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Conference 7.286::atarist

Title:	Atari ST, TT, & Falcon
Notice:	Please read note 1.0 and its replies before posting!
Moderator:	FUNYET::ANDERSON

Created:	Mon Apr 04 1988
Last Modified:	Tue May 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1433
Total number of notes:	10312

1429.0. "Moving files from Atari to Macintosh" by PRNSYS::LOMICKAJ (Jeffrey A. Lomicka) Mon Jul 31 1995 14:53

I'm in the process of finally moving all my files from the Atari ST to
the Macintosh, and I'm wondering if anyone else has been down this path.
I have about 100MB to move.  My attempts so far only prove that I am
persistant, but they have not yet been successful.

(I was inspired to do this because the last time I tried to power up
the Atari, it didn't work.  I found a bad decoupling capacitor was
shorting the +12 power supply, and fixed it, but I want to get the
files out before it dies again.) 

My first try was to attach an iOmega ZIP drive to the Atari, init it
there, and copy files to it, but although the Mac can read DOS disks,
it can't read Atari partitioning information.  Thus, this method does
not work.

My second try was to init the ZIP disk as a DOS disk on the Macintosh,
and then try to mount it on the Atari.  The Atari (using ICD version 5)
didn't see the DOS media.  Thus, this method does not work.

My third try was to use Transverter, from Spectre GCR, to attempt to
write Macintosh formatted ZIP media.  Transverter can write Mac hard
drives format, but only to Mac "Spectre" partitions within the domain
of the GEM hard drive partitioning.  It doesn't appear to recognize the
format of a native Macintosh format hard drive. Thus, this method does
not work.

(Although, it gives me an idea, which I haven't tried, that if I attach
a THIRD hard drive partitioned on the Atari with Mac "Spectre"
partitions, I may be able to stage the data through the Actual GCR,
which I think CAN mount native Mac ZIP media.)

My fourth try was to forget about disks, and bring of KA9Q's SLIP and
build a 2-node internet, using the SLIP capability of Net Rider on the
Macintosh. I was able to bring up a 19200 baud connection, which allows
FETCH on the Mac to see the boot partition of the Atari, so I can now
copy one file at a time, but bugs in KA9Q mean that I can't seem to copy
entire directories, nor access any other drive.

I have five more options that I haven't tried:

- The aforementioned Spectre GCR method.
- Running the FTP server on the Mac and pushing the files from KA9Q
- Determine if any Mac software can unpack any Atari compression
formats, and stage the file system copy in compressed archives copied
over with FTP.
- Copying the Atari backup floppies, which I think the Mac can read as
DOS disks.
- Using terminal emulation software and Kermit or ZMODEM.

Questions I'd like a definitive answer for:

- Can Spectre GCR read native Mac hard drives?  If so, this has appeal,
because it involves neither floppies nor 19200 baud serial lines.

- Can Stuffit Deluxe unpack Atari ARC format?

- Can the Mac read "twisted" Atari floppies?

