You can also try with program like Transmac, a specialized software which permits read and write Mac-formatted disks.
You can use any search engine (there are some shareware versions).
Main Topics
Browse All Topics
Loading Advertisement...
Question
unknown floppy format from gravograph engraving machine
I have a Gravograph engraver which uses 2 1/2 floppy disks, type & format unknown. When I tried to read the disk in my PC, it says "disk not formatted, do you want to format?" but the disk works fine in the engraver.
Fonts are stored on the disks, and if I want a new font or a special scan of a logo then I have to pay HEAPS to the machine maker for a disk.
Q. Does anybody have any idea on the format of the disk? is it Mac/Apple ?
The machine is approx 5 years old and the local supplier wont give me any information.
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get
Instant Access to this Solution
- Plus...
- 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
- Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
- Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
- Never be left without tech help again
Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.
- "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
- "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
- "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.
See what Experts Exchange can do for you.
Got a question?
We've got the answer.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
Need individual assistance?
Our experts are ready to help.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Want to learn from the best?
Read articles from industry experts.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Working on a long term project?
Store your work and research.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Trusted by the world's most respected brands.
Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Free Tech Articles
-
WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
-
SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
-
Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
-
Create a Win7 Gadget
This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
-
Outlook continually prompting for username and password
There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
-
Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...
Cloud Class Webinars
- Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
- Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
- IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
- Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
- How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...
Join the Community
Give a Little. Get a Lot.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
Answers
The link below is the WEB page.
Worth checking out:
http://www.gravograph.co.u
>The look of any diskette is the same, no matter what OS you use it with
Duh! I'm not a moron. However, it would be highly unusual for a dedicated computer built into a machine like this engraver to be built around a MAC or to use the proprietary MAC-type floppy controller. Much more common would be something build on a PC hardware base or if it's custom built hardware, to use the NEC765 (i.e. PC compatible) floppy disk controller chip.
>>However, it would be highly unusual for a dedicated computer built into a
>>machine like this engraver to be built around a MAC
I agree, dude; but, as we don't have any other presumption, all is possible. Mac format would be a possibility, but you can't leave it aside just only because "it's unusual".
Try GRDUW from www.grsoftware.net
I cannot give you any suggestion on how to read that disk. But All I can suggest you is make an image of the floppy before you do anything. and use the copied version to test with.
to make an image of the floppy try
winimage
http://www.winimage.com/wi
3 Ways to Join
Business Accounts
- Perfect for organizations
- Multiple users
- Save over 36%
- Create a Business Account
Answer for Membership
- Earn free access
- Showcase your knowledge
- No credit card required
- Sign Up to Answer
Loading Advertisement...
by: jhancePosted on 2000-03-22 at 03:40:42ID: 2644226
It's not uncommon for proprietary systems, like you engraver, to use proprietaty schemes to keep you as a willing or unwilling customer.
There are many ways of formatting a floppy disk that will render it unrecognizable to a PC. You can mess with the sector and track numbering, the internal format numbers, who knows. An old MAC or Apple II floppy is an example of this using custom disk controller hardware.
If you just wanted to copy the floppy for a backup, one of the disk "bit -level" copiers probably will work since they just duplicate the data pattern on the disk without having to recognize it's file structure. Actually reading the data off of the floppy requires 3 things:
1) An understanding of how the disk is formatted physically. This is stuff like sectors/track, checksums, etc.
2) An understanding of how the files are stored logically. This is stuff like FAT, NTFS, etc. It's the filesystem used.
3) How the data you are interested in is stored in the file. Is it a GIF, JPEG, BITMAP, or what?
I'm not saying that all of the above cannot be done, it's just going to take some work. My guess, however, is that their scheme is fairly simpleminded and you can probably crack it if you know what you're doing. The first step is getting the data off of the disk so you can analyze it. I'd start with some sort of disk imager utility (look on SIMTEL or WINFILES.COM). If you have a linux systsem the "dd" command can also sometimes to this.
Once you have an image in a computer, you can open it up in a hex editor and start looking at what's there. You are somewhat familiar with what is there so that should give you some clues to go by.
If all else fails, do what the "professional" game and copy protection hackers do, get a logic analyzer and capture what the disk is doing while their system is running it.