ATR File

Files with the ATR extension belong to the category of disk image files.

What do ATR files contain?

The contents of files with the ATR extension are disk images created using the operating system applications of Atari computers. They come from the 1970s and 1980s and are now a relic of the past, but are well-deservedly respected. by IT geeks. ATR files contained disk images with a size of 720 or 1440 sectors, which corresponded to the capacity of floppy disks - the only portable data carriers at that time. Standard 3.5-inch models had capacities of 720k or 1.44 MB, which was sufficient to store software installation versions or the contents of Atari computers' hard drives.

What is a disk image?

A disk image, stored e.g. in a file with the ATR extension, is a very accurate copy of the data. What distinguishes it from an ordinary backup is that the content of ATR files contains, in addition to ordinary data, also information about their organization on the hard drive. Thanks to this, using dedicated software, you can restore exact copies of disks from ATR files, including the contents of sectors normally inaccessible to the user. Files with the ATR extension were used both to transfer installation versions between individual machines and to archive user data, such as first computer games or text files.