File Transfer

[TGB1718]

I've been trying to resurect my ST's, they both boot fine from my Hard Drive, but none of my Floppy Drives

seem to work with either machine, I've cleaned heads etc. but can't get any of them to boot/read/format with

any consistency.

 

The LED's do light, heads move/seek etc. but eventually fail, I have about 5 drives, thought at first it was the

FDC chip, but its the same on both ST's

 

Standard drives DS/80 track on an STM and 1040

 

What is the best way to transfer files/games to the ST, I was thinking of using a USB to Serial cable I have that

I use on my 8 Bit Atari's to my PC but also think I would have to write some sort of program to handle the transfer.

 

Is there another method, I'm assuming I'm not the first person to have this issue.

 

I don't really want to buy a floppy drive as it would rarely be used.

 

[anzac]

https://joy.sophics.cz/parcp/parcpusb.html
 

but you’ll need at least one episode of reading a floppy to copy the program to the ST hard drive... from there on no more floppies needed 

[snarkdluG]

A gotek perhaps? 

[TGB1718]

20 hours ago, anzac said:

https://joy.sophics.cz/parcp/parcpusb.html
 

but you’ll need at least one episode of reading a floppy to copy the program to the ST hard drive... from there on no more floppies needed 

Looks like what I need, so looks like I need to get at least one floppy drive working first to get the

software onto the hard drive.

 

Thanks for the info.

[ijor]

As advised, get a Gotek floppy emulator. They are very cheap and widely available.

 

[TGB1718]

1 hour ago, ijor said:

As advised, get a Gotek floppy emulator. They are very cheap and widely available.

 

Sorry, didn't know what you meant when you said "a Gotek perhaps", I'd never heard the name before

 

[TGB1718]

Had a look at the Gotek, any recomendations, most of the ones I find say they are emulating 1.44MB floppy's, surely

these won't work with a standard STM or 1040 that use 720KB floppys and are quite pricey.

 

I did find this on Ebay anyone know if its a good buy ?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amstrad-Amiga-Atari-Spectrum-Gotek-DOS-IBM-PC-Floppy-disk-drive-USB-emulator/192882392764?hash=item2ce8afbebc:g:rlsAAOSwLXpa1w0K

[bfollowell]

That one would probably work just fine. In the U.S. you should never pay more than about $25 for one. That would be about £20, but I'm not certain what they typically go for in the U.K. The one you liked to doesn't seem like a bad price.

 

Below is an excellent thread with details for setting up a Gotek to work with your ST.

 

https://www.exxoshost.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=593

[mdivancic]

I’ve never seen a Gotek for $25.00, but you would need a case and a cable for an external version, or just replace your floppy directly. Advantage is that it emulates a floppy for games that only run from a floppy. 

 

Ultrasatan is another option. Hard drive emulator. It’s what I use as I don’t have any need to emulate a floppy. 
 

Check out Lotharek’s site for retro computer goodness.

[TGB1718]

23 minutes ago, mdivancic said:

Check out Lotharek’s site for retro computer goodness.

Yes, it's a proverbial "sweetie shop" :))

 

I've bought a few items from him for my 8 bit's (Incognito, Side 2, Ultra 1 Meg, SIO Splitter)

very impressed with the quality of the items.

[bfollowell]

33 minutes ago, mdivancic said:

I’ve never seen a Gotek for $25.00, but you would need a case and a cable for an external version, or just replace your floppy directly. Advantage is that it emulates a floppy for games that only run from a floppy. 

 

I'm assuming you mean you haven't seen them go that low?

 

I haven't bought any in a while, but I bought one a month about four months in a row, the last one being back in January, and never paid more than $20 to $25 for any of them. I've listed six quick finds below. I could go on for quite some time, but this gets the point across. All it takes is a little bit of searching to come up with these. Anyone that is paying more than $25 or $30 for a basic Gotek that isn't already setup for an Atari ST isn't looking very well and is likely getting ripped off, depending on how much more they're paying. Now, if you don't have the tools or the skills to setup one for yourself, then of course you're going to have to pay extra for the service. Also, if you need an external case or cable, that will cost you more. I was only talking about the price of a basic Gotek drive itself that needs to be setup to work with the ST.

 

Gotek 1

Gotek 2

Gotek 3

Gotek 4

Gotek 5

Gotek 6

 

[TGB1718]

@bfollowell thanks for listing those models, a quick look on Ebay shows they are available for £14.99 but from China and 6 to 8 weeks delivery.

 

Sourced in the UK and the price ranges from about £32 to £49, so it seems UK prices are higher, but will keep looking elsewhere

[bfollowell]

Yes, and that was sort of my point. I know I can "normally" get them here in the U.S. for $20-$25 USD shipped, but not necessarily what you can expect to get them for in your part of the world. Just do your research. Spend 30-40 minutes searching until you get an idea what the normal going rate for your region is and then go for it. Don't just search for Gotek on your region's ebay and order the first or second one you come across. Also, make certain that you sort by lowest price with shipping. Never leave your search results in the Best Match sort.

 

I did a quick search on ebay U.K. and it seems like the best prices I see in your area are £25.99+£10.20 for shipping. That shipping may have been picking up the fact that I was in the U.S. though, and raising the price accordingly. You might be able to find the shipping a little cheaper to you.

 

Also, keep in mind, like I mentioned before, this is for a basic unit that will still need to be setup for your computer. Also, I have never used the basic Gotek case, regardless of the color that I chose. I don't like modifying my ST's cases, so I always take the Gotek board completely out of the case and install it onto a custom 3D printed mount that allows me to install it in my ST and access everything without modifying the case. Also, I can then paint the mount a much better color that more closely matches my ST's case. They look great, much better than even the best mounting job I've ever seen using an original Gotek case, but that'll add another $25 or so to my final tally. An OLED display is another awesome little addition for the Gotek that you can pickup for $2-$5 USD, almost certainly shipped from Shenzhen, China. I have to give a shoutout to Shenzhen, China's silicon valley, since I have a four-year-old grandson there.

