6BQ5 Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 Just for fun I wanted to extract some .ST files to actual disks. My Win10 PC doesn't have a built-in floppy drive so I wanted to use a native ST(e) program. Google searches lead me to JayMSA v1.08. Supposedly it can open .ST files and write them to disk. When I run the program and go File->Open I can only open *.MS? files. How do I enable .ST file support? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggn Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 Just go and edit the "*.MS?" to "*.ST" and hit refresh on the file selector (the widgets above the file list should do the trick). Then you should be able to select .st images. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
256 colors Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 Does this work for STX files or would you need another program? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6BQ5 Posted April 30, 2019 Author Share Posted April 30, 2019 Just for fun I wanted to extract some .ST files to actual disks. My Win10 PC doesn't have a built-in floppy drive so I wanted to use a native ST(e) program. Google searches lead me to JayMSA v1.08. Supposedly it can open .ST files and write them to disk. When I run the program and go File->Open I can only open *.MS? files. How do I enable .ST file support? Thanks! Ahhh, nooooo! That is too simple! Worked perfectly. Thanks!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggn Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 Does this work for STX files or would you need another program? You'd need something like a KryoFlux or something similar. STX files cannot be written using an ordinary floppy controller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 (edited) You don't need floppy drive in PC to extract floppy images - well, it needs a smiley Way 1: use emulator SW like Steem or Hatari. Then can do copy from opened floppy (image file actually) to some DIR on PC - of course need to set emulator properly. Way 2: using my program : http://atari.8bitchip.info/floimgd.php It will complain at start when no floppy drive and fdrawcmd installed, but no need for it in case of images. You can open images of ST, MSA and STT format and extract files .May convert ST to MSA and versus. Considering STX - I have SW what can convert it to ST, but without proper knowledge I would not recommend to use it. Because STX holds usually some copy protection, and that's not possible to transfer in ST or MSA formats. Then, there is lot of STX images (so original floppies) with non-regular formats what can not transfer to ST/MSA at all. If you still insist in STX, try them with Steem emulator, and check what can open at all as A: , if see files, may copy them, then can try is copy working . May work, and you may then spot manual protection Sorry folks, but this are some very old topics, discussed already a lot. But probably there is no place where it is explained well in short. Just looked info-coach.fr , and that's really not easy to follow, and there are some smaller mistakes too . I made this page around 2006: http://atari.8bitchip.info/FloppyMistery.php it is focused on imaging Atari floppies on PC - mostly because it was time when people wanted to transfer their data, work from Atari floppies to PC, to preserve them, and then PCs still were with floppy drives, unlike today. There were diverse problems and confusion, mostly caused by Windows floppy driver. It is now pretty much obsolete. So, I think that it's time to make another page, dealing with Atari ST floppy formats used now, little about copy protections, and some things more ... Edited April 30, 2019 by ParanoidLittleMan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 STX files can not be written to floppies at all actually. At least not most of them. But I think that question was about opening, extracting them . STX was made in cowork with Steem emulator authors, and it works well with it. Now can use with Hatari too, but that was done without support and documentation from STX format author. Who somehow just wont to expand his small page about SW and it's capabilities, not to mention confusion about diverse versions. But STX has one big advantage: unlike Kryoflux or SPS you can make STX images with ordinary Atari ST(E), without plus HW . That's why there are so many STX images available (Atarimania in first place) . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 I made new page about floppy image formats used for Atari STs + couple other things related: http://atari.8bitchip.info/atstflpimg.html 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6BQ5 Posted April 30, 2019 Author Share Posted April 30, 2019 I ask one question and get one answer ... and then another and another and another. Soon the thread has a new life. Ultimately, I agree with ParanoidLittleMan. Physical floppy disk are "dead" and have little practical value, especially when we consider modern solutions like solid state storage and disk images. However, I don't use my Atari machines to be practical. It's all for fun. Otherwise, why do this? Oh ... and to preserve a little bit of history to show my kids while it is still possible. Booting from a floppy and handling it is very nostalgic to me so I pursue the experience. One day my floppy drive will die and my floppies will degrade. My eyes are wide open and I make backups on alternate media. I will continue playing with floppies until Doomsday comes. When it does come then it's time for an alternative. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 I ask one question and get one answer ... and then another and another and another. Soon the thread has a new life. Well, this is public forum, and I think that giving some more general answers is good - for those who not just want quick receipt for current issue. This with floppies, images is really old talk. But I must agree that searching online, looking in some Wiki may be not always a solution. There is lot of partial, often misleading writing around. And of course, it may happen in forums too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesWD Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 (edited) I ask one question and get one answer ... and then another and another and another. Soon the thread has a new life. Ultimately, I agree with ParanoidLittleMan. Physical floppy disk are "dead" and have little practical value, especially when we consider modern solutions like solid state storage and disk images. However, I don't use my Atari machines to be practical. It's all for fun. Otherwise, why do this? Oh ... and to preserve a little bit of history to show my kids while it is still possible. Booting from a floppy and handling it is very nostalgic to me so I pursue the experience. One day my floppy drive will die and my floppies will degrade. My eyes are wide open and I make backups on alternate media. I will continue playing with floppies until Doomsday comes. When it does come then it's time for an alternative. Yep totally agree, I have all my disks from the mid 90s and to my shock all the original game disks still work (could be that i've always kept them in the house and not in loft with it's damp/cold). They will die one day but while they still work I will wait till they load and make that funny drive sound (the drives will also die one day too). Long live floppies!! Edited May 1, 2019 by JamesWD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wally1 Posted May 18, 2019 Share Posted May 18, 2019 Yea! Actually my ultrasatan was the thing that died! For the second time! So I am gung ho for floppys! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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