I was having little success with my expensive archiving tools ...mainly because of not understanding Atari disk formats I suspect..
Then I discovered the delights of an old shool software tool Omniflop..which basically understands the Atari 800 format which I believe is correct for these floppies.
Of course ..it wont be able to account for copy protected disks which I understand to use 9 10 or even eleven sectors.
That said it is able to clone/image the non protected disks to .ST which Hatari does recognise.
Why is Atari such a minefield when it comes to disk formats ?
I guess it is because of the wide variety of floppy disks/drives that were used with various computers over the years.
Suffice to say this _will_ be a challenge.
rgds
VS

Have you looked at ImageDisk - It was designed to archive/restore any type of diskette that could be read/written by the PCs Nec765 floppy disk controller.

ImageDisk itself does not know (or care) about the operating/file system on the disks - it archives track/sector as exist at the lowest level of the media.

Most floppy controllers use a standard low format for soft-sector disks. ImageDisk does not work on hard-sector disks, or disks using a non-standard low-level soft-sector format (like Apple][ did)

Some emulagtors can understand the .IMD format directly, however I do provide a utility (IMDU) to manipulate various things about an ImageDisk image, one of which is to convert it to a raw binary file containing only sector data - most emulators can work with such a file - but you sometimes run into problems with few OSs that tried to do "higher level" sector interleave and you have to translate sector numbers in the conversion.

The common Atari 800 formats (single sided 5.25" with 90KB, 130KB, or 180KB) were completely different than Atari ST floppies.

Maybe there are some hints here https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/ques … modern-hardware

Cheers for the info guys...
I'll take a look at the link...and I'll grab a copy of IMDU assuming it is available on you website ?
rgds

Hi, I know of a few programs. But they're for sector-based images.

Floppy Image
https://atari.8bitchip.info/floimgd.php

Gemulator Explorer
http://www.emulators.com/explorer.htm

Then there's Disk2FDI (DOS)
http://www.oldskool.org/disk2fdi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOp-_Tmo4TE

PS: There's also "OmniFlop", an universal floppy drive driver for Windows NT/2k/XP.
http://www.shlock.co.uk/Utils/OmniFlop/OmniFlop.htm

So what did you do with _your_ Christmas downtime..
I spent most of it archiving most of my CD DVD disks contents...
Some have held up surprisingly well.
As expected a lot of the dye based discs have crc errors and given up after 20+ years...and a handful of 'pressed' discs are fubarred.
In between feeding the disc drive...I carried on with the atari floppies.
Sad to say very few were recoverable...
Speaking to my friend as to where they were stored..
it transpires they have been in various boxes at at least 3 houses since he was a lad.
damp less than disirable environments.
mold squeaking and bit rot....requiring constant cleaning of the floppy drive heads...
..nonetheless I persevered and estimate about 20 were fully recovered but the bulk are beyond salvage.
Let this be a warning to anyone with old floppies.
Storage location and conditions are super important.
regards
VS

...bonus info and win for me.
I found cd 2 of my boxed copy of Gabriel Knight Under a killing moon.
Discs 1 3 and 4 were in a plastic wallet in the box....but disc 2 has been missing for years.
It turned up inside the jewel case beneath a pirated copy of Serious Sam ...
🤣

Vipersan wrote on 2025-12-23, 16:45:

...and I'll grab a copy of IMDU assuming it is available on you website ?

Best place to get ImageDisk and it's tools is my "Daves Old Computers" site.
Look under "Software/Images" near bottom of main page.

Sorry for delayes response .. been traveling and visiting family.

Cheers Dave ...hope you had a great Xmas.
Family IS important !

Vipersan wrote on 2025-12-29, 14:27:

Cheers Dave ...hope you had a great Xmas.
Family IS important !

Thanks, and yes.. fanily is the MOST important thing!

I couldn't agree more Dave..
Lost my dad about 5 years ago ..massive stroke and very recently my mum to dementia...
I'm very much an orphan now at 68.
I only have my brother and sister now...and it brings home the reality of ageing and just how important family becomes ...moreso with age.
😀

Yup... at 65 I've lost my Mum and Dad, my brother and 1 of my two sisters...

And came damn close to losing me! (for more: MyPersonalSite > MyName -> 2019(near bottom of "about me" page)

Now I spend as much time as I can with wife, kids and remaining sister. - I think many people (like I was) don't realize how important family is - untill it's "too late".

- sorry, don't mean to drag this so far off-topic