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
1429.1	a different network solution	ASD::POWERS	Bill Powers ZKO3-2/Y05	`Tue Aug 01 1995 13:47`	17
	RE: <<< Note 1429.0 by PRNSYS::LOMICKAJ "Jeffrey A. Lomicka" >>> -< Moving files from Atari to Macintosh >- Jeff, Although I no longer keep track of what's going on with the Atari these days. I do ocassionally pop in here, and in the atari newsgroup. There does seem to be some new networking code out there that isn't KA9Q. For I have seen some references to it. It runs with mint (I think it's called mintnet) They also have a X11 server running on top of it as well. You might want to look into it. It might be less buggy than KA9Q. Bill Powers
1429.2		PRNSYS::LOMICKAJ	Jeffrey A. Lomicka	`Tue Aug 01 1995 14:56`	11
	I don't think I want to bring up Mint just so that I can mothball the ST - but if you stumble across a kit, I'd look into it. I've made some more progress. (Well, regress.) I tried the approach of staging the data in a Mac partition of an Atari hard drive, and yes, the GCR's transverter program can now FIND the Mac partition, but Transverter can only write to MFS paritions, and I can't make a big enough MFS partition to do it. I haven't exhausted all my tricks yet. I still think the KA9Q/arc.tos solution will, in the end, be the one that works.
1429.3		ASD::POWERS	Bill Powers ZKO3-2/Y05	`Wed Aug 02 1995 00:54`	14
	<<< Note 1429.2 by PRNSYS::LOMICKAJ "Jeffrey A. Lomicka" >>> I don't think I want to bring up Mint just so that I can mothball the ST - but if you stumble across a kit, I'd look into it. I don't know about any kits. I don't follow the ST enough anymore to know about such a beast. In .0 you also mention kermit/xmodem. I don't think they can do directory trees. If you have enough space on your hard disk, you could tar the directory tree into one file and transfer that. There must be a publicdomain untar on the mac to reconstruct the tree. bp
1429.4		PRNSYS::LOMICKAJ	Jeffrey A. Lomicka	`Wed Aug 02 1995 12:26`	3
	TAR! Yes, I can unpack that. I think I can unpack ARC on the ST, but if I can't, I can fall back to TAR. Thanks for the hint.
1429.5		PRNSYS::LOMICKAJ	Jeffrey A. Lomicka	`Mon Aug 07 1995 15:22`	4
	Okay, I used "ctar" to make four approx 20MB tar archives and ftp'd three of them over to the Macintosh, but so far I've not been able to unpack them. I've tried Stuffit and "tar 3.0". I'm going to try OSF/1 next.
1429.6	STZIP seems to do the trick.	PRNSYS::LOMICKAJ	Jeffrey A. Lomicka	`Mon Aug 14 1995 14:14`	12
	"ctar.ttp" was a dead end. The program doesn't generate .tar files. It claims to, but no other tar implementation can read them. I found "stzip.prg" out on the web somewhere (I forgot where), and tried that. This one appears to actually work, as well as cut down on the time it takes to FTP file file across. The only problem so far is that Stuffit Deluxe on the Mac doesn't know how to restore the folder structure. It unpacks flat, with the full path name (including the \'s) in the file names. I don't know if this is stzip's problem, or Stuffit's. I'm going to try to look at it on a PC today and see if it can be unpacked there.
1429.7		PRNSYS::LOMICKAJ	Jeffrey A. Lomicka	`Wed Aug 16 1995 20:46`	1
	It's stuffit's problem.
1429.8	AhHA!	PRNSYS::LOMICKAJ	Jeffrey A. Lomicka	`Wed Aug 23 1995 14:54`	8
	I finally found that ZipIt, on the Macntosh, can unzip this stuff with ease IF YOU GIVE IT MORE MEMORY. Problem solved. BTW, I've given notice and will be leaving Digital. My last day in the office is August 31. If you want any Atari software off of PRNSYS, you might want to get it now.
1429.9	Good luck...	GANTRY::ALLBERY	Jim	`Wed Aug 23 1995 16:00`	6
	Jeff, Sorry to hear you're leaving, but good luck in your new endeavor (what ever it may be)... Jim Allbery (a Whack fan)
1429.10	MagiCMac provides the best solution	EDDF10::ECKEL	No sports.	`Mon Oct 16 1995 11:16`	24
	Hello, it's too late for Jeff (don't like to see him gone), but maybe someone else has the same problem when moving from the ST to the only remaining real machine :-)) There are some more ways to transfer data from the ST to the Mac. The most comfortable one ist to use MagiCMac, a port of the ST operating system MagiC to the Mac platform. With MagiCMac, you can run nearly every piece of software that ran under MagiC on the ST - and you can read ST-formatted SCSI hard disks, simply by plugging them to the Macs SCSI-Port. There is a MagiCMac Demo available at various sites, esp. on Demo CDs. If this is not viable to you, you always can extract ST archives with the Stuffit Expander with Expander Enhancer. Quite a common piece of software, it can be found on nearly every PD-CDROM. The Mac can't read ST-Disks formattet with more than 9 sectors or more than 80 tracks. MagiCMac doesn't change anything about that. Regards, Peter.