Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!wugate!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tekgen!tekigm2!wrd From: wrd@tekigm2.MEN.TEK.COM (Bill Dippert) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit Subject: Re: IBM (gack) compatibility Message-ID: <6640@tekigm2.MEN.TEK.COM> Date: 11 Oct 89 14:28:42 GMT References: <16990@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <3756@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> Reply-To: wrd@tekigm2.MEN.TEK.COM (Bill Dippert) Distribution: na Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Vancouver, WA. Lines: 18 With the "Option board" from Central Point Software, along with the CopyIIPC software package you can copy most Atari disks using your PC (IBM or most compatibles). I have done this on my PC as I have the option board. Essentially the Option board is in series with the disk controller board and it makes your PC disk drive run like an Atari disk drive. (An Atari disk drive can do things that normally a PC disk drive cannot.) There are some exceptions to the copying of Atari disks. Some copy protection schemes do not copy and it will not copy the flippy side of a disk. Why I do not know, since normally an PC uses double sided drives and CopyIIPC copies bit by bit, but it will not copy backwards (which is essentially what it thinks the back of a flippy is). Software that it will not copy include SynFile, SynXX, etc. Now, what I want, is some software to allow my Atari 1050 disk drive to read single sided IBM disks. I have a utility that someone sent me, but apparently it requires the use of either MYDOS or the US Doubler. CopyIIPC and Option Board are copyrights/patents/trademarks of Central Point Software; SynFile, etc. are .... from Synapse Software, PC ... etc.