[CKlemow]

Hey there - I'm a non-techie who is trying to figure out the best way to get disk images or files from old Atari 800 5 1/4" disks onto my Windows XP PC next time I go home to m'parents' place where the old equipment is a-waitin' for me. I've googled around, and searched this forum, but just found myself a tad confused.

Last time I was home, I found an ICD "P:R Connection," to wit, one o' these:

http://page6.org/arc..._30/page_74.htm

Is there any way to use this to back up files or disk images onto a PC without having to buy anything other than maybe a cable? (I have m'old RS232 SIO cables, no worries there.) Or is there no driver that will make that possible? I'm dreaming that I can hook a modern external USB drive up to m'old Atari 800 via Atari 800 to RS232 cable to P:R Connection to Parallel cable to parallel-to-USB converter cable to the USB drive... but I'm probably dreaming. (Am I?) OR, use it to hook an old Atari 1050 drive directly to a PC (1050 drive to RS232 cable to P:R Connection to parallel cable to PC, or mebbe using a parallel-to-USB converter for the final hookup).

If that's all a pipe dream, it looks like SIO2PC is the way to go (the USB version with the SIO jack), to wit:

http://www.atarimax....tion/index.html

But their page is really unclear whether I can just buy one of these lovelies and jack my 1050 drive directly into my PC, or whether I also need to purchase the "APE for Windows" for a driver... though I also stumbled across this:

http://sourceforge.n...rojects/aspeqt/

If I purchase an SIO2PC and download the above, will it serve as a driver to hook a 1050 up directly to my PC and image the disk from there? (Or even just transfer the files? I have an old copy of "Make ATR," so I could grab the files individually to my PC and then make the disk image if necessary.)

Thanks for your patience and time. Yay.

This post has been edited by CKlemow: Mon Jan 4, 2010 6:53 PM

[cyco130]

The Sio-2-Pc variant that connects a PC directly to an Atari disk drive is called 1050-2-PC. Some cables are capable of doing both. But even with a non-1050-2-PC Sio2Pc cable you can backup your (non-copy protected) disks. Just connect your drive to your Atari and connect your Sio2Pc to your 1050 just like you would connect a second disk drive and use a sector copier program on your Atari.

Quote

http://sourceforge.n...rojects/aspeqt/

If I purchase an SIO2PC and download the above, will it serve as a driver to hook a 1050 up directly to my PC and image the disk from there? (Or even just transfer the files? I have an old copy of "Make ATR," so I could grab the files individually to my PC and then make the disk image if necessary.)

Not yet. But it's planned.

[CKlemow]

Thanks! I'm still a tad confused - so an actual working Atari computer is needed, as of right now, as WELL as a PC, all daisy chained with a 1050 in the middle (connected to the Atari with a normal RS232 SIO cable, and connected to the PC with an SIO-2-PC)? And the program that does the copying from the 1050 to the PC runs on the Atari, not the PC? Can I use the disk copying function in Atari DOS to do this, or do I need to download a sector copying program from somewhere? And then what - the PC's drive is recognized as a B: drive? Can I cut out using the Atari by using a sector copying program on an Atari emulator on my PC? (I currently run Atari800Win PLus 4.0.) If not, does this hookup also work in reverse, so I can download a sector copying program using my PC and send it to my Atari via the 1050? (It's totally possible I have some sort of Atari sector copying program already on some moldering old utilities disk; I'm just not sure and have no way to check right now.)

Sounds like it might be simpler to wait for the revision to your AspeQt program (if I'm understanding you properly, once you do the planned rewrite, I can use a regular SIO-2-PC to plug an Atari drive into my PC and directly image the disks with no further hardware or software necessary?)... it'll probably be a while before I take another vacation home anyway.

And yes, I'm only trying to save non-copy-protected stuff... some disks full of stuff in BASIC my dad and I wrote when I was a kid, my Bank Street Musicwriter music files, MovieMaker "movies" and custom Mr. Robot boards, and some other odds and ends.

Thanks again!

[1050]

On the pipe dream side with a 1050 disk drive and Atari 800 running DiskFormer thru P:R via R: driver and RS232 null modem cable to your XP running some FREE null modem file transfer program which seems to actually NOT exist at all, you could in theory at least, convert real disks to XFD files and send those down the null modem cable to XP. Jindroush's actv.exe file converter could then be used to convert the xfd files to atr files for more compatibilty for file sharing and the use of atr utilities on the PC side of things to extract and/or import files to those disk images. You have a big problem where you don't already have the Atari program DiskFormer on an Atari floppy disk ready to use on the Atari system (cart before the horse, chicken before the egg, can't get there from here).

