The "wimgtool-os9.exe" & "wimgtool-rsdos.exe" virtual disk utilities were derived from the old M.E.S.S. utility "wimgtool.exe". Each of these utilities have been modified to serve a specific purpose to work with OS-9 formatted disks and RSDOS formatted disks respectively. We are unable credit to the individual who modified these utilities because we don't know who it was.
Both utilities have the same usage with only minor differences, and those differences will be explained here. These utilities differ from their parent utility in that they do not work with virtual disks for non-coco systems, even though you can create and format a new disk for that system, the image functions are geared specifically for OS-9 and RSDOS. The utilities were created to fix a few bugs for these formats that existed in the original utility.
Wimgtool-os9.exe - Move OS-9 files to and from your PC and an OS-9 formatted disk image
- File [ALT-F] - File related functions
- New [CNTRL-N] - Create a new formatted OS-9 disk image. Navigate to the desired directory in which you want your disk created.
- Filename - Type in the disk name without the extension.
- Save as type - Select the desired system type from the pull down menu. To create an OS-9 formatted disk for Mame, select "CoCo OS-9 disk image (OS-9 format)(*.os9)" with the extension "os9" (required by Mame) or "CoCo JVC disk image (OS-9 format) (*.dsk)" used by most other emulators (including VCC).
- More - Expands the disk type menu to allow you to
select more advanced options for your new disk image.
Clicking "Less" collapses this advanced menu.
- Heads - Number of disk sides (Usually 1 or 2 for OS-9)
- Tracks - Number of tracks on the disk image (Usually 35, 40, or 80 for OS-9)
- Sectors - Number of sectors per track (Usually 18 for OS-9)
- Sector Bytes - Number of bytes per sector (Usually 256 for OS-9)
- Interleave - Not used for these disk types
- First Sector - Select "0" or "1" for the starting sector # (usually 1)
- Save - Saves the new disk image to your PC
- Cancel - Cancels the new disk creation
- Open [CNTRL-O] - Open an existing OS-9 formatted disk image. Navigate to the desired directory containing the disk image you want to load, select the image and click "Open".
- Close [CNTRL-W] - Close the current open disk image, saving the new image over the original disk image. Clicking the "X" to close the program will produce the same results and the modified disk image will be saved.
- Image [ALT-I] - File to disk and disk to file functions
- Insert File [CNTRL-I] - Inserts an OS-9 file (or any ASCII text file) onto the OS-9 formatted disk image. Use the "Open" dialog to navigate to the desired file and click "Open" to insert the file or "Cancel" to cancel the operation.
- Extract [CNTRL-E] - Extracts a selected file or files to the PC hard drive. Use the "Save As" dialog to navigate to the desire location you want to save the file, then select the desired format from the "Save as type" (OS-9 file will have only one option available) pull down menu and click "Save" to save the file or "Cancel" to cancel the operation.
- New Directory [CNTRL-Y] - Creates a new OS-9 directory on the current disk image. Each new directory can be clicked and opened to create multiple sub-directory levels.
- Delete [DEL] - Deletes the selected file(s) from the OS-9 formatted disk image. CAUTION: This operation cannot be undone.
- View Sector Data [CNTRL-V] - Opens the "Sector
Viewer" utility. From this utility, you can view the raw
data contained on your disk image, sector by sector.
- Track - Sets the track number from which you are viewing.
- Side - Selects the disk "side" in which you are viewing.
- Sector - Selects the actual sector shown in the viewer.
- OK - Exits the viewer
- View [ALT-V] - Sets the interface viewing style and file associations.
- Icons - Sets the viewing style to "Icons", for a more "Windows" file list view.
- List - Sets the viewing style to a simple filename list with less information.
- Details - (Default) Sets the viewing style to a more detailed list showing the "Filename", :Size", "Attributes", and "Notes".
- File Associations - Select the disk file extensions you want associated with the utility, then when this type of file is double clicked in Windows, it will open with this utility.
- Status Bar - The Status Bar at the bottom of the window shows the file(s) selected, the name of the current disk image and the remaining free bytes on the disk image.
Wimgtool-RSDOS.exe - Move RSDOS formatted files to and from your PC hard drive and RSDOS formatted disk image.
- File [ALT-F] - File related functions
- New [CNTRL-N] - Create a new formatted RSDOS disk image.
Navigate to the desired directory in which you want your disk created.
- Filename - Type in the disk name without the extension.
