Specialized Copying by Dick Estel Most of the time any old copy program will transfer data from one disk to another, whether it be floppy, hard drive or virtual disk in a RAM expander. However, there are a number of specialized copying jobs that require specific tools. One notable example is GEOS file copying. If you ever tried to use an ordinary file copier to copy GEOS files, you discovered that while there were files on your target disk, there was nothing usable. The unique structure of GEOS files requires that they be copied only within GEOS. The reverse is NOT true...GEOS will successfully copy files of most any type. A GEOS whole disk copy is not a problem; most standard disk copy programs will copy GEOS data disks correctly. In the case of system (boot) disks, or disks containing protected applications such as geoWrite, the copies will not work unless "treated" with Maverick or other parameter copying systems; or copied with a specialized program of some kind. Setting up a working GEOS program on a Creative Micro Designs hard drive requires the use of Maverick (at least if you use the method in the hard drive manual). The latest version of Maverick will not work with the hard drive turned on; it is necessary to fall back on the older version 3 or 4 to complete this task. Another specialized area is the copying of 1571 disks. I have only used one program that will copy a full two-sided 5.25" 1571 format disk. This is Fast Hack'em 128, V6.0. You could do this with GEOS if you have two 1571's, but it is very slow (when GEOS does a disk copy it is actually a file copy process). If you don't have this version of Fast Hack'em and need to copy a full 1571 disk, you can just use any file copier to copy all the files to a blank, formatted disk. However, I had one copy job that could be done only with Fast Hack'em: This was when I set up Personal Ancestral File, a CP/M program. The disks are designed for use on Osborn, Kay-Pro, and C-128 computers but I needed to keep the originals unchanged as backups, so copies were needed. It's unlikely that most users will be in a situation where full disk copying is their only option. However, if you have a copying problem, see if the solution is here. From "The Interface," newsletter of Fresno Commodore User Group, via The Commodore Information Center web site (http://home.att.net/~rmestel/commodore.html)