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Author Topic: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?  (Read 16183 times)

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Offline sim085Topic starter

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2012, 03:22:11 PM »
Quote from: amiman99;689829
You can not boot from PC disks, but you can use them to copy files from PC to Amiga. Mostly I used them to copy LHA files to Amiga.
To make your workbench read PC disks, go to "Sys:Storage/DosDrivers" folder and copy file labeled PC0 to Sys: Devs/DosDrivers, that's it.
Reboot the Amiga and it should work.
When you insert a disk you should see 2 disk icons, one an typical floppy icon and other PC0:????, when you click on that icon and select format, that disk will be readable on PC.


Thank you :) that is good to know, I will try it out. Regarding booting from disk; the only option is pure Amiga Floppy disks then! Thanks again for the help and explanation.
 

Offline Piru

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #15 on: April 20, 2012, 03:29:55 PM »
I think there is a lot of confusion in this thread, and not alone from sim085.

First of all, there are no "PC" or "amiga" floppies. The disks are exactly the same physically. There are however double density (up to 1MB unformatted size) and high density (up to 2MB unformatted size) floppies (some higher density ones do exist as well, but are rather rare). It's perfectly possible to use the higher density floppies in place of the lower density ones.

The PC floppy controller is much more rigid and doesn't allow as flexible track layout as amiga (technical: Amiga can write full tracks with whatever track layout desired, PC controller cannot). Thus you can use amiga to format disks to PC format (720KB or 1.44MB if you have a HD drive), but not the other way around. Unless if you go for specialized hardware you cannot write or format floppies to amiga format on a PC.

If you wish to format any floppies for amiga use, just format them on amiga. That's it.


---

Transferring files between amiga and PC is another topic, and there using PC formatted 720KB floppies with CrossDOS is one option, albeit not necessarily the best one.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2012, 03:36:47 PM by Piru »
 

Offline sim085Topic starter

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #16 on: April 20, 2012, 04:22:55 PM »
Quote from: Piru;689833
If you wish to format any floppies for amiga use, just format them on amiga. That's it.

But will I be able to boot from such floppy disks? or I will need a tool like CrossDos to read such floppy disks?
 

Offline desiv

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #17 on: April 20, 2012, 04:41:57 PM »
Quote from: sim085;689842
But will I be able to boot from such floppy disks? or I will need a tool like CrossDos to read such floppy disks?
If you format the floppy (DD or HD) on the Amiga as a standard Amiga disk, you can boot from it...
Once formatted, it's an Amiga disk..

(You might need to "install df0:" the disk to make it bootable, depending on what you want to put on it..)

One question for those in the know, does it make a difference if a floppy is a retrofited PC floppy drive and it's a HD floppy?
I know some people have PC drives modded for Amiga use.  Those drives have the detector for DD or HD.
In that situation, would someone have to cover the HD hole on the floppy to not trigger the sensor, or is the Amiga going to ignore it anyway, since it doesn't know what to do with it?
Depends on the kickstart???

Just wondering..

desiv
Amiga 1200 w/ ACA1230/28 - 4G CF, MAS Player, ext floppy, and 1084S.
Amiga 500 w/ 2M CHIP and 8M FAST RAM, DCTV, AEHD floppy, and 1084S.
Amiga 1000 w/ 4M FAST RAM, DUAL CF hard drives, external floppy.
 

Offline Piru

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #18 on: April 20, 2012, 05:33:41 PM »
Quote from: sim085;689842
But will I be able to boot from such floppy disks?
After you use the c:install command to install the bootblock, yes.

To reiterate: the disks are physically exactly the same, it does not matter where they originate from.

There are no "PC" floppies or "Amiga" floppies. They're exactly the same.

What matters is how you format them. If you format them to amiga disk format they're perfectly normal amiga disks. You can boot from them just fine.

Quote
or I will need a tool like CrossDos to read such floppy disks?
No
« Last Edit: April 20, 2012, 05:37:12 PM by Piru »
 

Offline sim085Topic starter

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #19 on: April 20, 2012, 06:20:11 PM »
Quote from: Piru;689855
After you use the c:install command to install the bootblock, yes.


How do you do that?

At the moment I am doing as follows:

1. Insert the floppy disk which works fine on PC, I get an icon DF0:????
2. Select icon DF0:???? and go to Icon > Format Disk ...
3. Here I get the following information printed:

Current Information: Device DF0, 880 Capacity

4. I select none of the checkboxes and click format.
5. I get warning box that all data will be lost and click format.
6. Icon on desktop change to DF0:Busy
7. I get error message saying "Couldn't format cylinder 0"

... What am I doing wrong?? This happens on all PC floppy disks I have which work fine on PC.
 

