The following is the changes/additions that have been made to the original Archiver/Editor 1.0 program. Users should familiarize themselves with the original Archiver/Editor documentation before reading these notes. Each item will be listed in a specific sequence: 1. The capabilities of the old hardware/software combination, 2. The capabilities of the old hardware with the new Super Archiver software, and 3. The capabilities of the new Super Archiver hardware for the 1050 and the new software.

I. Improvements.

A. Number of sectors/track.

1. Will copy 25 sectors on a track, but the custom Formatter and Mapper only support 24.

2. Will copy, and format up to 28 sectors/track, and map up to 31.

B. Writing more than 19 full sectors on a track.

1. This can only be done by slowing the drive speed to around 270 RPM, but have no indication of when this was necessary, and involved much guesswork.

2. When this particular track is encountered, a message will appear telling you to slow down the drive. The program will wait for you, and let you know when to return to normal speed.

C. Short sector support.

(Definition: A short sector is one that does not contain 128 data bytes. It may have anywhere from 1 to 127 bytes, and will almost always reflect a CRC error. These types of sectors are used to fit more than 22 sectors on one track.)

1. In order to copy a track with short sectors, you needed to custom format a track, and play with the editor. You could not mix short sectors with CRC sectors at the same time.

2. Short sectors are directly supported, and may be mixed with CRC sectors. They are very simple to make: Position the cursor on the sector you wish. Then type [B] until a lower case s appears under the sector. Then edit the last byte of that sector. (If it has no data, use the [INSERT] key to create data.) The last byte will be the sector length. Two short sectors of 64 ($40 hex) bytes in length will occupy approximately the same amount of space as a standard good sector. When filling the short sectors with data, it is best to make the sector 2-3 bytes longer than the data for that sector. This is because of "write splicing", or when the drive is instructed to stop writing the sector.

D. Extra memory support.

1. Only supported the 48K of normal RAM memory.

2. Supports the extra memory in the 800 AXLON upgrade, 130XE, and 130XE compatible XL upgrades. No more 3 pass copying! (This is very handy when editing a disk: Most all of the disk may be read in, edited, then written out!) Please note that because of the length of the Archiver/Editor 3.0 program, a very full disk may require a second short pass.

E. Track mapping. (Read Format)

1. Supported 4 types of track mapping, each being necessary to copy certain programs. Maximum sectors that could be mapped was 24.

2. Has a single A6+ mode (the most reliable) track map routine, capable of mapping 31 sectors.

F. Extended Formatter/Mapper sections.

1. Supported mapping and formatting a maximum of 24 sectors.

2. Has a two page formatter and mapper, capable of formatting up to 28 sectors, and mapping up to 31 sectors/track. (Use the up or down arrow keys to flip between pages.) The Formatter's default sector layout is the fastest possible format. The mapper has one small modification: The seldom used status byte has been replaced with the "mark" or side byte. This number is normally not used, but on certain disks will reflect the sector order. The sector with the mark byte of 0 is the first sector was the first sector written on that track.

G. Fuzzy sector support.

(Definition: A "Fuzzy" or "Phantom" sector is a sector in which the data does not remain constant. It will almost always carry with it a CRC error, because of the unstable data.)

1. Had no support for fuzzy or phantom sectors.

2. If enabled, will show you where a fuzzy sector is located, and how much data is unstable. (The last two bytes of the sector denote the starting and ending bytes of the fuzzy data.) You can not write the fuzzy sector, unless you have special hardware. Computer Software Services sells a product called "The Electronic Phantom Sector Maker" (You may contact them at: (585) 467-9326). To enable the phantom sector check, set the P parameter on the top status line to a +.

H. Inserting custom formats.

1. Typing an [I] in the editor would take the sector order from the formatter section and place it in each track specified by the R: range.

2. Typing an [I] inserts the sector order from the formatter ONLY on the current track shown. So you won't wipe out all your data if you forgot to reset the R: range.

3. Same as above. (#2)

I. Hex/Decimal numeric display & entry.

1. Displayed everything in Hexadecimal format.

2. The default display is in hex, but changing the S parameter on the top status line will display all sector numbers in the Archiver, Editor, and Formatter in decimal. Any 16 bit number will still be displayed in hex, as well as data in the Formatter section. If when in decimal, the number exceeds 99, a 99 will be displayed.

