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 Post subject: Loading ATR Images
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 5:21 am 

Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 6:47 pm
Posts: 85
Greetings,

I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions regarding the best way to load ATR images onto a MyIDE disk. I've tried connecting the device to a PC and transferred ~737 images using MyIDETool. I had to discard a number of images that the program says are truncated or not ATR files, but no matter what I do it stops loading images at 738.

The total size of the collection of ATR files is like 80mb. I'm using a 1gb Compact Flash disk, which I means I only get 512mb useable, and I have three 16gb partitions on it with the remaining area available for images (assuming I've configured things correctly). This should be a total of 128mb, but things are acting like the drive is full.

The dimensions of my disk are:

1986 Cylinders
124/255/63 (C/H/S)

I configured the disk with 2 for the start of the image area, so it should begin at 256, I think. I must be doing something wrong here.

I haven't determined what the purpose is in density choice for the file or image partitions, so that could be an issue, although I think I've chosen the lower density for both.

Any hints or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


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 Post subject: Re: Loading ATR Images
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 6:52 am 

Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 10:49 am
Posts: 187
Location: Salzburg, Austria
Hi!

Crash wrote:
The dimensions of my disk are:

1986 Cylinders
124/255/63 (C/H/S)

I configured the disk with 2 for the start of the image area, so it should begin at 256, I think. I must be doing something wrong here.

If you set the start to 2, images slots start at cylinder 512. This means you have 1986-512=1474 cylinders available for images.

If you then set the number of cylinders per image slot to 2, you have a total of 1474/2 = 737 image slots available.

Could you please post the output of "myidetool YourDevice -l" (lower case "L" to show the partition table) to verify this?

Regarding broken/truncated/... images: I'm working on an updated version of myidetool that accepts and automatically fixes those images. But, since these images are really broken, it would be better you used some tool to fix them. Other programs might have problems with these images, too.

so long,

Hias


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 3:16 pm 

Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 6:47 pm
Posts: 85
1986 cylinders 16 heads 63 sectors (1008 sectors per cyl)
Image space: first cylinder: 512  cylinders per slot: 1  total slots: 1474
partitions: 3 option byte: 00000001 drive bits: 00000111
part active drv start   end dns sectors
1    yes    D1:     1    67 SD    65535
2    yes    D2:    67   133 SD    65535
3    yes    D3:   133   199 SD    65535


I changed the image partition size to 720 before listing these values, so now 1474 image spaces are available.

Does this mean I can set the image space to start at 1 (for more image spaces) and still retain the listed partitions?

Also, I would welcome any suggestion regarding the best utility for repairing ATR files.

Thanks!


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PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 9:11 pm 

Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2003 12:21 am
Posts: 251
Yes, you should be able to start your image space at cylinder 256, since your last partition stops at cylinder 199. Changing your image size to 1 cylinder will mean only 720 (well actually 1007, 1 sector is used for image description) sector disks can be copied to your image space, but it saves quite a bit of room otherwise.



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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 10:09 pm 

Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 6:47 pm
Posts: 85
Okay, now that I've changed to start at 1 (256) with the smaller ATR size, I was able to load the larger set of ATRs. Hopefully I have 1730 slots now.

Can someone help me understand which sized ATR files are not compatible with the smaller sized image slots? Most of the ATRs that I looked at were 91k, although they seem to range in size from 2k-180k.

So far I haven't figured out how to fix truncated or damaged ATR files, but there seem to be a lot of them in the collections I've looked at.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 12:37 am 

Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2003 12:21 am
Posts: 251
Usually those small ATRs were created with a utility called k-boot. They take a normal binary load program and make it into a boot disk. I think there was a utility posted on AtariAge to fix those small ATRs.

I found a utility here (might need to be compiled):
http://www.puisoft.co.uk/atari/utils/

Technically there is no reason an ATR needs to be one of the standard disk sizes (720, 1040, etc..), and these small ATRs are only "broken" if the header (there is a 16-byte header that describes the size of the ATR and some other stuff) does not reflect the actual size of the ATR. I haven't looked at them to see if that is the case or not though.

You could use the built-in Image Manager or my own Image Manager program to copy these ATRs to the Atari, but you would need an SIO2PC setup to do so.



