Going Gotek - FlashFloppy How To

[rubber_jonnie]

If you've got to the stage of flashing your Gotek with FlashFloppy using one of the above methods, but don't know what to do next, this is a quick "get you going" guide.

I make the assumption here, that you know your way around a Windows PC or Mac, and that you know how to unzip files.

First off, grab a USB stick, and format it to FAT32. The largest size I've used so far is 32GB, which works just fine. Be aware that exFat, the new preferred USB/SD format for Windows doesn't work.

Next, grab the Autoboot.HFE software from here: http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emu ... anager.zip

It's also attached further up in this thread, but you should download from the link for the latest version.

Unzip, the contents of the file, and locate the Atari_ST folder in the location you just unzipped to. It'll look something like this:

Unzipped.jpg (31.53 KiB) Viewed 19546 times

Copy the contents of the Atari_ST folder to your USB stick, and then copy whatever disk image (.ST) files you want over to the USB stick too.

For example, this is what mine looked like:

USB_Stick.JPG (79.53 KiB) Viewed 19546 times

Next, put the USB stick into your Gotek and power up your ST. At this stage, it should default to slot 000 on the Gotek, but if it doesn't, simply use the Gotek selection buttons to ensure that you've actually selected the correct slot. If you have an OLED display, it'll say 000/000 and autoboot.hfe on the display. If you weren't quick enough selecting the slot, and your ST arrived at the desktop, just hit reset. You should get a progress bar showing autoboot.hfe is loading, then you'll see a screen something like this:

Just_Booted.jpg (5.65 MiB) Viewed 19546 times

Using the arrow/cursor keys, select the disk image, or folder you want to drill down into. Here I'm selecting a folder containing "Midwinter":

Selection.jpg (6.22 MiB) Viewed 19546 times

Press "Enter" to select the image. Here I've selected the "Midwinter" folder, so pressing "Enter" takes me into the folder, where I see the disk image I want, namely the "Midwinter" .ST image. Pressing "Enter" now takes me to the disk slot selection screen:

Selection2.jpg (5.71 MiB) Viewed 19546 times

Here you'll see the slot list, with any disk images already assigned. Slots 1-6 are already in use, so I chose slot 7, once again using the arrow/cursor keys. If you choose a slot aready in use, the slot will be filled with your current selected image. There are something like 999 slots for use, so you can have many images assigned at once. If you are going to fill all of the slots up, then I'd highly recommend installing an OLED display or you'll quickly lose track of what is where!

Slot_1.jpg (4.69 MiB) Viewed 19546 times

I've gone back to the slot list here, to show the "Midwinter" disk image loaded into slot 7. Note that where you see a single dot,".", selecting it will take you back one directory level. Where you see 2 dots, ".." it will take you back up to the root. There is built in help if you get stuck, and pressing "esc" usually gets you back to the top level.

Slot_2.jpg (5.82 MiB) Viewed 19546 times

Press F10 now, and it will save the configuration and boot. It will automatically switch to slot 001 on reboot, so if your disk image is not in slot 001, you'll need to select it using the Gotek slot selection buttons.

If it's on a high slot number, you'll probaly not have time to select it before your ST boots. Just wait until it's booted, select your slot and hit reset, then you'll boot from the correct image.

Lastly, you can see here on my OLED display with the "Midwinter" image at slot 007, exactly where we put it. Sorry the "M" is missing from "Midwinter", but the OLED display scrolls to show filenames, and it scrolled as I took the shot, and then I couldn't catch it!!

You can also see the track number and side on the display.

Ready_to_go.jpg (4.27 MiB) Viewed 19546 times

This should be enough to get you all started, and I encourage you to mess around with the software and get used to it.

One great feature of FlashFloppy is the ability to write to disk images, so if you want to save your desktop configration to a floppy disk, then you can do so.

Also, some emulators, Hatari being a great example, allow you to create blank floppy disk images. You can use this to your advantage and create blank disk images, then drop any files you want onto the image using Hatari, and then copy it to your USB stick for use on your real Atari.

In this way, you can create disks for specific boot configurations, or simply copy over software that doesn't need a specific image, as it's just files.

A blank image is attached for you all to tinker with.

Hope this lot has been helpful for you all, and good luck with your Goteks!

[BlankVector]

Again, really superb tutorial

[rubber_jonnie]

Again, really superb tutorial

You're most welcome

[vattari]

I think Jonathan’s step by step instructions are more useful for anyone wanting to try this themselves, but I can add a video here that I made that demonstrates the rotary encoder and piezo buzzer as well.

[rubber_jonnie]

I think Jonathan’s step by step instructions are more useful for anyone wanting to try this themselves, but I can add a video here that I made that demonstrates the rotary encoder and piezo buzzer as well.

Good stuff, what I was aiming for when starting this thread, was to get people to add so that we get a great big pot of good Gotek info all in one place

Good to see this starting to happen.

[vattari]

Here's a link to the video:



To be honest, I didn't cover pin assignments to any useful level but only because it's a case of "joining the dots".

[BlankVector]

Great tutorial
I have advertised it on Vretrocomputing.

[rubber_jonnie]

Great tutorial
I have advertised it on Vretrocomputing.

Cool, please spread the word wherever you can

[rubber_jonnie]

Folks, for all of you out there who are now FlashFloppy converts, there is a new version here:

https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/wiki/Downloads

If you already have FlashFloppy installed, I'd suggest you follow the upgrade guide here:

https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/wi ... are-Update

As there is no need to re-program the device as in the previous articles once it's already installed on your Gotek.

[PhilC]

Cool Howto, thanks

now to get the atari fixed any working.