J. Format length correction/error trapping.

1. Format length in the Formatter needed to be in the range of $0BC0-$0CB0. If track was too large, a format error would be displayed after it tried 4 times to do it.

2. Format length should be between $0600 and $0D9F. The track will be automatically lengthened if it is too short, and the "Please slow drive speed" message will be displayed if the track is a little too big for normal speed. If it is too large for even slow speed, it will give you the error "Track too large".

K. Editor memory overflow.

1. While reading a track, the partial track would be stored if the memory overflowed, thus causing the possibility of missing sectors if you did not catch it.

2. The partial track is deleted, so you will never write a sector that was not read.

L. Dumping sector data to printer.

1. On some printers, printing a backspace character will cause problems, and garble the print.

2. The backspace character is "filtered", so no problems should occur.

M. Disassembler address/format length (in the Editor only).

1. Displayed the disassembler's start address on the status line, but did not display the current track's format length.

2. Displays the track being written's format length in place of the disassembler address (a seldom-used feature). The address may still be changed with the [L] command.

N. Double sector problem.

1. In a track with many double sectors with all one byte, the data in a few of the sectors would not be accurate.

2. Double sectors are not compacted, so no error will occur.

O. Verify default.

1. Defaulted to verify on, which slowed the writing considerably.

2. Defaults to verify off, for speed. The drives are usually very reliable, and need no verification. But if you are not sure of the quality of the disk, the verify may be turned on.

P. Opening of the Archiver hardware.

1. Requires an opening code to be entered (the safest way of doing it), or the drive turned on while the archiver disk is inserted (Which almost always causes bad sectors on the last track).

2. Requires the Archiver to be open to fully load the program disk. If it is not, you will be prompted for the opening code.

Q. "Double-Density" or "Long" sectors.

1. Would not recognize double-density sectors, and hence would not produce a workable copy.

2. Will recognize and duplicate the DD sector, only if the data in that sector is one repeated byte. (Note: an upper-case D is displayed under the DD sector. See below on how to create this type of sector.)

R. RESET trapping.

1. Pressing [RESET] would clear all of memory.

2. Pressing [RESET] will clear memory, but if [OPTION] is held down, it will retain the data. (This is a way to break out of a disk error incase it keeps retrying...)

S. Skewing tolerance.

1. The old software version 1.2 supported VERY crude skewing, which copied little more.

2. Skewing not available for the 810 drive.

T. Data transfer rate between drive and computer.

1. Supports the standard 19.2K baud.

2. Supports only the default 19.2K baud. The 810 is not capable of Ultra-Speed I/O.

II. Changes in Messages & Symbols.

A. New/different Error messages

1. TOO MANY SECTORS

When reading, this message will appear when reading a track with over 36 sectors, or if a track contains over 31 sectors (on 810 only).

2. LOGIC READ/WRITE ERROR

3. ERROR IN READING FORMAT

4. TRACK TOO LARGE

5. INVALID SHORT SECTOR LENGTH

An incorrect value is in the last byte of the short sector being written. A short sector may be from 1-127 decimal, or $01-$7F hex bytes long.

6. INVALID FUZZ BYTES IN SECTOR

The last two bytes in a fuzzy sector determine which bytes will be fuzzed. The first of the two bytes should be between 0 and 126 ($00-$7E hex), and the last byte should be between 1 and 127 ($00-$7F). Also, the second byte should be greater then the first. If any of the above conditions do not exist, this error message will be displayed.

