13 years ago I compressed a diskette, using doublespace under DOS 6.0 and
Windows 3.1.
This is a 3.5" 750k diskette; Memorex 2S/2D Microdisk, Double Sided 135 TP1,
which was compressed using the DOUBLESPACE compression tool that was a feature
first introduced in that version of MS DOS, and later named DRVSPACE.
I no longer have any version of MS-DOS available to mount the floppy disk. Currently one file can
be seen on the drive, using the standard file tools; the file is called A:\READTHIS.TXT.
And the precise text of the file is the following:
"This disk has been compressed by Microsoft DoubleSpace.
To gain access to the contents of this disk, your computer must be
running DoubleSpace.
To make this disk's contents accessible, change to the drive that contains it,
and then type the following at the command prompt:
DBLSPACE /MOUNT
(If this file is located on a drive other than the drive that contains the
compressed disk, then the disk has already been mounted)."
There is no DBLSPACE or DRVSPACE command in Windows XP, so entering the command
DBLSPACE /MOUNT in a windows cmd prompt does not have any effect.
I have searched for alternatives, to no avail, so far.
My question is: is there any feasible way, any tool available, or standard command, or other method
under XP which will enable me to read the contents of a drivespace/doublespace compressed disk volume,
without downgrading to DOS 6.0?
A solution should allow me to extract the files I stored on this compressed diskette to my hard drive,
as easily as possible; Given that I really don't want to buy or install an old Operating System.
A bootdisk would be acceptable, provided it can safely extract the contents of the diskette to my NTFS
file system, ext3 filesystem, OR to a second 1.44 Mb diskette.
I would prefer to have a method of getting data out of the compressed volume from inside Windows.
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