HELP! Cannot transfer files from PC to Amiga 500 in ANY way!

[scuzzb494]

Hi

Old skool this ... I have actually been writing a series of blogs recently on how to create your own Workbench disks from old floppies and one thing I do is customise the disks with both Messy and MultiDOS plus CrossDOS. I only use disks that I find lying around. I have a series of blogs coming up with a variety of ways to create disks.

The way to get an ADF onto a 720K is to ZIP it using UNZIP [tool ] and Dface [ GUI ] and then copy to a 720K disk created on a Win98 machine that can format 720K with the hole blocked out for 1.4MB disks. And then use CrossDOS that came free with Amiga Format Collection No 8 and which works specifically with the A500. The PC will auto unzip any file . My Win7 does. Just need to get an old Win98 machine or laptop.

https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_march20/scuzzblogdmarch20_2401.htm

https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_september20/scuzzblogdseptember20_0501.htm

https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_october20/scuzzblogdoctober20_1601.htm

http://aminet.net/package/util/arc/UnZip

I do have the AmiPC cable and software but its a pig to get working and very slow. I was only able to get it working with a Win98 machine and OS3+

Once I used the CrossDOS tool on that disk which simply mounts your Amiga drive as a PC drive I was carrying my disks to the PC and copying at will. Bit old skool but works. 1.3 can be a bit of a pain but it makes you use the CLI[shell] and AmigDOS commands more and soon it gets very easy. Just a different way of working.

I will be posting more blogs on how to create Workbench disks from old junk disks and so on over the next few weeks.

https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog.htm

[scuzzb494]

Or the OP could simply buy' Amiga Format Cover Disk - Collection No.8' from Ebay currently £1.99 which when loaded lets the user see PC disks. It really isn't that hard especially if the end user wants to experience life as it was all those years ago.

An ADF file on a PC compresses to 625K ZIP  that fits on a 720K disk that can transfer to the A500 and with DFace and Unzip open the file. Then use an ADF writer to create the Amiga disk.

And then ... for the 720K disk. This.

https://techatplay.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/how-to-format-floppy-disk-to-720k-in-windows/

[scuzzb494]

Hi

A couple of other disks that are very useful Amiga Computing Issue 51 Coverdisk34 August 1992 called Arcadia and CUAmiga 100 DOpus 4 and or Amiga Computing June 1992 Issue 49 with SID v2.00. You are trying to trackdown software called MultiDOS. This lets you format DOS disks. Saves you having to do it on a PC.

Most copies of Amiga Computing cover disks from the 1992 era self boot into their own version of Workbench. By following the guides online and copying a few disks from the CLI [shell] you can create your own Workbench disk. Its very easy. This morning I copied the files over from ARCADIA MultiDOS disk to my own Bench disk which involved LIBS,L,C and DEVS files and then from a simple command

PCMOUNTALL FROM devs:mountlist.multidos

I was able to mount both Df0 and Df1 as PC drives [ MD0 and MD1]. Better still with the command:

PCFORMAT DRIVE MD0: NAME [ dusk name ]

I was able to format a HD disk with the corner taped over and then could see that on a Windows PC. Amazing. You need SID or DOpus cus you can't see files without icons in 1.3 The software isn't suppose to work under WB 2.0 but I got it working on 1.3. I have photographed everything and will appear as a blog in a week or so.

MultiDOS came on a few cover disks.

https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_october20_2/car_sbd_161020_03.jpg

The Amiga was seeing DOS disks a long long time before folk got use to downloading off the internet. So there is plenty around that will let you do it. Having a file manager like DOpus really helps seeing those files that are invisible to 1.3.

Using that FORMAT line I gave in my link may work on a USB drive. But with the PCFormat too in MultiDOS you don't need to. I didn't know if MultiDOS worked so I didn't suggest that one but if you see it going cheap I'd grab a copy.

Good luck

Er sorry almost forgot. Research creating your own self booting disk and the INSTALL command that prepares disks. You only need half a dozen files to create a self booting disk. Knowing how to do this and how to customise the disk thro the CLI [ shell ] is the way 1.3 works really. The basic 1.3 Workbench is very limited. It needs extra 'umph' to get it working to your benefit. Great fun.

[scuzzb494]

This is how I wrote an ADF file to an Amiga disk tranferred from PC to an Amiga without a cable.
The whole process has formed a series of blogs on the issue. Great fun.

Baybench 1.3 - ADF and TSGUI.

https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_december20/scuzzblogddecember20_0501.htm

What I tried to do was create an Amiga disk on a 500 using only none-Workbench disks.
The aim being to customise so I could tranfer a ZIP from a PC and unarchive it and
from the ADF image create an actual Amiga disk using my version of 1.3.

HOW I DID IT:

Baybench 1.3 - Make your own WB.

https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_december20/scuzzblogddecember20_0201.htm

Baybench 1.3 - Adding Disk Master.

https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_december20/scuzzblogddecember20_0302.htm

Baybench 1.3 - Adding MultiDOS.

https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_december20/scuzzblogddecember20_0301.htm

Baybench 1.3 - UNZIP and ADF.

https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_december20/scuzzblogddecember20_0401.htm

And finally .... Baybench 1.3 - ADF and TSGUI.

https://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_december20/scuzzblogddecember20_0501.htm