7. SKEW SEQUENCE ERROR

B. Bad sector symbols

1. = Deleted Data Mark sector (right angle)

2. = Short sector (lower-case s)

3. = Double Density sector (upper-case D)

4. = CRC Error sector (vertical line)

5. = Deleted Data Mark + CRC Error sector (sideways T)

6. = Phantom sector (lower-case p)

IV. Using your Super Archiver 1050 with the new Super Archiver software

A. Creating 26 sector tracks.

This form of protection is used quite often to keep back-up devices such as the "Happy" from copying your disk. It is relatively easy to create a 26 sector track, providing you are used to using the Formatter section of the Archiver. Unfortunately, 26 full 128-byte sectors will not fit on one track; so we must use short sectors. For this example, we will use 18 full sectors, and 8 short sectors. Now we must also take into account that the standard Atari drive will only read sectors numbered 1-18 on a track. Since we have more than 18 sectors, we need to use the same sector number twice. This is called a double sector. For double sectors to be practical, they should be full sectors, and not short. The layout below best fulfills these limitations:

Sector Length Fill Type Sector Length Fill Type

$01 $08 $10 short $02 $08 $11 short

$03 $08 $12 short $04 $08 $13 short

$05 $08 $14 short $06 $08 $15 short

$07 $08 $16 short $08 $08 $17 short

$09 $80 $18 full single $0A $80 $19 full single

$0B $80 $1A full double (#1) $0B $80 $1B full double (#2)

$0C $80 $1C full double (#1) $0C $80 $1D full double (#2)

$0D $80 $1E full double (#1) $0D $80 $1F full double (#2)

$0E $80 $20 full double (#1) $0E $80 $21 full double (#2)

$0F $80 $22 full double (#1) $0F $80 $23 full double (#2)

$10 $80 $24 full double (#1) $10 $80 $25 full double (#2)

$11 $80 $26 full double (#1) $11 $80 $27 full double (#2)

$12 $80 $28 full double (#1) $12 $80 $29 full double (#2)

Enter the sector order, length, and fill byte from the above table into the formatter. You may incorporate program data into each sector, but that is beyond the scope of this example. Your program should read this track in the following order, check for these statuses, and compare the first byte of the sector with the byte shown:

Sector Error Byte Sector Error Byte Sector Error Byte

$01 $90 $10 $0A $01 $19 $0F $01 $22

$02 $90 $11 $0B $01 $1A $0F $01 $23

$03 $90 $12 $0B $01 $1B $10 $01 $24

$04 $90 $13 $0C $01 $1C $10 $01 $25

$05 $90 $14 $0C $01 $1D $11 $01 $26

$06 $90 $15 $0D $01 $1E $11 $01 $27

$07 $90 $16 $0D $01 $1F $12 $01 $28

$08 $90 $17 $0E $01 $20 $12 $01 $29

$09 $01 $18 $0E $01 $21

An example of this type of track is Track #30 ($1E) on your Super Archiver master disk. (To see the fill bytes, read the track with the Compaction set to - or off.) You may use the move feature of the archiver to place this track onto track 39 ($27) of a sample disk. To do this, set the Range parameter to 1E,1E (30,30 if you are in decimal mode). Enter the Editor, and [R]ead this track. then type [N], 27 (or 39 if you are in decimal mode) to renumber the track to #39. Now reset the Range parameter to 27,27 (39,39 if you are in decimal), insert your test destination disk, and [W]rite the track out!

B. Creating short sectors.

Go in to the editor mode, set the range parameters, and read in the desired track(s). Then move the cursor to the desired sector to be short. Note the sector must have data in it. If it does not, press the Insert key. This will insert probably junk data, but that's all right for now. Now press [B] till you see a lower case "s" under the sector. Now type [E] to edit the sector, and place the cursor at the last byte (bottom right corner). Type the length of the sector in HEX, and press [ESC] to exit. Now insert your destination disk, and press [W] to write it out.

C. Creating fuzzy sectors

This is most easily done with the "Fuzzy Sector Maker" program on the program disk, but can also be done with the Editor. Follow the same procedure as in creating short sectors, with the exception of exiting the last byte. Type the [B] key till you get a lower case "p" under the sector number. Now edit the last two bytes of the sector. The first byte is how many bytes to keep stable, and the last byte is "fuzz until you get to this byte".. For most purposes, the last byte should be 7F, to fuzz the rest of the sector. But interesting results may be had by fuzzing only 2-3 bytes in a sector. For example, to fuzz bytes $50-$5F, you would put 50 5F as the last two bytes in the sector. Remember the first byte must be between 00 and 7E, and the last byte between 01 and 7F. The last byte should also be greater than the first.

