Problems with writing ATR images via SIO2PC and QMEG

[morelenmir]

I am attempting to use QMEG v4.04 to write a *.ATR image on to a physical floppy disk.

 

I use RespeQT R2 to mount the *.ATR image as D1: and connect to it via an SIO2PC running at 3X (57600). My physical Happy 1050 is configured to be D2:. From the QMEG screen I select Drive 1, press 'R' and then press START. The screen turns blue and the image data is fully read in to memory by QMEG. I then move the selection to Drive 2, press 'W' and then press START. For a few moments the screen turns green and a message 'Formatting' appears. I can also hear the 1010 begin to format. However, without fail after ~5 seconds the screen turns red and a message reading 'Error 8A at 000' appears on screen and the disk copying process halts. Interestingly however the 1010 continues the format and finishes successfully.

 

This happens every single time I attempt to use QMEG for this purpose. In contrast if I start up 'SuperDuper 2' and use it to copy over the same D1:/D2 SIO2PC->1050 setup it works without any problems.

[TheMontezuma]

Could you upload the ATR?

[phaeron]

This is most likely a bug in RespeQt that was inherited from AspeQt. It reports a timeout value in its status output that is far too low for formatting a disk on a physical disk drive, and some DOSes use the timeout value from one drive for all of them:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/232649-sio-format-command-question/

 

Try reversing the drives so that the 1050 is D1: and see if that works.

[Rybags]

Drives do the format autonomously - once it's finished all the computer does is receive the 128 byte report of bad sectors then writes the necessary sectors to the floppy for bootup and filing system.

 

Note if you're copying to virtual drive image files, e.g. destination SIO2SD, APE/RespeQT on computer etc. you don't really need to do the format operation if it's a full disk by sector copy. In any case format operations on virtual disks tend to take only a few seconds anyway.

[morelenmir]

Could you upload the ATR?

 

Sure thing - it should be attached below. It is nothing very exciting though, just the image of DOS XE.

 

This is most likely a bug in RespeQt that was inherited from AspeQt. It reports a timeout value in its status output that is far too low for formatting a disk on a physical disk drive, and some DOSes use the timeout value from one drive for all of them:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/232649-sio-format-command-question/

 

Try reversing the drives so that the 1050 is D1: and see if that works.

 

I gave that a try Phaeron but sadly the same 'Error 8A' occurs a couple of seconds in to formatting. Is it possible that QMEG doesn't like the Happy board? It is one of the Steven Taylor reproductions, but seems to work perfectly in all other ways including a clean report from the Happy diagnostic routines.

Atari DOS XE DISK - #.atr

[Kyle22]

I had a similar problem when reading from Ape Pro over SIO2PC, and writing to a real floppy drive (Indus or 1050). I never did figure that out. I thought it may be some issue with QMeg.