- Save as type - Select the desired system type from the pulldown menu. To create an OS-9 formatted disk, select "CoCo JVC disk image (RS-DOS format) (*.dsk)" used by most emulators (including VCC).
- More - Expands the disk type menu to allow you to select more advanced options for your new disk image. Clicking "Less" collapses this advanced menu.
- Heads - Number of disk sides (usually 1 for RSDOS)
- Tracks - Number of tracks on the disk image (Usually 35 for RSDOS)
- Sectors - Number of sectors per track (Usually 18 for RSDOS)
- Sector Bytes - Number of bytes per sector (Usually 256 for RSDOS)
- Interleave - Not used for these disk types
- First Sector - Select "0" or "1" for the starting sector # (usually 1)
- Save - Saves the new disk image to your PC
- Cancel - Cancels the new disk creation
- Open [CNTRL-O] - Open an existing RSDOS formatted disk image. Navigate to the desired directory containing the disk image you want to load, select the image and click "Open".
- Close [CNTRL-W] - Close the current open disk image, saving the new image over the original disk image. Clicking the "X" to close the program will produce the same results and the modified disk image will be saved.
- New [CNTRL-N] - Create a new formatted RSDOS disk image.
Navigate to the desired directory in which you want your disk created.
- Image [ALT-I] - File to disk and disk to file functions
- Insert File [CNTRL-I] - Inserts an RSDOS file (or
any ASCII text file) onto the RSDOS formatted disk image.
Use the "Open" dialog to navigate to the desired file and
click "Open" to insert the file or "Cancel" to cancel the
operation. Once you click "open" the following dialog appears.
- File Options - Select the desired file attributes
to use on the RSDOS file
- Mode - Select the file mode for the selected file..
- Raw - saves the file to disk in raw binary mode. Use for tokenised BASIC and machine language file types.
- ASCII - Saves the file in ASCII text format.
- File Type - Selects the file type in which the
selected file is saved to disk.
- Basic - Use for CB, ECB, DECB, and SECB standard Basic files.
- Data - Used by certain text editors and database programs
- Binary - For raw binary data formatted files
- Assembler Source - Used by EDTASM ans various other RSDOS assemblers.
- ASCII Flag - Flags the file as ASCII or binary
- ASCII - Flags the file as ASCII text
- Binary - Flags the file as raw binary database
- OK - Completes the file transfer and returns to the disk image display. Click "Cancel" to cancel the file transfer and return to the disk image display
- File Options - Select the desired file attributes
to use on the RSDOS file
- Insert File [CNTRL-I] - Inserts an RSDOS file (or
any ASCII text file) onto the RSDOS formatted disk image.
Use the "Open" dialog to navigate to the desired file and
click "Open" to insert the file or "Cancel" to cancel the
operation. Once you click "open" the following dialog appears.
- Extract [CNTRL-E] - Extracts a selected file or
files to the PC hard drive. Use the "Save As" dialog to
navigate to the desire location you want to save the file,
then select the desired format from the "Save as type"
(RSDOS will have only one option available) pull down menu
and click "Save" to save the file or "Cancel" to
cancel the operation.
- Mode - Select the mode in which the file is transferred
- ASCII - Save the file in ASCII text mode.
- Raw - Saves the file in raw binary mode.
- New Directory [CNTRL-Y] - Not available for RSDOS disk images.
- Delete [DEL] - Deletes the selected file(s) from the- RSDOS formatted disk image. CAUTION: This operation cannot be undone.
- View Sector Data [CNTRL-V] - Opens the "Sector Viewer" utility.
From this utility, you can view the raw data contained on your disk
image, sector by sector.
- Track - Sets the track number from which you are viewing.
- Side - Selects the disk "side" in which you are viewing.
- Sector - Selects the actual sector shown in the viewer.
- OK - Exits the viewer
- View [ALT-V] - Sets the interface viewing style and file associations.
- Icons - Sets the viewing style to "Icons", for a more "Windows" file list view.
- List - Sets the viewing style to a simple filename list with less information.
- Details - (Default) Sets the viewing style to a more detailed list showing the "Filename", :Size", "Attributes", and "Notes".
- File Associations - Select the disk file extensions you want associated with the utility, then when this type of file is double clicked in Windows, it will open with this utility.
- Status Bar - The Status Bar at the bottom of the window shows the file(s) selected, the name of the current disk image and the remaining free bytes on the disk image.