D. Creating your own skewed disks.

Skewing is the measurement of time between two different tracks. For example, if sector 1 on track 0 is located 180 degrees away from sector 1 on track 1, a program could read each sector 1, time it, and compare it to a given value. This form of protection is used, and is quite effective against sector copiers, but not some enhancements (such as the Super Archiver 1050!). Normally what is done is to line up the first sector of each track (assuming all tracks in the skew section are the same format). The software will read that first sector of each track in a certain order, and compare it with a certain timing. For example, the same time it takes to read sector 1 on track 0 twice should be the same time it takes to read sector 1 on track 0, and sector 1 on track 1. When stepping more than 2 tracks, allowances need to be made for step rates, because certain drives step slower than others. Usually measuring the time between one track and the very next one is effective enough. The way to create this type of precise format is to read in a formatted disk with the skew parameter (SK- on the top status line) turned on (to a +). Then with the editor, position the cursor so the second track is displayed, and type [S]. (The first track has no reference, so it does not need a skew value.) Then type "658". This is an approximate value which will cause the first sector of each track to be lined up. (To line it up exactly, the index hole would need to be used. Unfortunately, the 1050 drive does not have an index hole sensor, so timing values need to be used.) Repeat this step for however many tracks you desire to have lined up. (Only 2-3 are really necessary for the skew check.) After all the tracks desired have been modified, insert a destination disk and [W]rite it out. To make copies of that skewed disk, the 3.1 Archiver is recommended. This is because it duplicates the skew very precisely. The reason that type of skew was not incorporated into the editor is because it is not practical to edit the skew. The skew in the editor is good enough for most all programs, but the 3.1 version is needed for some Electronic Arts programs.

E. Creating Double-density sectors.

V. Notes on version 3.1

A. Why another version?

The 3.1 version of the Super Archiver software has about 98% of the copying power of 3.0, but with a few differences in operation.

1. The Editor, Mapper, and Formatter have been removed. Its only purpose is to copy. It does not use any extra memory. This was done incase you have a computer upgraded with an extra memory device that is not compatible with the Super Archiver. If you experience problems that you believe are related to your extra memory, then you can use this program.

2. If you turn the Skew parameter on, the skew is measured in a more exact way than the editor. This is needed for some programs.

3. There are less commands, therefore less confusing. All you need to set is source drive, destination drive, number of copies, and skew parameter. (This should be off if you are using an 810.)

4. The maximum sectors per track on this program is 28.

5. Double-density sectors are handled differently, copying things that might give the 3.0 Editor a problem.

IV. Conclusion

THE ARCHIVER TRACER

The 810 Chip was designed to support tracing the loading of a disk, yet the promised Archiver 2.0 was never released. So, the Archiver Tracer program has been developed.

A. Why a tracer?

A tracer program is very helpful to find out just what a program is doing. Also when debugging a protection routine, or just playing with it, it is very handy. Also it can be used to determine if certain "uncopyable" tracks are needed to be copied. For example, some software houses will put garbage tracks on a disk that will cause the copying program to error out. However, the program may now even look for data in these tracks! So you can use the results of a track trace after booting the program to be copied, and just copy the tracks that were read.

B. Types of tracing.

C. Making a hard copy.

You may dump the screen to the printer at any time by typing P (you may use Control-P also). Remember to do this to both screens of a sector trace that extends to two screens.

D. Errors.

The SUPER ARCHIVER 1050 Diagnostic

The diagnostic program allows you to not only test the operations of your enhancement, but also adjust the drive speed, and change drive numbers! Remember all sections of the diagnostic will only work on Super Archiver 1050 drives.

A. Using the RPM adjust section.

The Program will prompt you to insert a formatted disk. It will display the drive's speed in RPMs with an accuracy of +/- 1 RPM. It is updated more than once a second, so adjustments may be made quickly. See the installation manual concerning speed adjustment. You may adjust the slow speed adjustment in your enhancement by pressing [START] while it is displaying the RPM. The normal speed should be 288, and the slow speed should be 270-271.

