TIFILES requirement

TIPI serves files that are in TIFILES format, with a few exceptions.

The WebUI will convert uploaded files that are in V9T9 FIAD format to TIFILES format. But if you use the Samba share ( windows network shared folder ) then the files are not converted. You can still go into the tipi web-ui, and select the files that don't have a TI logo, and convert them with the actions menu.

The WebUI and TIPI file share will also extract sector dump or track dump disk images automatically upon upload. In this case it will create a directory using the volume name of the disk image, make that name unique by adding a number if necessary, and extracting all the files on the disk image as TIFILES files inside the new directory. It will also store the sector dump as .sectors in the newly created directory to service low level sector read/write operations.

External tools can be used as well.

Ti99Dir from Fred Kaal is an easy to use windows tool.

xdt99 suite from Ralph Benzinger has a tool called xdm99.py that can be used from the command line.

Using xdm99.py

Converting a v9t9 file:

If we have a file: FBLOCKS, first find the TI file type:

xdm99.py --info-fiad FBLOCKS

output should look something like:

FBLOCKS     321  DIS/FIX 128   81920 B  640 recs

Assuming you don't want to overwrite the V9T9 file we'll create a new directory for our output and then dump the binary:

Now, we have to convert the file to a plain / raw binary file:

mkdir tifiles
xdm99.py --from-fiad FBLOCKS -o tifiles/FBLOCKS.RAW

Now we have to read the raw binary back into a TIFILES FIAD:

xdm99.py --to-fiad tifiles/FBLOCKS.RAW -o tifiles/FBLOCKS --format "DIS/FIX 128"

Check the FIAD info again to verify conversion:

xdm99.py --info-fiad tifiles/FBLOCKS

You should see the same as before, with possibly extra info like a timestamp.

Converting a sector dump DSK:

Just upload it with the TIPI web-ui.