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Welcome to ST2DOS
Version 1.0
April 16, 1993
Copyright (C) 1993 Arno Schaefer
ST2DOS will make Atari ST written Floppy Disks readable under DOS.
ST2DOS is free, but I retain Copyright. If you want to use parts of the source
code in your programs, please contact me.
You may freely redistribute ST2DOS under the condition that you include all of
the files listed below without changes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Extract from the GNU general public license:
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option)
any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; see the file COPYING. If not, write to
the Free Software Foundation, 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction:
-------------
Floppies formatted on an Atari ST with TOS version < 1.4 are not directly
readable under MSDOS. Many programs exist on the Atari ST side to remedy this,
but I did not yet see any on the MSDOS side.
There are two differences between TOS and DOS disks that cause DOS to not
read the disks:
1. The Media Descriptor Byte in the Bootsector (Offset 15h) and in the first
Byte of the two FATs of the Disk is not written correctly by TOS.
It should be F8h for 1-sided and F9h for 2-sided floppies.
2. The Jump instruction in the first three bytes of the Bootsector differs be-
tween TOS and DOS (naturally - different Processor).
For DOS it should be EB 3C 90.
While this is no problem for the ST (it can read DOS disks) it is one for
DOS.
ST2DOS writes the correct values to the disks and thus make the disks readable
under DOS (without touching the data on the disk, of course).
It will not change High Density disks (these have been introduced to the ST
after TOS 1.4).
To start ST2DOS, type ST2DOS at the DOS prompt, followed by <ENTER>.
If you have two disk drives, you will be asked which one to use.
The program runs in an endless loop. To exit the program, press <CTRL-C>.
Known problems:
---------------
1. The program has not been tested with many different formats. It may fail on
disks with more than 9 sectors (this also depends on the PC Bios) or on
single-sided disks.
(If you find that it works with any of these, please drop me a line and
include the name of your BIOS).
2. If you boot your PC with a floppy that was changed this way, the PC will
hang, since it will not find the correct boot program. You will have to re-
boot without the disk in the drive.
3. ST-bootable disks are not bootable any more after conversion.
Error messages:
---------------
'Invalid Bootsector' means that the number of sides in the bootsector is not
1 or 2.
'Error reading Bootsector/FAT 1/FAT 2' means ST2DOS could not read the indi-
cated sector. This may occur if there is no disk in the drive or if the
sector is defect.
'Error writing Bootsector/FAT 1/FAT 2' means that the sector could not be
written. This will usually occur if the disk is write protected.
The two latter are normally preceded by the appropriate DOS error message
(Abort/Retry/Fail...).
You should have received the following files in this archive:
ST2DOS.C - the source code of ST2DOS
ST2DOS.EXE - the executable of ST2DOS
COPYING - the GNU general public license
ST2DOS.DOC - this file
If you lack any of these files, try to get the original archive. If you can't
find it, contact me.
Report problems and direct all questions to:
Arno Schaefer
schaefer@silene.imag.fr