Technical information

How to Read this Document

I have created this document as a reference manual that I use personally to find specific information

related to usage of Hard Disks. It provides technical information about the different File Systems used

on the Atari platform as well as a practical short guide for using and partitioning Hard Disks on Atari

(more specifically SD Cards connected to Satan / UltraSatan / CosmosEx devices).

Therefore most probably you do not want to read this document from front to back. This is why I have

organized it so you can quickly access information.

The first part contains practical information while the second part goes into more technical details

when needed.

Part I

The first part of the document focuses on practical information and procedures for partitioning Atari

Hard Disks. It also contains a basic presentation of the Atari and DOS File systems to better

understand the choices and limitations of the different types of partitions.

 The Partitioning Information chapter provides basic information about partitioning disks and

minimum knowledge you should have about Atari file system. It is short and therefore it is a

recommended reading.

 The Types of Partition used on Atari Chapter gives an overview of the different types of partition

used on Atari: TOS partitions, DOS/FAT partitions, and TOS&DOS partitions. It also provides some

Notes on Creating and Installing Partitions on Atari Desktop.

 The TOS/GEMDOS Limitations chapter provides information about the limitations of

TOS/GEMDOS and is good to read if you run into mysterious problems using your hard disk.

 The Atari Hard Disk Drivers Packages chapter contains simplified guides for usage of several hard

disk driver packages (HDDRIVER, PPDRIVER, AdSCSI, and CBHD) with Satan, UltraSatan, and

CosmosEx devices. Which Hard Disk Driver Should I use help you select a hard disk driver

package for Satan, UltraSatan, and CosmosEx devices.

 The PC Utilities chapter review several programs, available on the PC platform, related to Hard

Disk usage.

 The Atari Utilities chapter review several programs, available on the Atari platform, related to Hard

Disk usage and File System related bug fix. It also contains a short presentation of the BigDOS

program.

 The File System Problems and Solutions chapter describes several commonly encountered

problems and their solutions. It is recommended reading when hard disks do not work as expected.

Part II

Technical details about TOS, DOS/FAT, and TOS&DOS file systems are presented in the second part

of this document.

The goal of the second part of this document is thus to provide in-depth technical information about

Atari hard disks partitioning (layout). For that matter I describe in detail the TOS File System as well as

the DOS/FAT File System as both of them are used on the Atari platform. The DOS/FAT File System

study is limited to what is useful in the context of the Atari platform. I also describe the TOS&DOS File

system used by PPDRIVER and HDDRIVER. Examples of File System partitioning are analyzed

deeply.

 The Hard Disk Presentation chapter provides a high level presentation of hard disk partitioning as

well as practical partitions limits for the different type of file system.

 The Information about TOS Partitions provides an in-depth presentation of the TOS file system.