Help me save my old Atari files

[Long John Silver]

I was cleaning out the garage when I came across my old Atari 800 system. Feeling a bit nostalgic, I plugged everything in and was pleasantly surprised that the computer and drive worked great. Playing my old games brought back fond memories. Unfortunately, some of the disks wouldn't boot (most likely due to their age). Wanting to save what I had, I purchased an sio2pc cable from eBay, hoping to transfer my Atari files from my 810 to my PC's hard drive. I downloaded Atari810 by Mr. Vernon and also Mr. Kennedy's SIO2PC. Problem is, I can't get my Atari files transferred to PC. Is there a good FAQ (simple step by step instructions) for newbies that I can read to figure this stuff out? The documentation that comes with Atari810 and SIO2PC is heavy on technical stuff but light on directions. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

[kheffington]

Try this

 

http://www.tyler.net/wa5bdu/siofaq.htm

 

 

and this

 

http://www.atarimax.com/ape/docs/DiskImageFAQ/

[Nukey Shay]

I think that he was really looking for somebody who uses it...how they've done it.

 

Anyway, the Ape program interface seems to be the easiest to follow. You could try that one. Since it's just the cable (as opposed to a modified drive), I think that you need to go from your drive, into the Atari, and then into the sio2pc cable. So you could set up the sio2pc as drive 1, boot the Atari from Happycomputer's Dos disk image, and read your floppies from a physical drive (configured as drive 2) and copy them over to the PC using the Ape software GUI. I dunno. Maybe Gunstar or somebody can give you pointers.

[Long John Silver]

Thanks for the replies. I've had little luck so far trying to get the thing running. I can get my Atari to recognize the PC if I use the Atari810 emulator. Unfortunately, I still can't copy files from the Atari to my PC's hard drive.

[Nukey Shay]

Ape mentioned something about preparing an .atr disk image...you need to specify where it will be writing the info to. And it mentions backing out to Dos mode if possible, since Ape needs instant access to the processor so that it's "handshake" signals aren't lost.

 

Disk reads function OK then?

[Super-Genius!]

Thanks for the replies.    I've had little luck so far trying to get the thing running.  I can get my Atari to recognize the PC if I use the Atari810 emulator.  Unfortunately, I still can't copy files from the Atari to my PC's hard drive.

 

First, I am assuming you have either a 810 or 1050 drive. Set that

drive on drive 1. Second, start up Atari810. Highlight D2, then "tools"

and "create disk image", "Atari 810 Single Density". It will then ask you

to name the file. After you name it, with D2 still highlighted, click on "File"

then "Mount Disk Image". Pick the file you just named and it should

appear on "D2".

 

You can't write anything to the disk until you FORMAT it!! Boot up DOS on your Atari 810 or 1050 drive. Use the "I" command to format the drive.

When it asks what drive to format, enter D2.

 

That is it!! You are ready to go!! Just use the "copy" command "C" to

copy any files from D1 to D2.

 

Merry Christmas!!

[Long John Silver]

Thank you very much for the help. I can't wait to try it out!

 

Happy New Year