720k copier

[pcuser4]

Most copy softwares on Atari 8bit do not support 80 track and 2 sides disk. I am looking for 720k copier. Can you help?

 

WriteATR is used in MS-DOS. however I use Windows 2000 or XP that does not support the writeATR under the command prompt. I am looking for WriteATR GUI for Windows not MSDOS. Can you help?

 

Thanks! JT

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

 

here is a 720k copy program. It does not work with every drive though - think you have heard that there are differences on how a drive (XF551 upgraded to 3,5", HDI by Abbuc / E.Puetz, ATR8000, Karin Maxi) reads/writes the second side of a disk. So, this copy program is not working on every drive, but maybe you are lucky and it works on your drive. The 720k copier named Copymate 3.8 XE requires 128k RAM to run and it does NOT support ultraspeed or any other speeders afaik. Press TAB and then Return to do a 80 track DS/DD read/write...

 

There are also some harddisk partition copier programs, that may or may not work with floppy drives and 360k, 720k and/or 1440k disks. If I remember correctly one of the programs allowed to set two drives for copying (therefore only 48k or 64k is required, but minimum two drives or partitions) and also start and ending sector (should be 1440 sectors for 360k, 2880 sectors for 720k and 5760 sectors for 1440k). Since I never used these programs I cannot give any help here. Sometimes the program can be loaded under DOS 2, sometimes it requires SpartaDOS or SDX, just read the short text files or take a look at the sourcecode. If the program works, good for you, if not, don`t blame me...

 

-Andreas Koch.

sectcopy_720k.zip

hdcopy.zip

[pcuser4]

Thank you for response... however the copymate XE takes too long to copy the whole 80 track disk without burst speed. Another way is to write from ATR image file to a PC drive. It is much faster. If it is not possible, any idea???

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

 

if Copymate 3.8XE and your (SIO-) floppydrive is too slow in your eyes to read/format/write 720k disks - why not use something faster like e.g. SIO2SD, SDrive, SIO2USB then ?!? Or a floppydrive that works via PBI like KarinMaxi ? Or one of the harddisk devices that do *not* work via SIO, like e.g. IDE-2 / IDE + by KMK (PBI device) or SIDE by Candle (cart.) or MyIDE-II by Mr. Atari (cart.) ?!?

 

Afaik, until today, no stand-alone sector-copy program exists that supports 720k or 1440k and ultraspeed at the same time - at least I do not know of one. Maybe one of the harddisk partition copy-programs above that work under SpartaDOS or SDX can utilize ultraspeed.

 

Another option would be to use a harddisk partition copy-program that works under DOS 2.x (maybe FSCC - full scale sector copy does):

1) boot MyDOS without Basic,

2) setup your drive to 80 tracks DS/DD (with Option "O")

3) format one or more disks in 720k MyDOS format

4) load an ultraspeed driver by Bob Woolley (uses RAM under OS ROM) and

5) finally load the FSCC program, set start and end sectors to 1 and 2880 and also source and destination drives (I have no clue how thats done in this program, maybe the Forth sourcecode helps...)

If you are lucky the copy program works with ultraspeed (as long as it does not use RAM under the OS and if it does not alter $D301), 720kbytes and your drive...

 

If I were you, I would not depend on the 720k format so much.

Anyways, good luck - Andreas Koch.

mydos_ultspd_driver.zip

Edited January 18, 2013 by CharlieChaplin

[+bob1200xl]

What is it that you want? Copy a floppy to a floppy? APE to floppy? HD to floppy?

 

A sector copier just reads 1 or more sectors from the source drive and writes them to the destination drive, whatever they are.

 

The simple version just loads $300 with the proper SIO data and reads a sector into a buffer, then writes that sector to another disk. Increment the sector number and repeat until the read fails (End Of Volume). You don't have to concern yourself with what format the destination is, just write sector.

 

If you want to do all this at high speed, you will have to format the disks with the proper skew or use a program that reads the sectors out of order.

 

Bob