Author: Alain Derpin (netapp1.skynet.be)
Date: 08-05-2000 15:01
Hi Flix ! (btw, 'm very hounoured to reply you and to see you're still active in the demo topic :)
I think I can help you a bit !
I'm also a mad ST demo collector and I have to handle a lot of those img files and real disks.
So I experienced some things that could be useful.
First I want to say that makedisk DOESN'T work 100% on all the system. I can start in true dos mode, makedisk won't read or write 10 sectors disks :-(
It's very annoying, especially that I have still hundred img files to convert to disks... The floppy drive isn't guilty because it worked well before I change the motherboard ! It must be a crap in the motherboard that sucks ! (btw it's a true intel one...)
Well, first to read some strange 10 sectors disks on the pc, an easy way is to format a disk to 820k on pc thanks to fdformat and then copy the disk using the st (without formating again the disk of course) and then read it easily using makedisk or imgbuild (btw imgbuild is surer for some disks)
Then, to merge 2 splitted msa files, I used a quite complicated way, but it worked : I used pacifist and msa.prg. Before I create a blank st file. Then I insert this blank disk in the virtual disk drive and I load the first file with the magic shadow archiver. I make the disk then I load the second file and finish it. That's it, the disk is intire.
But I think there's a much more easy way to do that : use msatost (you can find it here : http://atarist.free.fr/transfert.htm or at the lgd) and type :
msatost suprem.st suprem_a.msa suprem_b.msa
I have never tried it, but I think it'll works
Then you told that it will be cool if someone could code a prg to load disks from the ST to the pc. But I think making img disks isn't really a problem... Once the disks recorded to files, there isn't problem anymore. On the other hand, it's very more complicated to make disks for hundreds users ! And then a soft that would read img files and transfert them to the ST would be very useful !!!
Or a prg that would read an img file on a st hard disk and manage them like true disks ! Like that, there wouldn't any more problems handling hundreds real disks !
I talked about that to the Cream guys because they made a little prg that read directly the msa file on the disk and execute the demo. They said it was a very interesting idea, but that they hadn't any time to work on this...
Such a thing exist on atair 8 bits computer (you must know it I think :), it'a disk drive emulator and the data are transfered from the pc thanks to the SIOPC cable.
Such a thing would be so appreciated for the ST ! Or as I wrote a prg that would read the disk img on a st hard disk and execute it like a real disk...
Ok, I think this message is long enough :-)
I have more things to write but I don't remember coz I feel quite tired atm...
Also I hope most ideas are understandable coz my english is far to be perfect as you noticed it :-)
Ok, gotta end
Best Regards
I hope to chat with you one of those days :-)
Alain Derpin aka Aldn
icq number : 84220801
Oh, btw have you heard about this GREAT brand new demo ftp of Marcer / Elite ??? (he is also a very good Swedish teacher :-)
ftp://Demo@213.112.39.205/
Password : Demo
Really amazing ! and I hadn't heard about at all before !
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RE: Conversion of ST disks