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Author Topic: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?  (Read 16189 times)

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Offline MrVotar

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« on: February 18, 2023, 08:27:27 PM »
Reviving this ancient topic with a new question...

I'm trying to get some files off my old A1200 and onto a Windows PC.   Just bought a new USB Floppy drive for my PC (coz it didn't have one) and it seems it can only write/format 1.44 mb disks.  But when I put that Windows formatted 1.4 mb disk into the A1200 I just get "DF???"   

Since the PC can't format 880k disks, but it can READ them, can I use the Amiga to format an 880k DOS floppy?   Can't seem to figure that out.
 

Offline MrVotar

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2023, 05:13:48 PM »
Thanks -

I'm not too worried about the 880 vs 720k angle, just trying to find anything that both the Amiga and the PC can both read.  This A1200 used to belong to my wife, so I don't really know it too well.  My old A2000 was my main machine but it died when I tried to turn it on after all these years....

I guess I'll have to remember how to search the A1200 for the cross-dos devices.  Even the words 'CLI' and 'Device List' are ancient foggy memories I'm struggling to resurrect... I guess that's part o' the fun?

I purchased a used SCSI card for my PC, hoping WinUAE could 'see' my Amiga Syquest drive...   but it turned out to be the wrong kind of PCI card, so that is still a dead end.   I hope to figure out this mess eventually.
 

Offline MrVotar

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2023, 01:19:24 AM »
Thanks for the reminders - I sort of remember the 'Command Line Interface".

But even if my A1200 has the PC0: device (it does), I can't find a way to make this Amiga FORMAT a DOS floppy.  Is that possible in Workbench, or something that must be done with special CLI commands?

The new floppy drive I just bought will only format in HD mode, which the AMiga can't read.  And if I cover one of the disk holes, the PC drive doesn't believe it's a 'valid' floppy.  So I assume my only option is to somehow create a DOS format disk from the Amiga...   ?   Any Amiga based formatting I've found thus far is only in 'Amiga' disk format.

Hopefully I won't need to worry about any of this when my PCM-slot CF reader shows up...