atari 520 stfm

[tartaro]

Hello,
recently I bought an Atari 520 stfm with language disk.If I load the language disk there is no problem,but if I try to laod some old midi program downloaded and saved on a formatted 720k disk it tells me "unrecognised " or damage media.Sometimes with Cubase tells me error 35:
It's strange because if I load basic program from language disk or a .txt files on another floppy there is no problems only with
applications with .prg.I can also format floppy from atari without error.
Could someone help me?
Thanks Mario

[mal7921]

How are you formatting the disk and on what machine? Are you downloading the ZIP files and unzipping them to the floppy on a PC or Mac? Try to let us know step by step to see if it's something obvious.

Many modern PC's don't like formatting 720k floppies but will read them, however although the PC and the Atari's share similar disk formats, up until TOS 1.4 or later, they did not format the disks in a way that PC's could read them and other utilities had to be used.

Also floppy disk head alignments or ferrite build up on the heads can cause issue over time so a good floppy head cleaner is always useful.

If you can find a download of FastCopy or FastCopy Pro for the ST, that can format floppies that both the ST and the PC can read and write to. Remember that unless you have an upgraded drive, the original 520STfm could only read single sided disks and not the 720KB double sided disks (Try formatting a disk and see what it says is available at the end. If the available space starts with a 3, you only have a single sided disk, if it starts with a 7 then you have a doubel sided disk).

[tartaro]

Hello thanks you,
I have a 1.44 floppy,as I saw in internet I close one hole in the floppy and then I formatted using win xp with command " FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9 /X /V:TAJIMA /FS:FAT" then I copied the unzipped files(es.master track pro)
into the floppy but when I try to load with both stfm and stf 1040,
with 520 stfm says than "driva A is not responding please check the disk drive..." in the 1040 stf I think the same but is in german language so I can't undersand very well.N.B In the 520 stfm if I put inside the floppy with ATARI LANGUAGE DISK(single sided) It loads correctly,and also show me some .txt file with the formatted 720k disk.
So both 520 STFM and 1040 STF have single sided 360k disk,and is impossible load programs from 720k floppy?
thanks in advance for your help,
Mario

[tartaro]

I forgot if I format a disk from atari it format it so drive is good but only single sided if I select double sided it can't.
One question if I find FastCopy to download how can I transfer from Pc To Atari?
Mario

[mal7921]

It sounds like you have an old STfm with a single sided drive, so you won't be able to use it in both the PC and the ST (Plus without FastCopy, you won't be able to format PC compatible disks either!).

Does your ST have a long button centrally under the floppy drive or a small button to the right as you look at it from the side?

If it's a long button, these have become quite rare as these were often upgraded and replaced with a different type of drive which meant the case had to be cut.

You really have 2 options. option 1 is upgrade the internal drive and option 2 is get an external floppy (Or a third option I've just remembered, a card reader! There was an article on here about those when Donovan had the site, but I think it may have been removed).

A card reader is a pretty good option, there are a couple on ebay, along with floppy disk drives, both internal and external for not much money, but HDD or High density drives (1.44MB) will only work as double density drives (720KB, normal for an ST) unless a HDD mod (Or upgrade) is carried out.

IF you need any more explanation on this, please let me know

[mal7921]

Knew there was something with card readers...

Have a look here for another potential option - http://www.atarimusic.net/index.php?opt ... Itemid=214

[tartaro]

Hello thank you for your indications,
yes I have long button I now I understand the problem,I will investigate the better solution,
thanks again.

[mal7921]

If you want to keep the original drive, there are some modifications that can be made to turn the external drive into drive A and the internal one into drive B, though I'm afraid you will need to Google these if that is the route you want to go down. Also since it is a single sided drive model (Identical to mine when I first bought it), the RAM will most likely still be 512KB, so programs such as Cubase and Logic won't run, however Pro24 (Up to and including version 2) and some of the smaller programs will run fine.

If you are wanting to use the machine for music, it may well be cheaper to look for an STe with additional memory, a 1040 ST or one of the Mega ST series (Would certainly be less hassle and will keep a genuinely rare machine nowadays, intact).

If you have a look over at www.atari-forums.com, there is a user over there (Simbo) who would be able to help if you have any difficulty carrying out upgraes if that is how you wish to proceed,

[tartaro]

Hello thanks for your help,
however, I found a guy expert in atari who is able to replace the floppy with a compatible PC , with some modification ,I will ask him if can increase the memory provided that it is economically acceptable .
I would also buy a ultrasatan drive but I don't understand if it works with my TOS version.It told me 1985 so should be 1?and I don't understand if ultrasatan replace floppy?Yes I would use it for music,
great midi timing compared to today pc.
Mario

[mal7921]

Would that be Simbo (Simeon Webber) from www.atari-forum.com? If so he serviced and upgraded my ST Book laptop. Really does know his stuff when it comes to Atari machines.