Best image program for original disks

[TGB1718]

Now I've got my floppy drives working again, I can copy files to my hard drive, but for

original (mainly Game Disks with protection), I need to image them to put on a GOEX drive.

 

Obviously they will have copy protection, so was wondering what is the best program to do this, I

do have a PC with "proper" floppy drives and can boot into MSDOS or Windows XP.

 

Any suggestions appreciated

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Not all copy protections can be emulated with Gotek, GOEX, HxC.

What can copy practically all protections is Super Card Pro (SCP) - but only on real floppies. And it consists from special device attachable to PC via USB.

There is partial support for STX (Pasti) images for HxC, USB version. Don't know about SD card version, about is there some support for protected floppies for GOEX.   In any case used STX format is not really for real HW, copy to other floppies, but for emulators.

I don't think that they (HxC, Gotek, GOEX) are made for copy protected titles. Some simpler protections can pass, mostly from earlier years - 1985-1987. STT format is what should work with HW floppy emulators  -  that's developed by Steem authors, and is good for simpler, early copy protections.

So, first question here is what floppy image formats are supported at all by GOEX. When know it, can look for SW for imaging.

And forget about doing it with PC (unless having SCP) - PC floppy controller can not read even some not copy protected Atari formats.

I made program for Windows, but it is for not copy protected floppies:  http://atari.8bitchip.info/floimgd.php

I recommend to go with cracks.

 

[ijor]

A Gotek with the HxC firmware can "play back" almost all protections using the newer HFEv3 image format. There is a software issue however to convert from other formats successfully.

 

The Goex uses the FlashFloppy firmware instead. And I don't know how good and accurate is the FlashFloppy support for HFEv3 images. It am even less certain about a Goex that uses SD cards instead of an USB pen drive; timing might be less accurate.

 

Btw, I guess your Goex is just fine. What was the issue that it didn't work for you before?

Edited July 30, 2020 by ijor

[TGB1718]

On 7/30/2020 at 2:28 AM, ijor said:

I guess your Goex is just fine. What was the issue that it didn't work for you before?

Still not got it to work, as I couldn't get real floppys to work, I assumed my old drives had stopped working, however,

I did the resistor pack mod on the data lines between the 1772 and the DMA controller and I can read the directory

of some floppy and even managed to copy about 10 files off one floppy to my hard drive (Hard Drive is fine btw, it's a "real" hard disk).

 

But it doesn't work with all floppy disks, when I fit the GOEX, doesn't matter which image I use, the LED flashes and the Track display

"seeks" and the onboard speaker simulates head movement noise, but it won't read any images I present to it. I have checked all

the images load under SteemSSE, so they should be good.

 

I also swapped the 1772 for a 1770 FDC, I know the only difference is the 1770 has a slow step rate and I see this on the real floppy and

the GOEX, but still nothing from the GOEX images and reads the same floppys as the 1772 did.

 

So a little stuck, I replaced the 7406 chip also, just in case.

 

Just seems odd I have the same issue on both my 520ST and 1040STFM, one external drive and the other internal

although I haven't tried the resistor pack mod on the 1040 yet as it's a complete stripdown to get to the board.

 

Anyone else have any suggestions ?

[ParanoidLittleMan]

What about power supplies of 520 and 1040 ? Were electrolyte capacitors replaced in last years ?

[TGB1718]

1 hour ago, ParanoidLittleMan said:

What about power supplies of 520 and 1040 ? Were electrolyte capacitors replaced in last years ?

Power seems ok, ~5Vdc and little noise, so didn't do the caps yet, maybe have a look on the 520, don't think theres many to replace and I

probably have all the values