In 1990 I built a disk copier using 2 disk drivers (3.5"), some electronics and a Z80 based system. Both drivers rotate synchronously using a PLL system. The head movement was controlled by the micro. The signal output from the reading driver was connected to the signal input of the writing driver. This signal is a bitstream that includes everything the haed reads in the current cylinder. That includes any formating bits. I copied some protected disks using this systems, only as an experiment of course, I deleted the copies inmediately.

So I think you will have to deal with this bitstream and extract the info in it, including formatting info like sector header, and so on. I thin I still have some info about the format details.

Alfredo.