Atari-Forum

Hey, I'm wondering if there are any tools out there (for TOS or otherwise) that can analyse and hopefully fix corrupt data on a floppy disk.

The disk in question is Disk2 of Gods, the game only plays as far as the end of the first world and then crashes due to the corruption. Plus the shopkeeper graphics are all messed up. Besides that it plays fine.

Any help on this would be great, cheers.

Hello!

My suggestion would be you download an image of that disk again instead of trying to fix the disk you have there.

There are programs that try to fix bad data on floppy disks, but they can never do that 100% accurate. So most likely the graphics will still look weird etc...

Hope that helps you a bit.
Cheers.

Next obvious question, where can I get an image? Not sure what the rules allow here in terms of disk-copying, but if anyone has an image (or link to) I'd very much appreciate it

Did a number of Google searches for it, but didn't turn anything up.

(yer, I know, me n00b)

Edit:
And for the sake of trying to get the old original working again, what/where are these 'fix programs' that you mention? Cheers.

This has taken a turn which means it doesn't really belong in this forum anymore, but splitting the topic into another forum is silly too.

Basically, if this moves, I'll understand

Someone kindly sent me the MSA for disk2 of Gods, but I'm having problems with it.

First I'm using MSA Converter on the PC to turn the .msa file you sent into a .st file I can write to a floppy. The .st file is 800K (exactly), I'm assuming that's just the raw data as it should appear on the floppy disk.

So, firstly a 720K disk isn't going to be big enough (assumed). Secondly WinXP (in all it's glory) doesn't want to format in anything other than 720/1.44, WinImage wont let me format at anything else either, it spouts something about my floppy drive not being able to do it. Hmm, not tried the prompt command yet...

Guessing that none of my 720K disks are going to cut it, I've turned to HD disks (aye, prone to failure apparently, but I'm running out of choice). My Atari formats the HD disk no problem, it appears very happy with it. Upon putting it back into my PC to copy over the .st (using any of Makedisk, STDisk, and WFDCopy) they tell me it needs formatting!!

At this point I get the feeling I'm going to end up writing my own tool...

So far I've been doing all this from within XP (yes, groan, go on) so I dig out my old trusty boot disk from way-back-when, move the stuff I need directly onto C:\ so that non-8.3 folders and files wont be a problem and dive into DOS.

Trying to get to C:\ I get Drive not found Huh? What? Oh... $%!! It's NTFS...

Luckily for me in days gone by I dug out the most compatible CD-ROM driver I could find and stuck it on this particular boot disk. Even though that was way back when I had a 4x drive, the driver still works with my DVD-RW. Neat.

So it's back into Windows to copy Makedisk, STDisk, and my .st image onto a CD so that I can reboot back into DOS and access them from the CD drive.

The first line I try is:

stdisk a gods_b.st

With a HD disk in, because I'm still thinking my 720K's wont work. This goes through both the format and the writing of data flawlessly. Whack it in the Atari... and it doesn't want to know.

With a 720K disk in, it get's through the format (albeit noisily) and then starts throwing up an error that... for the life of me I can't remember. Bugger. Something like "Sector start not found" I'll check that again later. But it didn't work, and I Ctrl-C exited it, because it was getting very noisy at that point (5am here, people trying to sleep!).

Moving on to Makedisk, That didn't work even with the HD disk, didn't like any format and ended up giving the same error (or similar) to that of STDisk.

I've written out all this with the hope I'll see the mistake I'm making myself (happens quite a lot with me) but alas, I'm not. Also, I linked to all the tools I've used in case someone searches & finds this post, this'll save them Googling around the net like I did.

Finally, I may have missed it, but where is the sticky topic that would actually explain how to do this? (Image file on PC to ST machine) It would appear that it must be a common n00b problem. Either that or I'm just way stupid.

After browsing some more, this topic should definately move into Other Emulators & Tools (sorry). I've just noticed there's another topic there concerning getting Gods onto disk to which no one has replied.

Edit:
Grr, HTML code is not on. It lies!

Have you tried formatting a 720K floppy to the correct format first (e.g. 82 track, 10 sector would be "FORMAT A: /T:82 /N:10") then writing the image to it or if you have a real ST format the disks to the right format on that. It may just be that your floppy drive isn't up to much when it comes to "non standard" disk formats (e.g. some physically can't go past track 80) so it may be worth trying a different drive.

Just tried formatting to 820K, and my floppy drive doesn't support it. Tried a second one, and that doesn't support it either.

I guess I'm screwed.

Unless (from all my reading) I split the MSA up into two parts, put each on a 720K disk, transfer them over to the Atari, and put them back together on there using Magic Shadow Archiver.

Which brings up the question, how do I get Magic Shadow Archiver onto my Atari? It had better not be bigger than 720K

Edit: 26K, I think it'll fit...

You can’t format an 800k disk (or any other “custom” format) under most Windows versions. Not without a special driver. But this doesn’t mean your drive can’t. Some people reported that “apparently” they found that limitation on the drive, but I don’t think anybody actually confirmed this for sure.

