Stupid question: how do I create a blank writable ATR?

[phoney]

Okay. Let's say I am running Altirra, or I'm using an 800 with a multicart or SD card or Fujinet ... and I want to create a blank disk and save something to it. How do I do that? Stupid question I know, but I want to save some files!

[+x=usr(1536)]

For a FujiNet, it's easy: navigate to the SD card, select 'N' (New), and follow the prompts.

 

Using a SIDE3 cartridge: navigate to the SD card, hit CTRL-SHIFT-I, and follow the prompts.  CTRL-M at this point will also show you the menu, which has a ton more options.

 

Most emulators can create disk images; check their documentation for specifics.

[+scorpio_ny]

1 hour ago, x=usr(1536) said:

Most emulators can create disk images; check their documentation for specifics.

I used Altirra to create my disk images when I wanted to back up my physical disks (I had created single and double density disk images). I used Copymate to back them up with my 1050 (modded with US Doubler) as the source to a a virtual drive mounted via Sdrive Max.

[+skr]

Don´t get confused by the look, I´m using Altirra on a Mac (via wine), but the steps should be identical:

 

In Altirra go to "File - Disk Drives":

Click on it and a new window opens with D1: to D8:, where you click on the "play" (triangle) button on any of the drives and then click on "New disk..." :

Another window appears, where you can set the format of the disk and the dos structure (DOS will NOT be written onto it) :

After confirming, you´re back in the Disk Drives window, where you have to click on the play button (triangle) again to save your disk:

Now just enter a file name and choose where to save it.

 

Now you have an ATR file which you can use with any Emulator or put on any device that can deal with ATRs and do whatever you want to do with it.

[+bob1200xl]

If you're on a 1200XL and using a SIO2SD, I can show the short steps.

 

On the PC...

 

Make a folder named ATARI on the SD card.

 

Copy .ATRs that you want to this ATARI folder.

 

Eject the SD card and move it to the 1200XL.

 

Boot the Atari and select the .ATR you want.

 

Questions?

 

Bob

[sl0re]

On 9/14/2023 at 9:29 PM, phoney said:

Okay. Let's say I am running Altirra, or I'm using an 800 with a multicart or SD card or Fujinet ... and I want to create a blank disk and save something to it. How do I do that? Stupid question I know, but I want to save some files!

I have a utility to make atrs but what I do in real life is just make a copy of a existing one and format it with dos. If your asking mounting steps, sorry don't know that altirra. 😂

Edited September 17, 2023 by sl0re

[phoney]

Thanks! Figured it out!

[Dopeyman06]

On 9/14/2023 at 10:41 PM, scorpio_ny said:

I used Altirra to create my disk images when I wanted to back up my physical disks (I had created single and double density disk images). I used Copymate to back them up with my 1050 (modded with US Doubler) as the source to a a virtual drive mounted via Sdrive Max.

When using CopyMate, the destination doesn't matter if it's Single or Double Density. CopyMate will match the density with the source.

 

[+scorpio_ny]

1 hour ago, Dopeyman06 said:

When using CopyMate, the destination doesn't matter if it's Single or Double Density. CopyMate will match the density with the source.

 

I believe in this case it does. Since we are dealing with ATR files, one will need to create the ATR to proper density so the ATR is sized large enough to accept all of the data from the source.

[Dopeyman06]

39 minutes ago, scorpio_ny said:

I believe in this case it does. Since we are dealing with ATR files, one will need to create the ATR to proper density so the ATR is sized large enough to accept all of the data from the source.

Nope. Destination density doesn’t matter.
 

I recently used CopyMate v4.3 (D1:) to do an archive project of about 200 disks. I used my Mac, an Atari 800XL (w/256k RAM), RespeQt r5.3 and a US Doubler’d 1050 (D2:) 

 

Some of the source disks were mixed density. My destination ATR image (D3:) was single density. 

 

CopyMate formats the destination to match the source. 

Edited September 25, 2023 by Dopeyman06

[_The Doctor__]

The empty ATR container must be large enough to contain the disk image that will be placed in it. It makes a mess of things when headers do not match contents and normally ends with problems that one doesn't realize until much later on. It is best to match ATR header and size to the disk you want put in it.

[Dopeyman06]

1 hour ago, _The Doctor__ said:

The empty ATR container must be large enough to contain the disk image that will be placed in it. It makes a mess of things when headers do not match contents and normally ends with problems that one doesn't realize until much later on. It is best to match ATR header and size to the disk you want put in it.

Well, my experience (not guessing) is that CopyMate v4.3 (sector copier) made a 1:1 copy of the source disk to my destination ATR regardless of the density. If the source disk was Double Density, CopyMate v4.3 would format the destination ATR in Double Density. If the source disk was Single Density, CopyMate 4.3 would format the destination ATR in Single Density. And the finished ATR was perfectly fine and booted on my Atari800MacX emulation.

 

Edited September 25, 2023 by Dopeyman06

[+scorpio_ny]

4 hours ago, Dopeyman06 said:

Well, my experience (not guessing) is that CopyMate v4.3 (sector copier) made a 1:1 copy of the source disk to my destination ATR regardless of the density. If the source disk was Double Density, CopyMate v4.3 would format the destination ATR in Double Density. If the source disk was Single Density, CopyMate 4.3 would format the destination ATR in Single Density. And the finished ATR was perfectly fine and booted on my Atari800MacX emulation.

 

I think what you did was you created an ATR file that was large enough that would work with either single and double density. So yes, in that sense it would work. The issue is if one created an ATR single density (which creates a smaller container) and then try to copy a full double density disk, it would simply not fit.

 

I tend to match the size of the ATR file with the density so at a glance, I can tell how it is formatted by looking at the file size of the ATR.

Edited September 25, 2023 by scorpio_ny

[Dopeyman06]

3 hours ago, scorpio_ny said:

I think what you did was you created an ATR file that was large enough that would work with either single and double density. So yes, in that sense it would work. The issue is if one created an ATR single density (which creates a smaller container) and then try to copy a full double density disk, it would simply not fit.

 

I tend to match the size of the ATR file with the density so at a glance, I can tell how it is formatted by looking at the file size of the ATR.

LOL. No. I did not create a large ATR image. I know what I did. I know what I selected. I know the results.

 

The attached image is from the RespeQt app. There's a windows and Linux version if you're not a Mac person.

 

Feel free to try it yourself