Micro System Designs provides support for Microsoft's 1.68Mb Distribution
Media Format (DMF)

July 19, 1995 -- Users who received Windows 95 will be in for a big shock
when they try to make backup copies of their disks: they can't .

Windows '95, as well as many other Microsoft products are being distributed
on a new 1.68Mb format that Microsoft is calling the Distribution Media
Format (DMF). The extra capacity is achieved by placing 21 sectors on the
disk, rather than the usual 18. The room for these extra sectors comes
from squeezing the gap that normally occurs between each sector.

The problem with this format is that the normal DOS utilities like
DISKCOPY, COPY, and XCOPY cannot access the extra 3 sectors. Any attempt
to make copies of the disks will fail.

In most of Microsoft's products, the first disk is a regular 1.4Mb and the
rest are 1.68Mb. This allows the install program to load from the first
disk and then modify the operating system so that the rest of the disks
can be accessed. "While DMF provides users with more space in which to
store data, it can ultimately serve as a form of copy protection,"
explains Dave Broderick of Advanced World Products. "The casual user
suddenly has no simple method for backing up a program."

Currently, Microsoft is planning on selling a set of backup disks for users
who are willing to pay for them. "Whether DMF's a convenient form of copy
protection, or just a method for saving a few bucks on disks, I think most
people see it the same way - in the end it's just another way for
Microsoft to make money," says Gordon MacDonald of GMDS.

To help users with this problem, Micro System Designs is making available
it's FixFlop program at no charge. This small memory resident program
allows the normal DOS copy commands to work with the 1.68Mb format. "Users
are legally entitled to make back-up copies of their program disks,"
explains MSD president Max Dunn, "And FixFlop allows them to do it."

MSD's disk copy program, DiskDupe, has also been enhanced to support the
1.68Mb format giving users a high speed method of making backups or to
format their own disks with this increased capacity.

FixFlop and a shareware version of DiskDupe can be found in MSD's
CompuServe forum GO MSDESIGNS in library 13, from the WWW at
http://www.msd1.com/msd1 or from FTP at ftp.msd.com pub/msd1.

Micro System Designs Inc
10062 Miller Ave, Ste 104
Cupertino, CA 95014
408-446-2066,  fax 408-446-2095
 
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