atari floppy to pc

hi all. anybody have experience of getting very old Cubase Atari songs off floppy onto pc? I know I can convert old songs into new Cubase 7 using Cubase sx3 as a bridge, but it’s getting the pc to read Atari floppies that is the issue. have done a bit of reading on it but looks complex. any relatively simple solutions or recommendations for software to do it? thanks, Ed p.s. told client he could buy a used Atari and record the multittrack midi into Cubase in realtime but we’d rather avoid that

Even if you had a reader, you’ll be awfully lucky if those floppies are still readable at all!

thanks. from what I can see they have been kept in good condition…

You can try these:

http://www.emulators.com/download.htm

https://strecover.codeplex.com/

It was possible to format 720k floppies on a PC and use them on the ST, if that was the case then if you have a DOS PC or any version of Windows prior to Windows Vista you can just read the files directly.

If the floppies you have were originally formatted on the ST, then you’re going to have to do what Jarno suggests above. N.B. it must be an original internal floppy (with the flat cable), a USB drive will not work, nor will most laptop drives (which are internally USB).

thanks lads. will pass this onto client. he managed to find a cd copy of some of the files and I converted those ones successfully by adding the file extension .all and .arr to the files then importing to sx3. ed

Just one last note … Microsoft removed support for 720k floppies in recent editions of Windows, but if you have access to an XP installation (even a laptop) it may be able to read the floppies directly. Oh, and, 3 1/2" floppies don’t seem to have deteriorated much with age … I have some from the 80’s that I can still read with no errors (I just checked a few!)

Try this link:

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

Here is how I do it, I take a regular blank Verbatim DataLife MF 2HD floppy (other brands tend not to work) and I cover the HD hole on the underside so it is read as being a Double Density disk rather than High Density disk, I then format it on my Windows machine using the command prompt FORMAT A:/T:80/N:9 the disk can now be read by both the Windows machine and the Atari ST thus allowing me to transfer files from one machine to the other.

Yes, this sometimes works but it’s risky … on the other hand, it’s almost impossible to find DD blanks disks, but you may find you have a few in the attic that came on magazine covers back in the day! In that case, you have to tape over the write-protect hole instead in order to be able to format them.

I think the OP’s problem though was that the original disks were in Atari 720k format which cannot be read by DOS/Windows.

Yeah, I agree the OP has a different issue without having access to an actual Atari, just thought I would share for those who care.

The Virbatim DD disks are 310 magnetic particles per inch with a coresivity of 620 oersteds…whereas the Virbatim HD disks are 670 magnetic particles per inch with a coresivity of 720 oersteds…so yeah they are not exactly the same, but it’s not really a big deal if you back up your disks on a regular basis.