How To Backup Your old Hard Drive

How to backup your old Atari Hard Drive

So you have an old Atari MegaFile or an internal hard drive on your Mega STE and you would like to backup its data or transfer all the content into a more modern support or PC.
Below are few methods I used to do so.

Of course, you can use the same methods to transfer files from your PC (and the internet) back to your Atari and its MegaFile or other mass storage.

Warning: I am not responsible for any data or hardware loss when you follow these steps. Our machines and hardware are old and fragile. Things can go wrong at any time and you must accept it.

This page is under construction. More details will be added.

Your options:

1 - Transfer to a Windows PC using a null modem cable and GhostLink

2 - Transfer to another Atari with a modern HD such as a ACSI2STM card using MIDI cables or null modem cable

3 - Use a ACSI2STM drive emulator to work along side your old hard drive.

Options 1 and 2 are the safest way. You not not mess with your old hard drive. But they are very slow and require cables you may not have. Transfer rate will be between 9600 and 31000 baud. This is super slow !

Option 3 is fast, but it require to get your old hard drive to run along side a modern hard drive. That solution require an ACSI2STM card and a microSD card formatted in FAT32. It is using GemDrive mode and may not work on all TOS version.

Option 1: Transfer to PC using GhostLink

GhostLink has been around for a long time. This solution allows you to connect your Atari to a PC computer and turn the PC into a slave drive. You can then copy files between your Atari and your PC.

For that you will need:

- A RS232 Serial cable with RX and TX signal crossed (null modem). If your PC is too modern and does not have a Serial port, you will need a USB to RS232 convertor. Atari ST are using DB25 socket while MegaSTE uses DB9. Check what you have available.

- A PC with DOS. If your PC is too modern, you can use DOS BOX to run DOS

- GhostLink programs. There is one program for the PC and one program for your Atari.

Here here is a YouTube video (third party) showing how it is done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_l7VXHF9m0

Option 2: Transfer to another Atari using DUET

DUET has been around for a long time. This solution allows you to connect your Atari to another Atari and share there drives. It will work with any Atari ST, STF, STE, Mega ST, Mega STE, etc...

The connection can be done using RS232 serial cables (crossed RX/TX) or MIDI cables. The MIDI cables option is easier to setup.

One Atari will have your old hard drive to backup

The second Atari will have an ACSI2STM card

You can then copy files between your Atari and therefore copy from your old disk to a microSD.

For that you will need:

- A pair of MIDI cables

- A second Atari ST computer

- A ACSI2STM card or any modern hard drive solution

Here is a YouTube video (third party) showing how to use DUET: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv6S4vkxTKo

Option 3: Transfer to micoSD card using ACSI2STM

This option is using an ACSI2STM card along side your old hard drive.
The idea is to use the ACSI2STM card in GemDrive mode along side your old hard drive.

Transfer rate are much much faster. You copy files from one hard drive to another using DMA transfer.

For that you will need:

- Any Atari ST/STE derivative with an internal or external ACSI hard drive.

- An ACSI2STM card (the NANO version fit better on a MegaSTE and MegaFile) with 1 microSD card formatted FAT32

- The program "GEMDRIVE.PRG" on a floppy drive. Download it here: GEMDRIVE.PRG

### What you want to achieve

* Boot on the internal hard drive, keep it on C:
* Copy files between the internal drive and SD cards
* Run programs from any drive

### How you should set things up

* Make sure your internal or external hard drive is on ACSI id 0 (this is the default)
* Make sure your computer runs normally without an ACSI2STM plugged in
* Copy `GEMDRIVE.PRG` to your `AUTO` folder on the hard drive drive
* Set the ID_SHIFT jumper of the ACSI2STM to position 1-3. You can put a solder blob on the small pads if you prefer
* Plug the ACSI2STM unit either directly or through a DB19-IDC20 cable, depending on your hardware
* Boot the computer, GemDrive should load from the `AUTO` folder and expose SD cards as new disk drives.

* Select any drive and go to Options >> Install Disk Drive (wording may depend of the TOS) and enter the next letter (D, E, etc...)

* you will then be able to transfer files between the hard drive and the ACSI2STM

* the microSD is readable on PC

I personally tested this solution on the following setup: