HDFGRAB v1.00 and HDFDUMP v1.00
===============================

(c) Garry Lancaster, 10/4/01


HDFGRAB and HDFDUMP are two DOS utilities that allow you to transfer
real Spectrum IDE hard disks into .HDF image files (for use with the
RealSpec emulator by RamSoft) and vice versa.


VERY IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER!!
---------------------------

These utilities read and write directly to your hard disk, without going
through any operating system calls or even the PC's BIOS (BIOSes do not
properly support all IDE drive geometries, unlike the good old Speccy <grin>).

Because of this, these are potentially highly dangerous, and can easily
destroy all the data on a hard disk in your system. Make sure you always
have everything backed up before using these utilities. NO RESPONSIBILITY
CAN BE ACCEPTED FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED TO YOUR SYSTEM BY HDFGRAB OR HDFDUMP.

You should never use these utilities under any multi-tasking operating system
(eg Windows, Linux etc.) - only plain old DOS.



HDFGRAB
=======

HDFGRAB allows you to copy a Spectrum IDE hard disk into a .HDF image file
suitable for use with the RealSpec emulator. It automatically detects
the correct geometry for drives formatted by the ZXSpectrum +3e.

First of all, connect the Spectrum IDE hard disk into your PC. It's usually
best to connect it up as a slave drive on the primary controller, but you
can set it up however you like. Before booting, use your computer's setup
program to tell the BIOS that there is "no drive" in this position - the
utilities do not use the BIOS, and doing this will help prevent other
programs from accidentally trying to access the Spectrum drive.

After booting into plain DOS, you are ready to read the drive into an image
file. By default, HDFGRAB assumes that the drive you wish to read is the
slave drive on the primary IDE controller. To override this, use the -2
switch (to specify the secondary IDE controller) and/or the -m switch (to
specify the master drive). In most cases, you can just specify the filename
you require and that's it:

eg.     HDFGRAB myhd  -2

The above command creates an image file called "myhd.hdf" from the slave drive
on the secondary IDE controller.

A full list of switches is available by typing HDFGRAB -?


Using HDFGRAB with drives not formatted by the Spectrum +3e
-----------------------------------------------------------

HDFGRAB first examines the drive to see if has been formatted by the Spectrum
+3e; in this case, it automatically determines the correct drive geometry
from the boot sector.

If the drive is not +3e-formatted, then HDFGRAB queries the drive itself for
the correct geometry. However, you can override this if necessary by
specifying it manually (you may need to do this if the disk was formatted
to a lower capacity that it allows). 

eg.     HDFGRAB myhd -c200 -d10 -s63

The above command creates an image file called "myhd.hdf" using a geometry
of 200 cylinders, 10 heads and 63 sectors.

If your interface is a full 16-bit interface (unlike the simple 8-bit
interface that the Spectrum +3e uses) then you should also specify the -l
switch; by default, only half of each sector is stored in the image file.


HDFDUMP
=======

HDFDUMP is more dangerous than HDFGRAB, as it overwrites an entire hard disk
with the image file specified - so be *VERY* careful when using it!!

Connect the target drive to your PC as before, and boot into DOS. HDFGRAB
gets all the information it requires from the .HDF file, and so the only
switches required are -2 (to use the secondary IDE controller instead of the
primary) and -m (to use the master driver rather than the slave drive).

eg.     HDFDUMP myhd  -2 -m

The above command writes the image file "myhd.hdf" to the secondary master
drive.



FURTHER INFORMATION
===================

More information on the RealSpec emulator and details of the .HDF file
format are available on the RamSoft website:

                www.ramsoft.bbk.org

Details of the ZX Spectrum +3e system and downloads of the latest versions
of these utilities are available from the +3e homepage:

                www.z88forever.org.uk/zxplus3e/


