Question

[2600Lives]

I pulled out my Atari 800XL and my 1050 disk drive for the first time in a LONG time. I wanna format a 5.25 disk to check if the drive still works. What's the command to do this? The system tries to boot from the drive if it's on when I power up the Atari. Thanks in advance!

[+bf2k+]

I pulled out my Atari 800XL and my 1050 disk drive for the first time in a LONG time. I wanna format a 5.25 disk to check if the drive still works. What's the command to do this? The system tries to boot from the drive if it's on when I power up the Atari. Thanks in advance!

 

Easiest way is with a DOS disk (dos 2 option 'I') but you're kinda in a chicken vs. egg thing if you don't have a DOS disk.

[Gunstar]

Normally, you have to boot up a DOS of some type in order to format a disk. There may be a way to format through basic without a DOS, someone else would have to tell you how as I haven't used BASIC for eons. But you would still need a DOS to use the formatted disk, IIRC, so if you can format through basic, all it would do is show that the drive works.

 

edit: bf2K+ must have posted while I was typing...his post wasn't there just before I went to reply...

Edited August 5, 2008 by Gunstar

[Rybags]

The <beep, beep beep> "BOOT ERROR" repeating would at least indicate that the logic side of the drive is working.

 

If you need a quick/dirty BASIC program that will format a disk, I might be able to whip up something later.

 

But, a bare format not done by DOS doesn't create a DOS compliant disk.

 

 

If you have an Atari tape recorder, there's a thread around somewhere here - probably ~ months old, where I posted a cassette image which has an "Emergency DOS". You could probably use it to get a DOS 2.5 floppy up and running.

[2600Lives]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I don't have a DOS disk lying around for the Atari (got one for my IBM clone, but none for the XL).

 

I'd appreciate the BASIC program, as I really just want to verify that the drive works.

 

BTW, when I type in DOS while in BASIC, it takes me to a menu with four options. A memory test, a keyboard test, an audio visual test, and an ALL test. Hope that helps determine what version this is.

 

Oh, yeah, and how do you load from the cassette? I've got two 1010's and want to see if those work (I do have a cassette for them). Thanks again!

Edited August 5, 2008 by 2600Lives

[Rybags]

Type "BYE" and you get the Self-Test on the XL/XE. Typing "DOS" will give you the same thing if no DOS is loaded.

 

For assembler games, hold OPTION and START when you turn the computer on.

Option disables Basic, Start requests the cassette boot.

 

To save wear and tear, you can type BYE then hit Reset to give the same effect as a power-on (then hold Start/Option while pressing Reset).

 

I'll see if I can find that thread with the emergency DOS...

[Rybags]

The emergency DOS cassette image is in this thread http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...amp;hl=tape+dos

 

You'll need to use the CAS2WAV program to create a .WAV file, then play it with a tape deck plugged into the computer speaker port.

Or you can burn it to a CD and just copy it to tape like you'd do for a CD album.

 

Problem is, it doesn't have DUP.SYS. You could get DUP.SYS from cassette to disk using a similar method.

[MEtalGuy66]

The emergency DOS cassette image is in this thread http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...amp;hl=tape+dos

 

You'll need to use the CAS2WAV program to create a .WAV file, then play it with a tape deck plugged into the computer speaker port.

Or you can burn it to a CD and just copy it to tape like you'd do for a CD album.

 

Problem is, it doesn't have DUP.SYS. You could get DUP.SYS from cassette to disk using a similar method.

 

Or just use an XIO command to format the disk from basic, once the "emergency DOS image" is loaded from cassette..

[1050]

I'd appreciate the BASIC program, as I really just want to verify that the drive works.

In Basic type:

XIO 254,#3,0,0,"D1:"

after you have booted with DOS. If you don't boot with DOS, all you will get is Non-existant device error 130.

 

BTW, when I type in DOS while in BASIC, it takes me to a menu with four options. A memory test, a keyboard test, an audio visual test, and an ALL test. Hope that helps determine what version this is.

Not really as they all do that pretty much. There is an OS info file that one can run to gather the exact OS version if that is desirable. It's called SysInfo by Draco.

 

Oh, yeah, and how do you load from the cassette? I've got two 1010's and want to see if those work (I do have a cassette for them). Thanks again!

Hold down Start and Option while turning on the computer. Option press will kill BASIC and Start press runs the Cassette Boot code. The computer should beep, if your cassette player then does not start automatically, press any key on the computer and manually play your cassette.

 

Rybags' solution seems to be the only workable way, but without DUP.SYS, DOS won't be worth too much. So I rolled up both DOS and DUP into this zipped .cas file and was able to test it out in an emulator and it works there at least. The drive belt on my 1010 is like spaghetti and it don't work at all, so I can't test the .cas file itself on the real thing, but the executable that the .cas file was derived from works on a real Atari.

 

The .cas file will load in and automatically pop up a DOS 2.5 menu screen. Do NOT press RESET as that causes DOS 2.5 to go looking for DUP.SYS on D1: and you will never get there from here (just yet). Instead, choose option "(I) to initialize" a disk in your disk drive. And then you MUST choose "(H) Write DOS files" to that disk and then at that point you have a bootable DOS disk and you can press RESET to your hearts content.

 

I've been looking for some kind of solution to the before referred to chicken VS. egg problem concerning getting a DOS boot disk like this, thanks for the idea Rybags. Now I just hope it works in the real world and people can get some use of it.

 

DOS_25.zip

 

And as Rybags pointed out earlier...

You'll need to use the CAS2WAV program to create a .WAV file, then play it with a tape deck plugged into the computer speaker port.

Or you can burn it to a CD and just copy it to tape like you'd do for a CD album.