Copy-protected disks, the honest limits of WOZ/NIB decoding, and where the core pipeline landed
Many vintage disks used copy protection schemes that don't survive standard sector-level imaging. This week: what breaks, what you can recover, and when you've hit the real hardware limits.
The Hard Truths
- WOZ/NIB Format - Captures track data but not timing or flux patterns
- Protection Schemes - Many depend on magnetic timing unavailable at sector level
- What's Recoverable - Game logic, audio, and embedded data often survive
- Where to Stop - Knowing when to move to flux-level capture next
The core pipeline works. Knowing its limits isn't failure—it's honesty.