rapidly caught on and have become an enormous market.
Apple II used two disk picture codecs for five.25-inch floppy disks: DOS 3.3 and ProDOS.
Atari had a collection of non-public dwelling computer systems beginning with the Atari 400 and 800, the XL line, and the Atari ST, which was the primary Atari dwelling pc that includes a graphical consumer interface.
Commodore was a Canadian firm that started as a calculator firm. It additionally bought into the non-public pc area with the VIC-20, Commodore 64, and the Amiga.
The Amiga was thought of among the finest computer systems of the period because of its specs, but it surely was quickly eclipsed by the Macintosh. Commodore ceased Amiga manufacturing in 1992 – a full eight years after the primary Mac was launched in Jan. 1984.
Earlier than the Mac, Apple launched the Apple III, which was thought of a industrial failure:
Apple III
Just like the early Macs, the Amiga was additionally based mostly on the Motorola 68000 household of CPUs. Every of those machines used its personal disk and file codecs, they usually have been largely incompatible with one another.
Immediately, there are a lot of methods you possibly can learn and write these disk codecs on fashionable computer systems – after which reuse the pictures on older machines, or on fashionable emulators which mimic the unique {hardware}.
Older Mac disk quantity codecs
The unique Mac used a file system known as Macintosh File System (MFS) which was a bit like present Mac file methods, besides that it did not assist folders. Every part was stored at one stage within the filesystem.
MFS was itself derived from the OS used on the Mac’s predecessor, the Apple Lisa.
When the Mac Plus was launched in 1986, Apple additionally launched the Hierarchical Filesystem or HFS. Later within the Nineteen Nineties, an prolonged model of HFS was launched known as HFS+ (Mac OS Prolonged) which allowed for bigger quantity sizes and extra information.
Most older Macs from pre-2000 use HFS+ – and you may nonetheless format disks as HFS+ in macOS’s Disk Utility app right this moment.
Lots of right this moment’s Mac emulators corresponding to Basilisk II, Sheepshaver, and Mini vMac use a number of of those codecs. Mini vMac is an emulator which mimics the unique model of the Mac OS which shipped with the Mac Plus (known as System 6.0.8):
Mac Plus
Unique Macs and a few late Apple IIGS computer systems used a disk bus commonplace known as SCSI (Small Laptop System Interface). Immediately, units corresponding to BlueSCSI, PiSCSI, and RaSCSI let you exchange your unique Mac’s SCSI disk with a contemporary SD card-based resolution which is smaller and quicker.
The unique Mac OS had a part within the working system known as SCSI Supervisor 4.3 which applied a lot of the SCSI gadget command software program in Mac OS 8.5 by means of 9.x.
You should buy a few of the SCSI alternative units on Durand’s on-line net store at onegeekarmy.eu
Different cool Disk Jockey methods
Disk Jockey may carry out a bunch of different drive alternative/conversion operations corresponding to:
- Convert Basilisk II iimages to BlueSCSI, PiSCSI, or RaSCSI
- Exchange classic Mac OS LIDO SCSI drivers with a basic driver for higher efficiency
- Copy or extract drive partitions between units
- Extract information and folders from disk photographs to your Mac
- Create JSON descriptions of your disk photographs
Lido 7.x was a tough disk formatter app for Mac OS 9 again within the day from Surf Metropolis Software program which was much like different disk formatters corresponding to FWB’s Exhausting Disk ToolKit, Anubis, Disk Instruments, and others. Utilizing Lido or different disk formatters, you can format arduous drives, floppy disks, and detachable media in the identical manner you utilize Apple’s Disk Utility right this moment.
Obtain and run Disk Jockey
Durand understands easy design and Disk Jockey contains a single utility window for disk operations. To put in Disk Jockey in your Mac, obtain it from diskjockey.onegeekarmy.eu
In case you’re operating an older model of MacOS X or macOS from Tiger 10.4 by means of 10.12 Sierra, and solely wish to create photographs for Basilisk II, Sheepshaver, FloppyEmu, or BlueSCSI use the Disk Jockey 1999 model of the app. Disk Jockey 1999 even helps older PowerPC Macs operating 10.4 Tiger constructed for PowerPC processors.
Disk Jockey 1999 for early Mac OS X.
Motorola PowerPC was the unique CPU structure used on mid-to-late 1990’s Macs earlier than Apple made the change to Intel x86 CPUs.
As soon as you’ve got downloaded Disk Jockey, simply double-click it within the Finder to launch it. You will see the primary window seem:
Disk Jockey’s major window.
To create a disk picture, first click on the pc sort within the tab bar on the high. While you do the UI adjustments for that machine sort.
For all supported pc sorts the UI offers settings for disk title, capability, and file system sort.
Beneath the Macintosh tab there are further choices for preconfigured disks for a number of basic 1980’s and early 90s Macs which you’ll be able to choose from a popup menu.
Older detachable media can also be supported such because the iOmega Zip 100 and Imation SuperDisk drives, though most of those used commonplace HFS+ partitions of their day.
Within the second pane below the Macintosh tab in Disk Jockey, you possibly can set which alternative drive gadget you wish to use the disk picture for, or which emulator you can be utilizing it with. You possibly can even set its SCSI gadget ID quantity.
Every gadget on a SCSI bus has a quantity starting from 0-7.
There’s additionally an Superior Choices tab the place you possibly can select which disk driver to make use of. On some older SCSI units, the Mac OS disk driver was saved on the gadget itself, not within the working system.
This allowed gadget drivers to get replaced and stored with the gadget because it was moved between computer systems.
After getting all of the settings the way in which you need them, click on the Create the Picture button. An ordinary Mac save sheet will seem the place you possibly can choose a reputation and site to avoid wasting the brand new disk picture file to.
Disk-O-Matic
On the far proper facet of the Disk Jockey toolbar is a button named Disk-O-Matic. Clicking this button opens a disk picture analyzer window.
In case you drop a disk picture into the window or open one utilizing the Open button, Disk-O-Matic will present you the contents of the picture. This can be a fast and funky strategy to see disk picture codecs in your Mac with out having to make use of them on precise {hardware} or in an emulator.
Disk-O-Matic shows Partition Map sort, data on the put in SCSI driver for the disk, and quantity codecs.
The Disk-O-Matic window in Disk Jockey.
If the gadget additionally accommodates an ATAPI driver, its particulars are proven as nicely. ATAPI is a packetized model of ATA that’s largely used for optical drives corresponding to CD//DVD-ROM and Blu-Ray.
In some instances, a particular auxiliary Apple “patch” driver could also be put in on a disk. It’s because Apple’s unique disk drivers included some options that have been proprietary, which third-party drivers could not replicate.
Durand has executed an important job with Disk Jockey and it is easy and simple to make use of. On this day of bloated software program and have creep, it is a welcome throwback to the early days of Mac software program – however for contemporary Macs.
In case you’re into retro computing, Disk Jockey is nice. There’s additionally a really concise and easy-to-read assist doc on the Disk Jockey web site.