The original SIO2PC is still free software. SIO2PC either the free route or APE will probably be the best and fastest method. It is by far the most popular. If you need to just buy one, this guy used to sell them on eBay. You can still reach him via eBay email.

The green "Important note" seems to indicate that either an 8-bit computer or a 1050 can be connected to the SIO/USB thingy and you will need to find support for that in the software which I assume is only APE. Since that is from the APE site, I would say yes, you only need a 1050 with power supply, the SIO/USB thingy, cables, and APE software on your XP to convert your real 8-bit floppies to ATR files. I'm sure an email exchange would have you the official answer in short order.

Aspeqt seems to need QT. If you know what that is, you are doing better than me. It seems to be a virtual dohicky which is about as useful as a virtual null modem program and yet there is a lot of those out there too.

Good luck in your search for XP null modem software, after a 2.5 meg download at dialup speeds, I find the words DEMO in my "free" null modem software for Windows and I have an evil grin on my face because I don't even have to look for the same thing only totally legit on the Atari side...

[CKlemow]

Wow, my head is spinning! Honestly, I don't understand a lot of this (especially all the pipe dream null modem stuff necessary to make a P:R Connector work), but thank you for those links!

[remowilliams]

1050, on Tue Jan 5, 2010 5:37 PM, said:

Since that is from the APE site, I would say yes, you only need a 1050 with power supply, the SIO/USB thingy, cables, and APE software on your XP to convert your real 8-bit floppies to ATR files.

That is correct, the SIO2PC USB device also acts as a Prosystem interface (1050-2-PC) - meaning you can connect your 1050 directly to your PC and image disks very quickly to .ATR files, or .PRO files for protected disks. Prosystem is included with the APE software.

[CKlemow]

Thanks. Buying both the cable and the APE software may be a tad more pricey than saving the handful of memories I want to preserve are worth, but I'll certainly consider it. I'm trying to only have to buy the cable. If I can make it work with a chained Atari 800 / 1050 drive / PC along with the original SIO2PC software, I'd rather do that, but it sounds like it may be a bit complex. Would doing so require any special software to be running on the Atari (which obviously may be a no go, as I don't know how I'd get said software onto the Atari in the first place), or is SIO2PC.COM running on my PC all I need for that particular scenario?

Really, thanks for everybody's patience with my ignorance.

This post has been edited by CKlemow: Wed Jan 6, 2010 12:43 AM

[tregare]

CKlemow, on Tue Jan 5, 2010 10:42 PM, said:

Thanks. Buying both the cable and the APE software may be a tad more pricey than saving the handful of memories I want to preserve are worth, but I'll certainly consider it. I'm trying to only have to buy the cable. If I can make it work with a chained Atari 800 / 1050 drive / PC along with the original SIO2PC software, I'd rather do that, but it sounds like it may be a bit complex. Would doing so require any special software to be running on the Atari (which obviously may be a no go, as I don't know how I'd get said software onto the Atari in the first place), or is SIO2PC.COM running on my PC all I need for that particular scenario?

Really, thanks for everybody's patience with my ignorance.

the evaluation version of prosystem and APE are free and work well to get started with. Prosystem is for making images, if you get the USB SIO-PC from atarimax.com you can use it with no mods, and prosystem to make disk images. or if you are handy with a soldering iron you could make a 1050-2-pc cable yourself

[CKlemow]

Not the least bit handy, nope! Didn't realize the cable came with trial versions of all the software; that's not clear on the main ordering page. Awesome. Thanks!

[charliecron]

CKlemow, on Wed Jan 6, 2010 1:42 AM, said:

Thanks. Buying both the cable and the APE software may be a tad more pricey than saving the handful of memories I want to preserve are worth, but I'll certainly consider it. I'm trying to only have to buy the cable. If I can make it work with a chained Atari 800 / 1050 drive / PC along with the original SIO2PC software, I'd rather do that, but it sounds like it may be a bit complex. Would doing so require any special software to be running on the Atari (which obviously may be a no go, as I don't know how I'd get said software onto the Atari in the first place), or is SIO2PC.COM running on my PC all I need for that particular scenario?

Really, thanks for everybody's patience with my ignorance.

Consider building your own interface for a couple dollars, and using some excellent free software like AtariSIO. There are other free software options too, don't know much about those yet though, as AtariSIO does all I need very well.

http://atarimax.com/ape/ape.htm (Interface instructions at the end of this page) There are more fancy adapters out there, but this one works just fine.

http://www.horus.com/~hias/atari/ Really good free disk drive emulator.
Charlie

[cyco130]

1050, on Wed Jan 6, 2010 12:37 AM, said:

Aspeqt seems to need QT. If you know what that is, you are doing better than me.

Qt is just a cross-platform GUI library and the necessary DLLs are already in the Windows distribution of AspeQt.