B. Using the Diagnostic.

Before performing the diagnostic, you should turn your drive off, wait 1/2 seconds, the turn it on. This will clear out any programming the archiver programs do to the drive's RAM memory. If you are having problems with the drive acting very strange, it might be a good idea to run option [C] the continuous diagnostic for a few hours to see if anything fails. Any failure of the diagnostic does not necessarily mean the Super Archiver enhancement is at fault. Call Computer Software Services as (585) 429-5639 for information on repair.

C. Changing the drive numbers.

The SUPER ARCHIVER 1050 FUZZY SECTOR MAKER

This program is designed to easily create and/or duplicate a fuzzy sector. It does basically the same as what can be done in the Archiver Editor 3.0, but with more simplicity. Remember this program may only be run an a Super Archiver 1050 drive.

Since most of the material concerning fuzzy sectors has been previously covered, only the main functions will be presented.

Use [R] to read the sector. The sector data will be displayed, along with the sector status. If the sector is fuzzed, the byte at which the fuzzy data begins will be displayed. To verify this, type [B] to view the 4 buffers. To write out this exact fuzzy sector, insert your destination disk and hit [W]. There are two ways to make a good sector fuzzy. You may use the [G]eneral fuzz, which makes the last two-thirds of the sector fuzzy, or you may use the [S]pecific fuzz. This prompts you to enter the starting and ending fuzz bytes. Interesting results may be had by only fuzzing 1 to 3 bytes! The [A] function is used to read the same sector in again (saves having to type the sector number again).

The SUPER ARCHIVER 1050 Enhancement

These are some brief notes on your Super Archiver 1050 enhancement.

The enhancement will enable your 1050 drive to read, write, and format in single, enhanced, and true double density. All reconfiguring commands associated with density switching are supported. To use the double density feature, use a double density DOS. Your Super Archiver 1050 will format in the density it was last configured (default is single density), so remember to use your dos to set density before formatting in double density.

Your enhancement also has Ultra-Speed capabilities, which mean faster disk speed with the appropriate software. The only doses to support this feature are SpartaDOS from ICD, and TOPDOS version 1.5. However, Computer Software Services sells "The Ultra-Speed + OS" ($69.95) which is an operating system chip for the XL/XE computers that gives you ultra-speed capabilities with just about any program or DOS! This is VERY handy for anyone, speeding up data transfer about 3 times! It also has numerous other functions; call us for free customer literature on all of our fine products! (585-429-5639)

Computer Software Services Phone: (585) 429-5639

Notes on the Enhanced Density Super Archiver 3.03

Computer Software Services is proud to be the first to offer a back-up program for "enhanced", or "1050" density disks. Recently, software houses have begun to use enhanced density for their program disks. This density offers 44% more space per disk side, so more complex programs may be implemented.

Enhanced density also offers more protection against illegal copies of the program being circulated, for two reasons: There was no way to copy disks in this density, and it was hard to even find a sector copier that would work correctly in enhanced density.

The enhanced density 3.03 Super Archiver contains almost all the power of its brother, the single density version. The only difference is that the skew function is not available. If you have any questions concerning its operation, consult the documentation on your original Super Archiver disk. One thing you will notice is there are more sectors on a track; 26 on a standard track! So you will need to use the two-page operation of the Editor, Formatter, and Mapper.

After using the Enhanced Density Super Archiver program, turn your drive off for about a second, then turn it back on. The new software will program your drive, so turning the drive off and on will reset it.

The Phantom Sector Maker program has also been updated to work in enhanced density, as well as single (it will switch automatically). Enhanced density gives you 1040 sectors of 128 bytes each.

If you ever have a problem booting a protected program in enhanced density, boot your Super Archiver master disk, and select #3, the Phantom Sector Maker. After this program loads, insert your program disk to load, turn your computer off, wait a few seconds, and turn it on (with OPTION held if necessary on XL & XE machines). The Phantom Sector Maker program, when booted, fixes a bug in some of the early Super Archiver ROMs that did not respond properly to protection in enhanced density.

If you attempt to read a single density disk with this program, it will act as if the disk was unformatted. Reading a true double density disk will show you 18 sectors with a "D" under them, denoting double density. Remember this program was written for enhanced density only, so only the first 128 bytes of those sectors will be copied.

That's it! We hope you enjoy the power this program offers. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to call.