Creating ATR files from Atari disks?

[+bf2k+]

Unless something has changed since I bought mine in the 90's (and it could have changed), there is no USB version of the Prosys cable... it is RS-232 only.

 

Of course you can get a USB - serial converter.  I've never tried this but I bet it would work.

[+bf2k+]

1 minute ago, kheller2 said:

Incorrect.

 

"

The Atarimax Universal SIO2PC/ProSystem interface is a redesign of the classic Atari SIO2PC/APE and ProSystem interfaces, combining them into a single multi-function product.  The new design is completely auto-sensing, auto-switching and jumperless. When ProSystem style software is used, the interface switches itself automatically to ProSystem mode for controlling Atari disk drives."   I would email AtariMax just to confirm that the device that comes with the kit is the universal one.

Not incorrect.  You are forgetting that he wants to use this without the Atari attached.  The universal interface requires the Atari to be attached. Ask Steve...

 

[+kheller2]

2 hours ago, bf2k+ said:

Not incorrect.  You are forgetting that he wants to use this without the Atari attached.  The universal interface requires the Atari to be attached. Ask Steve...

 

Interesting, the docs do indeed state you need the computer on.    I know I have a self powered unit that does not require the computer to provide +5v on the SIO line.  I’ll have to dig it out.  
 

correction:  the USB version does not require the Atari

 

Fully Self Powered Operation 

Standard SIO2PC adapters draw power from the Atari SIO bus, or in some cases attempt to draw power from the RS232 port.

What little power the USB interface requires it draws directly from the USB bus.

This allows ProSystem to operate disk drives and other peripherals without an Atari computer attached to the SIO chain to provide extra power.

 

[+bf2k+]

I guess the docs are incorrect and Steve has fixed that limitation... but those online docs are VERY old as you could see from an earlier post of the ProSys software doc which was still DOS-based at the time of the doc posting (it is not DOS-based anymore.) 

 

That would also mean that you don't need an RS-232 port for the Prosys setup.

 

(I've been doing this stuff too long...  I can remember old things from the 80's but nothing since 2010.)

[rdefabri]

1 hour ago, bf2k+ said:

(I've been doing this stuff too long...  I can remember old things from the 80's but nothing since 2010.)

Ha! You and me both!

 

I think that's part of my confusion - the info at the AtariMax site is confusing, at times conflicting.  I don't want to lay out $100 and find out it doesn't work because I didn't understand the config.

 

Someone else posted doing it myself using my Atari computer...more or less for free.   That's probably the way to go, but I'm being lazy (my old age creeping in!)

[vitoco]

Without reading any official doc about prosystem cables, I can tell you that my 1050-2-PC cable has an extra connector from the SIO side that provides the +5V to the cable, and the drive was modified to provide a plug with power for that connector. No extra power is required from the RS-232 side of the cable.

 

If there is an USB version of this cable, I guess that the power could be taken directly from that side instead of the SIO side.

 

Another point to realize is that old disks could have very unstable data, and a sector could be good in a read pass and bad at the next one. In my experience, I had to repeat the process some times when there was a read error at the first try, and create many ATRs and their corresponding logs if there wasn't a good copy. Then, I used a script to scan each set of logs to find the source ATR for every good sector and build a clean ATR by the merge of all the tries. Sometimes I couldn't get a good copy of a sector and I had to analize which type of information it contained, but most of the times it was an irrelevant one (empty sector, standard DOS, backup file, deleted data, ...) and relevant data or programs could be copied to a brand new ATR image. As most of the software is now available in the web, I gave up trying to recover my own copy and kept a downloaded one.

 

[+DjayBee]

1 hour ago, vitoco said:

Another point to realize is that old disks could have very unstable data, and a sector could be good in a read pass and bad at the next one. In my experience, I had to repeat the process some times when there was a read error at the first try, and create many ATRs and their corresponding logs if there wasn't a good copy.

If rdefabri goes "$100-lane" and buy the ProSystem full-pack, then dumping these flaky disks as PRO images could help. In that mode sectors are read several times to detect protections with duplicate sectors.

In case of gone-bad disks that would not be literally true but you either could be lucky and catch a good read of the sector out of the several ones done by the dumping program. If you don't get one, you still have several copies of the same sector's data which you then can analyze for (hopefully) remaining areas which are still good.

 

[_The Doctor__]

AtariMax SIO2PC rs232 gets power from Computer SIO port & will play the role of #'s of peripherals & when in PRO mode will play the role of Computer DISK I/O subsystem using pro software to control drives and image disks,

AtariMax SIO2PC usb  gets power from USB port not Atari and does the same so you don't have to power on the Atari and everything stays connected just as before or if you just want to, nothing but an Atari Disk drive to simply image disks in Pro mode.