MFSLives may have an unintended side effect for those older MFS disk images, I've discovered and would like some corroboration from those of you who are using MFSLives.
Maybe ...
This assumes you have been able to make a disk image of a copy protected disk with something like DiskDup+ in the first place.
All of the procedures below are performed with the Mini vMac emulator and have not been transfered back to a real Mac for testing, yet.
Using OS X 10.4.10 and MFSLives, I can mount a copy protected disk on the OS X desktop. Then I can copy the files using the Finder onto an new HFS disk image (MFSLives ONLY allows Read-only access to MFS volumes, so the files have to be copied to an HFS disk image). FYI the HFS disk image is created from Mini vMac blanks or known good disk images used with Mini vMac which have been erased by it as well. The OS X Finder has no problem reading these. I had to use an 800K disk image as the differences in formatting would not allow the 400K MFS contents to fit on a 400K HFS disk.
Now, my new HFS disk would not startup Mini vMac, but it would mount and I was easily able to copy the contents to a new 400K MFS image with the Finder. Surprisingly that new MFS image would startup Mini vMac. I don't know why this is, but I see it all the time when copying MFS boot files via HFS under OS X.
It would seem that OS X or MFSLives somehow defeats the copy protection of the original disk image. Which means that Disk Copy 4.2 should now work with the image. Worth checking out. I'll let you know if I am able to transfer my copy back to a real Mac and create a disk. Obviously if I can defeat the copy protection, that opens up reduced compatibility issues for others to transfer, create disks and use this old software, which otherwise has little or no commercial value. This may also be a helpful way to resurrect MFS disk images that do not format properly onto real disks.
I have not tired this with all of the copy protected software I have. It does not work with a disk that requires a master diskette, but anything that prevents normal Finder duplication works so far.
Please give it a try and report back with any successes or failures.
Maybe ...
This assumes you have been able to make a disk image of a copy protected disk with something like DiskDup+ in the first place.
All of the procedures below are performed with the Mini vMac emulator and have not been transfered back to a real Mac for testing, yet.
Using OS X 10.4.10 and MFSLives, I can mount a copy protected disk on the OS X desktop. Then I can copy the files using the Finder onto an new HFS disk image (MFSLives ONLY allows Read-only access to MFS volumes, so the files have to be copied to an HFS disk image). FYI the HFS disk image is created from Mini vMac blanks or known good disk images used with Mini vMac which have been erased by it as well. The OS X Finder has no problem reading these. I had to use an 800K disk image as the differences in formatting would not allow the 400K MFS contents to fit on a 400K HFS disk.
Now, my new HFS disk would not startup Mini vMac, but it would mount and I was easily able to copy the contents to a new 400K MFS image with the Finder. Surprisingly that new MFS image would startup Mini vMac. I don't know why this is, but I see it all the time when copying MFS boot files via HFS under OS X.
It would seem that OS X or MFSLives somehow defeats the copy protection of the original disk image. Which means that Disk Copy 4.2 should now work with the image. Worth checking out. I'll let you know if I am able to transfer my copy back to a real Mac and create a disk. Obviously if I can defeat the copy protection, that opens up reduced compatibility issues for others to transfer, create disks and use this old software, which otherwise has little or no commercial value. This may also be a helpful way to resurrect MFS disk images that do not format properly onto real disks.
I have not tired this with all of the copy protected software I have. It does not work with a disk that requires a master diskette, but anything that prevents normal Finder duplication works so far.
Please give it a try and report back with any successes or failures.