its not quite true what dubmood says. its true after tos1.4 STs could format DOS compatible disks, but they could always read and write to them

lol nevermind, i figuired it out

mine is newer than 1.04 i think, it has the rainbow atari logo,

but then, an STe most probably have a tos newer than 1.04, usually 2.* so just format the disks on the atari and your windows will read them.

ok amazing i'll try this out later

an-cat-max: Same question asked on 8bc, and it seem to work.

Use the command

format a: /t:80 /n:9

to format the floppy properly.

anyone know if i could use a USB floppy drive to make disks for my STe?

apparently I can't read, sorry dubmood haha

how can you tell what version of Tos you have?

You also need Tos 1.4 or later. Since thats when TOS got DOScompatibility. But afaik most ataris sold after like 89 got that retail. Youll know that its 1.4 if there the atarilogo in the aboutscreen is a "rainbow" hence "Rainbow TOS" and/or there is stated (c) 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 instead of just 85. This means that instead of formatting disks in XP or DOS you can format them directly on the atari and your PC will be able to read them.
Retris: buy them of ebay for 2bucks.

I've got a USB one i use, not sure if it'll work or not though?

I just need some nice fellow to make me a cable for my b/w monitor

Edit: post now pointless.

Haha, sure we can do that. So you don't yet have an ST? Also there are SOME restrictions, you can't just write to any old floppy willy-nilly. Depending on your ST model and stuff, you may or may not be able to use single- or double-sided disks, and other stuff. The link I found that helped me sort it all out is here: http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.ph … mp;t=9481.

In it, there's a good tip on formatting disks to make sure they're readable by your Atari: "In Win XP type this in command prompt: format a: /t:80 /n:9 It will produce 720KB floppy, usable on all Ataris."

There's also information in there about utilities that would (I assume you don't need this, but others may be interested) let you rip your old Atari ST discs to image files (like an .iso of a CD/DVD nowadays), or to use ST image files to make ST discs.

But if you're just looking to use a free and modern program such as MaxYMiser, you can drag and drop files to a disk pretty easily.

However, make sure the disk drive in your PC works! A lot of old floppy drives are probably pieces of junk by now, I had to buy a new one when I got my ST last year.

really? that's awesome! i was kind of worried it was going to be like Amiga and i'd need to bust my balls trying to get programs! if it's just a straight write to disk then i'll be ecstatic! i'm a total noob to ST by the way. i just thought that this program might be a necessity since i didn't know better. but thanks for that info man maybe we should just make this thread a ST Troubleshooting thread?