Download Atari Floppy Discs to PC? / SIO2SD / SIO2USB / SIO2PCUSB

[TomC]

Hello:

 

I have an 800Xl system with a 810 floppy and 1050 floppy attached.

 

I have a number of Atari floppies (DOS 2.0 or 2.5 formatted) with a number of text and BASIC programs.

 

I would like to copy these direct to my PC.

 

I have Lotharek SIO2SD, Lotharek SIO2USB and AtariMax SIO2PC USB (Dual SIO port version).

 

I've used SIO2SD (D1) and 1050(D3) to copy files from D3 disk to D1 on the SIO2SD (of course D3 is OFF on the SIO2SD).  This of course puts the file in the image on D1 of the SIO2SD.

 

I would like to copy the files directly from D3 (1050 drive) to my PC.  

 

1.  Can I have D3 and the AtariMax SIO2PC USB on the SIO bus at the same time?   

 

2.  Can I have the Lotharek SIO2USB on the SIO bus with an Atari Drive?

 

3.  What is the simplest method to get files from an Atari floppy direct to a PC file?

 

Thank you for your helpful advice/shared experience,

TomC

[_The Doctor__]

1 yes

2 yes

3 there are three simplest methods depending on the person and what they own

  A) Atarimax Prosystem included with APE

  B) RespeQt using sector copier

  C) SpartaDos X w/ RespeQt and pclink driver.

either APE or RespeQt will take sector copying to blank .atr images but you needs atx, vapii or pro imaging to do copy protected disks.

 

linu based machines have their equivalents and builds of RespeQt and Similar or VM's

 

You will need to read how to do each variant. There is no point to having the forum transcribe the documentation for you.

Edited April 8 by _The Doctor__

[TomC]

3 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

1 yes

2 yes

3 there are three simplest methods depending on the person and what they own

  A) Atarimax Prosystem included with APE

  B) RespeQt using sector copier

  C) SpartaDos X w/ RespeQt and pclink driver.

either APE or RespeQt will take sector copying to blank .atr images but you needs atx, vapii or pro imaging to do copy protected disks.

 

linu based machines have their equivalents and builds of RespeQt and Similar or VM's

 

You will need to read how to do each variant. There is no point to having the forum transcribe the documentation for you.

Thank you for the prompt reply.  I will have to continue testing - I have been told that some of these modern SIO hardware devices hold one of the SIO lines down and will not allow vintage drives such as the 1050 or 810 on the SIO bus at the same time.

 

TomC

[Houdini]

1 hour ago, TomC said:

Thank you for the prompt reply.  I will have to continue testing - I have been told that some of these modern SIO hardware devices hold one of the SIO lines down and will not allow vintage drives such as the 1050 or 810 on the SIO bus at the same time.

 

TomC

I can tell you for sure that this is not the case with the SIO2PC/APE device. I've used it daisy chained to every peripheral you can think of with no issues. It's well made, and the software is powerful and intuitive. 

[PVbest73]

Hello

if you just want to retrieve your disks and make ATR files, you can connect your 1050 floppy drive to a PC and run my ARFD tool software : see pvbest.com/Atari. All you need is an 1050toPc cable.

[_The Doctor__]

hmmm the older lotharek might have had a switch or needed modification, but last I knew the later ones were 1050 2 PC capable.

[scitari]

I recently posted about how to copy files from your PC to a real floppy disk using SIO2PC and RespeQT. As noted in the last comment, you can reverse this process and go from real floppy to PC. Also, Randall Kindig did a guest post showing how to do this with FujiNet. Have fun!

 

Write Atari 8-Bit Computer ATR Files from Your PC to a Real Floppy Disk Using the RespeQT Peripheral Emulator Software and an SIO2PC Adapter (15-30 minutes) – Atari Projects

 

Archive Atari 8-Bit Computer Disks from a Real Floppy to a Virtual Disk Using FujiNet (15-30 minutes) – Atari Projects

[TomC]

Just now, Houdini said:

I can tell you for sure that this is not the case with the SIO2PC/APE device. I've used it daisy chained to every peripheral you can think of with no issues. It's well made, and the software is powerful and intuitive. 

For whatever reason, APE does not run after being installed (win 8.1).   The icon is on the desktop and does not respond.  I need to do a fresh install and tell it to run APE.  I've tried 'run as administrator' and run the app directly.  

 

When I do get APE running, it does not recognize the D1: on the Lotharek device.

 

Also, the online APE documentation does not exist - 'page under construction'.

 

Respeqt will now download on my 'protected' pc but that is another issue I'm working on.

 

TomC

[_The Doctor__]

Downloaded and installed both and are working on ASUS w/8.1.

Odd you have some issue

[Houdini]

6 hours ago, TomC said:

When I do get APE running, it does not recognize the D1: on the Lotharek device.

I believe APE is proprietary and works only on Atarimax devices. I'm using the Dual Port USB Interface w/ SIO Connectors.

 

https://www.atarimax.com/sio2pc/documentation/

Edited April 10 by Houdini

[_The Doctor__]

AtariMax SIO2PC usb devices employ a controller that allows xf551 and similar high speed handshaking schemes that no other devices can do, as a result the USB portion requires that you use virtual com drivers when used with other USB devices, including roll your own ftdi cables etc, so that you are using their usb drivers and not the AtariMax driver.

 

Standard serial port SIO 2 PC rs232 etc will work as is and you can make your own, use an atarimax, etc

Edited April 11 by _The Doctor__

[TomC]

Hello:

 

Thanks again very MUCH for your helpful advice and patience.

 

Between:

1.  The frustrations with APE (does not run, and no documentation or response from provider).

2.  Damaged ATR file that I was trying to boot from (would load 4 sectors then freeze).

3.  Wrong settings for SIO2USB driver (my fault for not paying attention to details in instructions!).

4.  D3 was shut down - likely due to a setting within DOS 2.5.  

 

It seems I have Respeqt running.  I cannot yet write to any of my virtual discs. (?)

 

My immediate goal is to get some .lst and .txt files from a Atari DOS 2.0 formatted floppy into my PC.  The path to this is not clear to me.  I'll study this further.

 

Regards,

TomC

[_The Doctor__]

Correct Atari DOS is usually 2 Floppies to start and you either have to use it's set up utility or poke any others on and write the DOS files.

If RespeQT is running, can you boot disks and pull data from it?

[TomC]

2 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

Correct Atari DOS is usually 2 Floppies to start and you either have to use it's set up utility or poke any others on and write the DOS files.

If RespeQT is running, can you boot disks and pull data from it?

Hello:

 

Yes, RespeQT seems to be fine; I could copy files from the files I have on the emulated disks there, but when I try to copy (using the DOS copy command), the file reads, but fails when attempting to write to the emulated disks.

 

TomC

[_The Doctor__]

There are modes of write protection on all of these systems including disks

Make sure any installed application on the serving computer are allowed to write

Next make sure the emulated disk is not write protected by notch.

Next that the emulated disks files are not in set protected by the DOS.

Next that the serving app does not have the image slot set to protect the image or virtually protect the image.

and so on.