Atari Disk Engine Lite

Atari Disk Engine Lite

The forensic disk toolkit the Atari ST deserved in 1989.

Atari Disk Engine is a desktop application for opening, browsing, and analyzing Atari ST disk images (.ST and .MSA). Whether you're a collector, preservationist, demo scene archivist, or just curious about what's on that old floppy image — this is the tool for the job.

What can you do with the free version?

• Open any Atari ST disk image — .ST (raw) and .MSA (compressed) formats, from 360 KB single-sided floppies to 16 MB Gotek images
• Browse the full directory tree — files and folders displayed with sizes, file counts, and proper hierarchy
• View boot sector information — disk name, OEM label, geometry, FAT layout, and file statistics shown in a clear info panel
• BPB colour-coded hex view — boot sector fields are highlighted by category (geometry in gold, FAT layout in blue, directory layout in plum) so you can read the disk structure at a glance
• Extract individual files — pull any file from the disk image to your computer
• Status bar with full geometry — sectors, tracks, SPT, sides, SPC, geometry mode, file count, free space — all visible at the bottom of the window
• Light and Dark themes — switch between them in View > Theme
• Disk Size Chart — reference table for all standard and non-standard Atari ST disk geometries

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%

What's in the Pro version?

Atari Disk Engine Pro unlocks the full forensic and editing toolkit:

Disk Editing

• Save and Save As (.ST and .MSA with compression)
• Create new blank disks (all standard and non-standard geometries)
• Format existing disks
• Inject files and folders into disk images
• Batch inject from a folder
• Delete and rename files and directories
• Create new directories
• Drag-and-drop file injection
• Boot sector editor (edit individual BPB fields)
• Make any disk bootable (checksum fix)

Forensic Analysis

• Full disk hex view with colour-coded layout overlays
• Hex minimap showing data density across the entire image
• Skip to next/previous data navigation
• Terminal mode (green-on-black CRT effect)
• Scavenger — automatic forensic file recovery for scrambled disks
• FAT cluster map visualiser
• Disk health audit with automated repair
• Geometry repair tools
• Pattern scanner / file signature detection
• Disk surface visualiser with click-to-navigate
• Properties dialog with detailed file metadata
• Search across the entire disk image
• Forensic slack space wipe

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.