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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 4:24 am 

Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 6:47 pm
Posts: 85
Unfortunately I don't have any idea how to compile the sources, so I think I'll keep looking for some other utility.

What I currently have available is a PC with APE and the associated interface cable, as well as a compact flash drive. I was able to load a large batch of ATR files onto the disk, but unfortunately there are hundreds that can't be used. Perhaps worse, the only way I can determine whether an ATR is good is to try sending it to the disk using the command line MyIDETool utility. When attempting to sort out the good from the bad from a pool of a few thousand files, well, you get the idea.

What will your image manager do with "bad" ATRs?

Hias, is there any way to make your tool able to skip bad ATRs and try the next one rather than aborting?

Thanks!


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:53 am 

Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 10:49 am
Posts: 187
Location: Salzburg, Austria
Crash wrote:
Unfortunately I don't have any idea how to compile the sources, so I think I'll keep looking for some other utility.

Here's another utility (unfortunately in German). It's for Windows and you need to have .NET version 2.0 installed. I haven't tested it yet (I'm a Linux user), but several people using the SIO2USB interface reported that it works fine:

http://www.wyk.at/detail.asp?newsid=48

Or, with google translate: translated version

Looking at the tiny screenshot it seems you have 3 options:
correct a single ATR file ("Einzelne Datei korrigieren"), correct all ATRs in a directory ("Verzeichnis korrigieren") or convert XFD into ATR.

Quote:
Hias, is there any way to make your tool able to skip bad ATRs and try the next one rather than aborting?

I'll have a look at this issue. First I need to do some tests, but I'll drop you a line as soon as I have a new version ready.

so long,

Hias


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:04 pm 

Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 6:47 pm
Posts: 85
Thanks very much! I'll post with my results once I can give this one a try.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 8:31 pm 

Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2003 12:21 am
Posts: 251
Crash wrote:
What will your image manager do with "bad" ATRs?


Since my program runs on the Atari, it doesn't know about the ATR header at all. It just copies all sectors until an error is encountered, and then it stops, displays how many sectors were copied.

Sijmen's built-in image manager probably does something very similiar, but I admit to not having used it for years, so don't know exactly.



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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 7:48 am 

Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 10:49 am
Posts: 187
Location: Salzburg, Austria
Hi Crash!

I just uploaded my current development version of myide tool:
http://www.horus.com/~hias/tmp/myidetool-090204.zip

If you add the "-f" command line option (force writing of non-standard images) you should be able to write truncated ATRs. I tested it with one of the truncated ATRs from the Holmes collection and it worked.

Please give it a try and tell me if it works for you.

so long,

Hias


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 10:48 pm 

Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 6:47 pm
Posts: 85
Greetings,

This does work now, although there are still a handful (7 out of ~4000) of ATR's that the program identifies as "not an ATR" or are otherwise unreadable. The only remaining problem is that rather than skipping the offending file(s), the program aborts. This can be a little inconvenient if 3800 images have already transferred.

So, if there was one feature request I could make, it would be for the program to be able to skip bad images and continue - and perhaps show or make a list of the bad image names.

Having identified the bad images in the collection I am working with, and moving (or repairing) or repairing them, I've successfully transferred about 3800 ATR files in one go. I had to make a change, and am trying to transfer the entire set now.

Bravo for this extremely useful program, another triumph!


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:10 pm 

Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 10:49 am
Posts: 187
Location: Salzburg, Austria
Hi!

Crash wrote:
So, if there was one feature request I could make, it would be for the program to be able to skip bad images and continue - and perhaps show or make a list of the bad image names.

OK, I think I can add a switch for that to the tool.

Could you please send me (some of) your broken ATRs so I can check why they were rejected?

so long,

Hias


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:45 am 

Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 6:47 pm
Posts: 85
Greetings,

After a few stops and starts, I successfully transferred ~3860 images to a compact flash drive until all of the available image slots were filled. Success! This tool works.

For many years, I've wanted to have an Atari 8-bit with a fully loaded hard drive. Thank you for your great efforts, knowledge and each of these fine utilities that have made it possible to achieve this goal.

Many, many thanks.


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