
   PastiInf - simple program for creating textual info file or extracting some
     track data from STX file

  It is intended for people with some knowledge about floppy disks, copy
protections used by Atari ST. 

Create Info File   button:  opens fileselector, after selection generates
textual info file with same name as STX file, so Bolo.txt for Bolo.stx .

Look with some viewer, notepad. 

Track number is total track (not Cylinder) count on both sides.
Usually it is 80-82 for single sided, and 160-164 for double sided floppies.

Public type: STX is made with public SW, on stock Atari ST without extra HW for
floppy imaging.

DC type: STX is made with not published SW, on Atari ST equipped with Discovery Cartridge.

The main diff. is way how track image is made. Flag for track data in STX which contains track image made with public tool is 0x61 . Track image (dump) self is about 6KB long, and can not hold sector datas, they are stored after track image.
Flag for track data which contains  track image made with DC is 0xC1 or 0xE1 .
Image is about 7-8 KB long and holds sector datas too. So, DC made STX is shorter generally.

After type there are all track params listed. Track number is 0-79 (or little more) for side A and 128-207 (++) for side B . Track order may be sidewise or alternating.

After track # is track flag in hex, prefixed with   "fl="  .
If there are some fuzzy (flakey) bits in track   "fuz"   will be written. 
Then sectors are listed:  First their count, then sector #, followed by size
index (2=512 bytes, 3=1KB) . 
Possible additional sector infos: Slow means slower sector read time (over 2% is indicated).
CRC, RNF - you know what is it. If not, read some literature :-)
Ft - means fake track address (track # and/or side) in address block.

At end the number of used tracks is shown. It is often less than total track number at begin. Commercial floppies almost never exceed 80 tracks per side !
Empty tracks may be before last track too, as protection.

Infos provided should give some hint about protection(s) used. For instance Copylock is used when on Track 0 sector 6 has Slow and CRC mark.

It is not possible to know from track datas   for which tracks SW uses read track command for checking protection (is disk original) . Only by tracing SW self. 
May be some other protection systems  too.  This is also the reason why practically all public tool made STX images contain all track dumps too - simple: for beeing sure .


Track data extraction:
If you want to examine some specific track use   Extract track   button.
First type in desired track number (0-79 for side A, 128-207 for B ).
Select STX file ... Binary file with name:  Trck[track number given].bin  will be created. It contains complete Pasti track data starting with it's length.



Read Pasti description page:  http://atari.8bitchip.info/STXdesc.html


P. Putnik, Aug. 2011.