 

If you have any questions about setting one up, I've done several recently and would be glad to help if you have any questions. Feel free to ask.

 

 

 

Edited June 26, 2020 by bfollowell

[ijor]

 

37 minutes ago, TGB1718 said:

Sourced in the UK and the price ranges from about £32 to £49, so it seems UK prices are higher, but will keep looking elsewhere

Check Amazon Uk.

[TGB1718]

54 minutes ago, ijor said:

Check Amazon Uk.

Cjecked Amazon, again there are some lower priced units, but delivery not until end July to late August, my guess

Chineese sellers on Amazon, for UK ones around £30 with free delivery

[mdivancic]

13 hours ago, bfollowell said:

I don't like modifying my ST's cases, so I always take the Gotek board completely out of the case and install it onto a custom 3D printed mount that allows me to install it in my ST and access everything without modifying the case. Also, I can then paint the mount a much better color that more closely matches my ST's case.

Can we see a picture of this?

[atarian1]

I would recommend the GOEX drive from Centurion. (Almost) Just plug and play.

[bfollowell]

4 hours ago, mdivancic said:

Can we see a picture of this?

Here are pictures of the last two I've done.

 

This first one went into the SF314 case of a dead drive that went with a 520STM that I sold off a few months ago. The mount was for a long button STF, but it worked just fine for the long button style external SF314. I had another printed for a long button 1040STF that I plan to sell off soon.

 

 

 

This one went into my personal 4160STE

 

 

 

You can find the files to print these here

 

For long button style

 

For short button style

[mdivancic]

12 hours ago, bfollowell said:

Here are pictures of the last two I've done.

Does look good! Thanks for the photos. 

[cdoty]

On 6/25/2020 at 9:00 AM, TGB1718 said:

What is the best way to transfer files/games to the ST, I was thinking of using a USB to Serial cable I have that

I use on my 8 Bit Atari's to my PC but also think I would have to write some sort of program to handle the transfer.

 

I would recommend the USB HxC board.

https://www.lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=42

 

It is super simple to use, and removes the need to mess with a physical floppy drive at all. As a bonus, it is also compatible with several other computers.

[bfollowell]

3 hours ago, cdoty said:

 

I would recommend the USB HxC board.

https://www.lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=42

 

It is super simple to use, and removes the need to mess with a physical floppy drive at all. As a bonus, it is also compatible with several other computers.

 

I would certainly never knock any of Lotharek's products. He makes and sells great items and has great service, but this doesn't look like a very good device in my opinion when compared to a Gotek or one of Lotharek's SD HxC floppy emulators. The two major issues that I see are:

 

1) This would keep your ST shackled to a modern PC much like SIO2PC-USB for the 8-bits. This may or may not be a problem for the OP.

2) It says right on the product page that this device is read only, so the OP would never be able to save anything to a disk image, no game saves, nothing. That seems like a major drawback to me, almost to the point of being a defect.

 

TGB1718, you definitely have other options besides the Gotek if you want to consider them, but I don't think the device suggested here would be a good one for the above-mentioned reasons.

 

 

 

[TGB1718]

16 minutes ago, bfollowell said:

TGB1718, you definitely have other options besides the Gotek if you want to consider them, but I don't think the device suggested here would be a good one for the above-mentioned reasons.

Many thanks for the advice

[ijor]

I agree with bfollowell. The USB HxC emulator is almost obsolete and useful mainly for special purposes only. HxC also makes a SD emulator that is much more popular than the older USB one. It is more expensive than the Gotek (can't compete with chinese manufacturers), most would agree it's higher quality than the Gotek, but for most purposes, not as powerfull.

 

[cdoty]

On 6/26/2020 at 9:56 AM, mdivancic said:

I’ve never seen a Gotek for $25.00, but you would need a case and a cable for an external version, or just replace your floppy directly. Advantage is that it emulates a floppy for games that only run from a floppy. 

 

Ultrasatan is another option. Hard drive emulator. It’s what I use as I don’t have any need to emulate a floppy. 
 

Check out Lotharek’s site for retro computer goodness.

Amazon (in the US) has Goteks (or knock off versions) for $27.99, I bought two last week and they worked with FlashFloppy.

[cdoty]

On 6/28/2020 at 5:16 AM, bfollowell said:

I would certainly never knock any of Lotharek's products. He makes and sells great items and has great service, but this doesn't look like a very good device in my opinion when compared to a Gotek or one of Lotharek's SD HxC floppy emulators. The two major issues that I see are:

 

1) This would keep your ST shackled to a modern PC much like SIO2PC-USB for the 8-bits. This may or may not be a problem for the OP.

2) It says right on the product page that this device is read only, so the OP would never be able to save anything to a disk image, no game saves, nothing. That seems like a major drawback to me, almost to the point of being a defect.

 

TGB1718, you definitely have other options besides the Gotek if you want to consider them, but I don't think the device suggested here would be a good one for the above-mentioned reasons.

 

I do also own an UltraSatan and a Gotek, but find the USB card the easiest solution for playing games on the ST. It's a bit rare for games to write to the disk. UltraSatan is nice, but requires more than the standard 1MB of RAM, to load games. And, having to configure the floppy slots, on a Gotek, does get a little tiresome. Being tethered to a PC can be a problem, but it does simplify the process of changing disks.

Edited June 30, 2020 by cdoty