Offline spaceman88

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #20 on: April 20, 2012, 06:27:02 PM »
Have you tried cleaning your drive?
 

Offline sim085Topic starter

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #21 on: April 20, 2012, 06:31:21 PM »
Quote from: spaceman88;689868
Have you tried cleaning your drive?

All my new "amiga" disks load without any problem... format "amiga" disks work without any priblem ... so do not thing it is a problem of cleaning.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2012, 07:03:50 PM by sim085 »
 

Offline desiv

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #22 on: April 20, 2012, 06:38:47 PM »
Quote from: sim085;689870
All my new "amiga" disks load without any problem... so do not thing it is a problem of cleaning ...
If it's an HD floppy, try covering the HD hole on the top left of the floppy.

desiv
Amiga 1200 w/ ACA1230/28 - 4G CF, MAS Player, ext floppy, and 1084S.
Amiga 500 w/ 2M CHIP and 8M FAST RAM, DCTV, AEHD floppy, and 1084S.
Amiga 1000 w/ 4M FAST RAM, DUAL CF hard drives, external floppy.
 

Offline sim085Topic starter

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #23 on: April 20, 2012, 06:57:59 PM »
Quote from: desiv;689871
If it's an HD floppy, try covering the HD hole on the top left of the floppy.


used transaprent sellotape (is this good?) but still got error "Couldn't format cylinder 0".
 

Offline Ral-Clan

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #24 on: April 20, 2012, 07:13:12 PM »
Quote from: sim085;689876
used transaprent sellotape (is this good?) but still got error "Couldn't format cylinder 0".


Perhaps your drive can read, but not write to disks (damage?).

Can you take a known, working Amiga floppy disk and format it in your Amiga?
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Offline desiv

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #25 on: April 20, 2012, 07:14:53 PM »
Quote from: sim085;689876
used transaprent sellotape (is this good?) but still got error "Couldn't format cylinder 0".
Should be.
If there is a sensor (and most Amiga drives, being non HD, don't have one) it's a little button, so the tape should keep it at bay..

So, you can format other disks on the Amiga, just not these disks?
And you can format these on the PC?

That is weird..

What if you try a QUICK format?
(I'm looking at a 1.3 OS currently)
From a Shell, type:
format DRIVE df0: NAME Data QUICK
(I think that's right)...

desiv
Amiga 1200 w/ ACA1230/28 - 4G CF, MAS Player, ext floppy, and 1084S.
Amiga 500 w/ 2M CHIP and 8M FAST RAM, DCTV, AEHD floppy, and 1084S.
Amiga 1000 w/ 4M FAST RAM, DUAL CF hard drives, external floppy.
 

Offline sim085Topic starter

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #26 on: April 20, 2012, 07:32:27 PM »
Quote from: desiv;689881

What if you try a QUICK format?
(I'm looking at a 1.3 OS currently)
From a Shell, type:
format DRIVE df0: NAME Data QUICK
(I think that's right)...


Command looks ok, but did not work either. Note I am trying to format more then one "pc" floppy and none are working... all fail on cylinder 0, while on PC I did manage to format them.
 

Offline desiv

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #27 on: April 20, 2012, 07:52:21 PM »
Quote from: sim085;689883
all fail on cylinder 0, while on PC I did manage to format them.

And you can format DD floppies on the Amiga fine?
(So we know the Amiga drive is OK)

desiv
Amiga 1200 w/ ACA1230/28 - 4G CF, MAS Player, ext floppy, and 1084S.
Amiga 500 w/ 2M CHIP and 8M FAST RAM, DCTV, AEHD floppy, and 1084S.
Amiga 1000 w/ 4M FAST RAM, DUAL CF hard drives, external floppy.
 

Offline vox

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Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #28 on: April 20, 2012, 07:56:54 PM »
Its possible. Just use cell tape to cover extra hole that is not for write protection and format them on real Amiga Classic 880K floppy
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Offline motrucker

Re: format PC floppy to use on Amiga?
« Reply #29 from previous page: April 20, 2012, 08:31:44 PM »
Quote from: sim085;689818
So is it just a question of cover the High Density hole insert in the Amiga and click format? Or I still need CrossDos or some other tool? My aim is to have disks which I can boot from. From what I found out on the net, using CrossDos to format a disk means you'll need CrossDos to read the content of that disk and therefore impossible to use such disks unless in Workbench.

That's the problem, as long as your Amiga drive is in 100% great shape. The high density disks have more tracks, that are much smaller than the double density disks - so alignment, etc. is more important than ever.
But as long as you cover that HD hole, they should work on your Amiga.

PS - do not use transparent tape! The drive may still "see" the hole. Use electrical tape.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2012, 08:35:19 PM by motrucker »
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