Atari Disk Engine Pro

The forensic disk toolkit the Atari ST deserved in 1989.

Atari Disk Engine Pro is the complete toolkit for opening, editing, analyzing, and forensically recovering Atari ST disk images. Read, write, inject, extract, repair, and visualise — everything you need for serious disk preservation work in a single application.

Full Feature List

Read & Browse

• Open any .ST (raw) and .MSA (compressed) disk image — from 360 KB single-sided floppies to 16 MB Gotek images
• Full directory tree with file sizes, directory file counts, and expandable hierarchy
• Boot sector info panel showing disk name, OEM label, geometry, FAT layout, and file statistics
• BPB colour-coded hex view — geometry fields in gold, FAT layout in blue, directory layout in plum
• Full geometry status bar: Sectors, Tracks, SPT, Sides, SPC, Geo mode, Files, Dirs, Free space
• Light and Dark themes
• Disk Size Chart reference for all Atari ST disk geometries

Disk Editing

• Save Disk — write changes back to the original file
• Save Disk As — save as .ST (raw) or .MSA (compressed with per-track RLE encoding)
• Create New Disk — 11 preset geometries from 360 KB to 16 MB including non-standard and Gotek sizes
• Format Disk — wipe and reformat an existing image
• Inject File — add a file from your computer into the disk image
• Batch Inject — inject an entire folder of files at once
• Delete & Rename — files and directories
• Create Directories — add new folders to the disk
• Drag-and-Drop — drag files from your file manager directly onto the disk tree to inject them
• Boot Sector Editor — edit individual BPB fields (bytes/sector, SPT, sides, FAT count, etc.)
• Make Disk Bootable — fix the boot sector checksum so the disk is recognised as executable

File Extraction

• Extract Single File — save any file to your computer
• Extract Selected — Ctrl+click multiple files, then extract just those
• Extract All — batch extract every file on the disk to a folder
• Save File As — right-click context menu extraction

Forensic Analysis

• Full Disk Hex View — browse the entire raw image with colour-coded layout overlays (Boot, FAT1, FAT2, Root Directory, file data)
• Hex Minimap — vertical data density strip showing where data exists vs empty space, click to jump
• Skip to Next/Previous Data — toolbar buttons to navigate past zero-filled regions
• Terminal Mode — green-on-black CRT retro hex display
• Scavenger — automatic forensic file recovery for scrambled and encrypted disks (D-Bug high-bit decoding, linear root recovery, deep sector carving)
• Disk Health Audit — full FAT analysis detecting cross-linked clusters, orphaned chains, bad sectors, and fragmentation — with automated one-click repair
• Geometry Repair — fix standard geometry, recalculate FAT size, align root directory offset
• FAT Cluster Map — visual colour-coded grid of every cluster showing Free, Used, End-of-Chain, Bad, Orphaned, and Cross-linked status
• Pattern Scanner — scan the entire disk for known Atari ST file signatures (PRG, TOS, MOD, PI1/PI2/PI3, DOC, etc.)
• Disk Search — search for text strings or hex patterns across the entire image
• Properties Dialog — detailed file metadata including cluster, offset, attributes, and timestamps
• Forensic Slack Space Wipe — zero out unused bytes after file data within allocated clusters

Disk Surface Visualiser

• Circular Platter View — concentric track rings with sector wedges coloured by status (Boot, FAT, Root, Data, Free, Orphaned, Bad)
• Block Map Mode — linear Manhattan-style grid for large disk images (>1.44 MB)
• Hover Tooltip — Track, Side, Sector, byte offset, file name, and hex preview
• Click to Navigate — click any sector to jump the hex view to that location
• Physical & Logical view modes
• Disk info header — name, size, tracks, sector count

Hex View Colour Legend

• Built-in reference (Help > Hex View Colour Legend) explaining every colour in every mode

Tested & Proven

The Atari Disk Engine has been tested on 4,000+ disk images from 10 different scene group collections with a 98.7% successful read rate

Collection	Pass	Total	Rate
Automation Menu Disk	2023	2029	99.7%
Vectronix Compilation	592	628	94.3%
D-Bug Menu Disk	468	471	99.4%
Fuzion CD	313	314	99.7%
Medway Boys	145	148	98.0%
Pompey Pirates	128	131	97.7%
Bad Brew Crew	75	75	100%
Midland Boyz	56	59	94.9%
Adrenalin UK CD	57	57	100%
Awesome Menu Disk	39	39	100%

No other static analysis tool achieves this across such a wide range of standard, non-standard, and deliberately obfuscated disk formats.

Download & Run

Linux

1. Download the AppImage file
2. Make it executable: <code>chmod +x AtariDiskEnginePro-x86_64.AppImage</code>
3. Run it: <code>./AtariDiskEnginePro-x86_64.AppImage</code>

No installation required. Runs on any modern Linux distribution.

Windows

1. Download and extract the .zip file
2. Run AtariDiskEnginePro.exe

All required DLLs are included. No installation required.

System Requirements

• OS: Linux (Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, or equivalent) / Windows 10+
• Disk space: ~25 MB (AppImage) / ~30 MB (Windows with DLLs)
• RAM: 64 MB minimum (scales with disk image size)

About

Atari Disk Engine is built by Darian Frey (Shane Hartley).

GitHub: https://github.com/Darian-Frey

Email: shane.hartley06@gmail.com

Long live the ST.