- Try formatting the disk under pure DOS (but you don't need this if using Makedisk).
- Do NOT use high density disks, use DD ones.
- You don’t need 82 tracks for an ST 800k image. An ST image of 800k size means the disk is 80 tracks, 10 sectors per track.
- Use Makedisk under pure DOS. It will format the disk when creating the image.
- You can't write an 800k image over a disk formatted as 720k. So the imaging program must reformat it (Makedisk does, don’t know about Stdisk).

Format from Pure-DOS : Reports that my drive is not capable of doing so with either:

format a: /T:82 /N:10

or

format a: /T:80 /N:10

And, to check it:

format a: /T:80 /N:9

Works. I get the same results from Windows Command Prompt, though it doesn't even tell me my drive is incompatiable with that format type, it states: "Parameters not compatible" with anything that's not 720K.

From my Atari, using DCFormat I can format DD disks to any of the above parameters fine. Moving that newly formatted disk back to the PC, none of the copy-programs will copy onto it. Failing on the latter sectors.

I'm using an Atari STe, with only one floppy drive, so it looks like using MSA on my Atari (with the split two-disks method) is also out, as after trying it, it tells me I need two drives.

Edit:
Oh, and for future reference, STDisk can format the disk before copying.

Edit2:
Another version of MSA has been suggested to me, I'll post the results once I have them .

Wex Viator wrote:Format from Pure-DOS : Reports that my drive is not capable of doing so with either:

format a: /T:82 /N:10 or format a: /T:80 /N:10

No, it doesn't report anything about your drive. It just means that the standard DOS (or Windows) format program doesn't accept custom parameters.

You have to use a third party format program. And you must use it under plain DOS. Because even a custom formatter won't work under XP (or any other WinNT derivative).

But again, you don't have to format the disk in a separate step. Just let Makedisk (or similar) do this task.

Your disk might be not capable to format more than 80 tracks. But any drive can format 10 sectors per track.

Oh, and for future reference, STDisk can format the disk before copying.

Ok, then use STDisk if you prefer. But make it format the disk, and run it under plain DOS. And using a DD (not HD) disk.

A few additional notes:

There is at least one, I think two, custom format programs that work under XP. They have a special kernel drive. They are shareware, not freeware. I didn’t try them myself neither remember the name or URL, sorry. They are not ST specific.

You can use HD disks if you insist, but you have to cover the second hole (not the write-protect one). This is not very reliable though, and not recommended.

You can use Makedisk (or any other DOS tool that access custom formats) in a DOS box under the non-protected Windows Oses (95/98/Me). But you usually get better results under plain pure DOS.

This is not your case, but it gets much more complicated if using those newer USB drives.

Recently somebody posted that his drive just can’t format (or access at all, don’t remember) DD disks. Only HD disks with HD formats worked. I can’t say if this does indeed confirm there are HD-drives only or not. But this is not your case either, as you mentioned you had no problems formatting a 720k disk.

You can format a 720 disk under XP using /T:80 /N:9. The simpler way that worked on previous Windows or DOS (/F:720), doesn’t work under XP. But don’t count on this working forever. Microsoft “claims” that XP doesn’t support formatting 720k disks (only reading and writing) by design. So the above method might not work anymore on future service packs.

Tried Makedisk again, back in pure DOS, with a DD disk. Went through all manner of different settings, and each time it would give the error: "Address mark not found". Tried with a few different DD disks, they're all treated the same.

So, because you mentioned it, I tried a HD disk with the notch blanked out with just the /WRITE and /AUTO options in Makedisk it at least started doing something, but then it reported: "Unknown error (10)". I hit retry, and it advances a little to give another error: "Sector not found". Retry again, and these two errors keep popping up every now and again but the writing and formatting continues. Well, it gets to the end with me thinking, there's no way this'll work.

But it has. Well, it has so far.

The great thing about Gods disk 2 is that it comes with its own little copy utility that runs on the Atari so you don't bugger up the original. I'm about to run that on an Atari-formatted 820K disk...

...and it's copied with no problems.

Now I just need to perform that awful task of playing the game. Oh dear. Cheers Guys.

So, the moral of the story is... don't listen to people who say HD disks wont work Oh, and ignore Makedisk errors.

Heh heh.

Into the wonderful...

These kinds of problems have been reported elsewhere on this forum .. the general gist of the fix is one of the following:

a) buy a cheap and cheerful 2nd PC and put Windows 98 on it (like I've done ..£40 for a AMD 700 and use it for disk imaging and/or sending files to/from my Mega STE)

b) Create a very small partition on your drive, format it as FAT16 and install DOS on it.

c) Get a USB pen drive, format this to FAT16 and install DOS on that .. set your BIOS to boot from USB as your very first option and it should boot off your pen drive.

Copy your disk image to the Pen-drive before a reboot and ensure the drive copying tools are on there and have a go?

Hmm, bootable USB stick, that's an interesting idea. Might try that out sometime.

Well, for me, I'm happy. Gods is now working in all it's glory on my Atari. I am muchos happy, you guys rule.