Can Amiga read/write to Atari ST floppy disks?

[AmigaHope]

Originally Posted by Armitage

Update: Using the info/list option to XadUnDisk, I discovered the image I was trying to write uses 10 blocks/track instead of the default 9 so I adjusted my DosDriver accordingly and formatted the disk (on the Amiga). Still isn't working, but have a few more things to try.


It's a 1040STf, single drive w/1MB. I don't have any of the original system software or any way to transfer it yet. Does the GEM desktop in ROM know how to handle the MSA files or is that additional software?

You need the MSA software. See this video I mentioned in my edit earlier:

[ Show youtube player ]

Ignore the bits about the null modem and copy stuff from the Amiga with regular FAT disks to the RAM disk you create on the ST. Use regular default pc0 config 9 sectors 0 to 79 cylinders 2 surfaces to transfer files to your ST (It's a 1040STf so it should have a double-sided drive).

[AmigaHope]

Basically what I'm saying is that TOS/GEM should be able to handle the bog-standard 720k disks your Amiga knows how to write, and you can use that to get the the MSA application over as well as your single-sided MSA disk image. The disk image is small enough that you can easily make a RAM disk on the ST with enough room to hold the disk image while still leaving enough RAM for MSA to run. Once MSA is running you can eject the floppy you used to move the data, then insert a new floppy into the ST and use the MSA software to write out the image that your stored in the RAM disk to the new floppy.

[Armitage]

Cool, that worked! I was able to write the disk image from ST ramdisk using the software in your linked video. It's a bit involved as the disk contents need to be copied 4 separate times (pc->amiga, amiga->disk, disk->st ram, st ram->disk). Would be nice to get the Amiga to write the disk correctly, but this is certainly a workable interim solution. Perhaps an ultrasatan or external gotek is in my future? I'm not convinced there's a lot of ST software I want to use yet, but this has been a fun experiment. Thanks for your help!

[AmigaHope]

Originally Posted by Armitage

Cool, that worked! I was able to write the disk image from ST ramdisk using the software in your linked video. It's a bit involved as the disk contents need to be copied 4 separate times (pc->amiga, amiga->disk, disk->st ram, st ram->disk). Would be nice to get the Amiga to write the disk correctly, but this is certainly a workable interim solution. Perhaps an ultrasatan or external gotek is in my future? I'm not convinced there's a lot of ST software I want to use yet, but this has been a fun experiment. Thanks for your help!

The Amiga's floppy drive *should* be able to write the disk format of that MSA (after all, the better Amiga copy programs can copy weird Atari ST disk formats) but there's something in the software setup that just wasn't supporting it. You could probably make it work with further experimentation and some more tools, but i figured you just wanted your damn disk to get written. =)