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Author Topic: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?  (Read 16178 times)

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Offline spirantho

Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« on: April 20, 2012, 10:43:11 AM »
Quote from: VuData;689781
I never had much luck with my Catweasel either to be honest.


That must be the software then - the Catweasel reads and writes Amiga disks just fine under OS 4. :)
--
Ian Gledhill
ian.gledhill@btinternit.com (except it should be internEt of course...!)
Check out my shop! http://www.mutant-caterpillar.co.uk/shop/ - for 8-bit (and soon 16-bit) goodness!
 

Offline spirantho

Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2012, 11:08:48 PM »
If you want to use a floppy disk on an Amiga, first you need to make sure your floppy drive is working, so test with a known good disk.
Second, don't bother trying to use a PC unless you have a Catweasel. Use an Amiga; a PC can do it but it's very complicated and you need two disk drives.
Thirdly, use Double Density disks, not High Density. It may work on certain HD disks but don't be surprised if it fails to format; even if it does format, expect to lose data.  Sometimes you get lucky, and an HD disk will work for a while, but never trust data to one. HD disks require a stronger magnetic field than DD disks, so your old A500 drive probably can't magnetise the surface enough.

You shouldn't have any trouble if you follow that. There's nothing special about Amiga disks or Amiga drives, it's the controller that's special.
--
Ian Gledhill
ian.gledhill@btinternit.com (except it should be internEt of course...!)
Check out my shop! http://www.mutant-caterpillar.co.uk/shop/ - for 8-bit (and soon 16-bit) goodness!
 

Offline spirantho

Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2012, 12:07:07 AM »
They use a different magnetic material for the disk surface....
--
Ian Gledhill
ian.gledhill@btinternit.com (except it should be internEt of course...!)
Check out my shop! http://www.mutant-caterpillar.co.uk/shop/ - for 8-bit (and soon 16-bit) goodness!
 

Offline spirantho

Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2012, 10:31:51 AM »
Can you just confirm exactly what you mean by "pc" floppy disks? They are DD ones, yes? Because HD ones will just fail on track 0 very often.
--
Ian Gledhill
ian.gledhill@btinternit.com (except it should be internEt of course...!)
Check out my shop! http://www.mutant-caterpillar.co.uk/shop/ - for 8-bit (and soon 16-bit) goodness!
 

Offline spirantho

Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #4 on: April 25, 2012, 02:13:32 PM »
That's your problem then. Using the wrong type of disk is never a good idea as the data will fail at just the wrong moment (if you get it working at all).

Seriously, there's so many cheap DD disks out there, forget HD ones, they're not worth it on a DD drive.
--
Ian Gledhill
ian.gledhill@btinternit.com (except it should be internEt of course...!)
Check out my shop! http://www.mutant-caterpillar.co.uk/shop/ - for 8-bit (and soon 16-bit) goodness!