CMD-IEC Utilities 1.2-0205 — Partition Backup That Grew Up

Hey All,

I’ve been working on a little suite that started life as a simple partition backup tool for BBS use and somehow turned into a full set of CMD-oriented utilities. I’m releasing the current disk (cmdbackup-0205.d64, on-screen REV. 1.2-0205) along with a proper instruction manual.

Why it exists

I mainly wanted something that could reliably back up partitions between modern CMD-class devices (CMD HD/FD, piCMD, Ultimate SoftIEC/uIEC, etc.) in a way that made sense for BBS operators and people who actually use partitions day-to-day. The classic tools are great for what they were built for, but a lot of them assume older, more limited hardware and don’t treat partitions, dated directories, or the modern reproduction ecosystem as first-class citizens.

How it feature-crept

Once the backup path was working I kept hitting small annoyances: viewing directories with dates, switching device numbers cleanly, formatting or wiping partitions with directories, copying individual files with better name handling, clock sync, etc. One thing led to another and it became a small package:

• Partition-aware backup (with scheme storage and per-partition reports)
• FCOPY++ (file copier with select, REL notes, better name handling)
• DEVSW++ (device number scanner/changer with SWAP support)
• View directory, clear/wipe, and format tools
• Clock utilities

It is very much aimed at the current landscape of Ultimate Machines (Commodore and Gideon), reproduction CMD drives, piCMD, uIEC/sd2iec, and similar gear. There are already plenty of excellent tools for pure legacy 1541/1571/1581 setups; this is more for people living in the modern CMD-compatible world.

Manual included

There’s a full how-to manual (PDF and editable Word) that matches the 0205 ship. It covers the main menu, device types, and a practical walkthrough. Read it first—especially the bits about device types and what is and isn’t supported.

Important caveats

This is AI-assisted code (started in Claude, continued in Grok). That means it may not be as elegant, dense, or efficient as something written entirely by hand by someone who lives in 6502 and BASIC every day. The logic is there and it works for me, but the style can be a little long-winded or obvious in places. If you dislike AI-written code on principle, just don’t use it—my feelings won’t be hurt.

Please test it thoroughly on your own hardware before you depend on it. Different firmware versions, different reproduction boards, and different combinations of devices can still surprise me. If you hit a bug, a hang, a wrong date, a failed copy, or anything else, please let me know (with as much detail as you can: devices involved, what you were doing, error channel if available). I’ll fix what I can.

Constructive feedback is very welcome—whether that’s missing features that would actually help BBS or daily partition work, things that are confusing, or better ways to handle certain edge cases. I’m not looking to turn this into a kitchen-sink replacement for every existing tool; I mainly want it to stay useful for the partition-centric, modern-reproduction use case that started the whole thing.

Disk and manuals are attached / linked in the usual place. Thanks for looking, and please don’t trust it with irreplaceable data until you’ve proven it on your own setup.

— Sutehk

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