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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: jlariv8957 on March 17, 2005, 09:09:50 PM

Title: Idea for cheap HD floppy drives
Post by: jlariv8957 on March 17, 2005, 09:09:50 PM
It's just an idea:

I would be nice to develop a driver to use those cheap USB floppy drives on Amiga with USB controller !

Title: Re: Idea for cheap HD floppy drives
Post by: Matt_H on March 17, 2005, 09:42:43 PM
Not a bad idea. I'd assume that you'd only be able to use PC formats, though, so it couldn't be a high-density drop-in replacement for DF0:. Or could the drivers provide an Amiga floppy emulation in software? That'd be interesting.

The people to talk to are probably e3b, Posiedon author Chris Hodges, and individual computers.
Title: Re: Idea for cheap HD floppy drives
Post by: Doobrey on March 17, 2005, 09:50:56 PM
Quote

Matt_H wrote:
I'd assume that you'd only be able to use PC formats, though,


 I guess that`s all down to the floppy controller they use, if it`s hardwired for the PC standard 720/1440 kb formats then that`s what you`re stuck with.
Title: Re: Idea for cheap HD floppy drives
Post by: odin on March 17, 2005, 10:25:08 PM
What would be the use of using FFS anyway? You would need to boot into AmigaOS first to be able to use them, great for filetransfers between different computers. But a bit useless if you want to use it for unpacking ADFs to or something, you can't boot from it..
Title: Re: Idea for cheap HD floppy drives
Post by: InTheSand on March 17, 2005, 11:14:19 PM
Hi,

Has anyone tried a USB floppy drive with the Poseidon stack? I would give it a go, but my Amiga and PC stuff are all packed up as I'm about to move...

 - Ali
Title: Re: Idea for cheap HD floppy drives
Post by: Dan on March 18, 2005, 08:33:26 AM
I have seen reports that pc-formated disks works on usb-floppy on Pegasos so  it should work with Poseidon.
Title: Re: Idea for cheap HD floppy drives
Post by: bloodline on March 18, 2005, 08:36:36 AM
More interesting would be a USB floppy drive for the PC that could read Amiga disks :-D
Title: Re: Idea for cheap HD floppy drives
Post by: jlariv8957 on March 18, 2005, 05:47:26 PM
Hi,

I think (but i'm not sure) that most of decoding work is
done by the host in that case, Macs are able to use them too
even if i know there are little differences between MAC
and PC disk formats. if the host machine is doing the job
why amiga couldn't ? I know it'll be impossible to boot from
that kind of disk but does anyone really use floppy disks
to boot nowadays ? if you want to play old games no need for
high density disks.

Even if it is just possible to read/write PCs disks, i think
"REAL" HD floppy should be abble to read them too !

Near the only use of floppies is to transfer files to another
machine  
Title: Re: Idea for cheap HD floppy drives
Post by: x56h34 on March 18, 2005, 06:06:27 PM
Just give us more Kywalda boot adapters (Jens, start producing these again! ;-)) for the ability to boot from cheap PC floppy drives. IMHO, this is the best solution, plus if you need high density feature, you simply hook it up to a Catweasel controller and off you go! :-)
Title: Re: Idea for cheap HD floppy drives
Post by: X-ray on March 18, 2005, 06:38:10 PM
I agree with Toecutter. I am still looking for a spare floppy that I can put in my A4000T, preferably HD and definitely bootable. They seem to be very expensive, or wrong size.
Bring back the Kylwalda!
Title: Re: Idea for cheap HD floppy drives
Post by: Matt_H on March 18, 2005, 06:40:45 PM
Quote
But a bit useless if you want to use it for unpacking ADFs to or something, you can't boot from it..


I was going on the assumption that the driver package would be downloaded to the FlashROM in the Algor, theoretically making it bootable.

I agree that it doesn't have much use otherwise, especially since it seems Poseidon already can use USB floppy drives. Could someone verify this on classic hardware?
Title: Re: Idea for cheap HD floppy drives
Post by: jlariv8957 on March 18, 2005, 07:59:30 PM
Should be a great idea to read amiga disks in PC for UAE !
 
Title: Re: Idea for cheap HD floppy drives
Post by: Zac67 on March 18, 2005, 08:48:38 PM
I guess as long as the USB stack supports generic mass storage devices an USB floppy should work without problems.
However, as those drives have a built in disk controller, they're most probably dedicated to PC format - low level that is, so reading/writing Amiga HD format would be impossible.. I'm pretty sure they don't care about the high level format (=file system), so mounting it with FFS should be no trouble.
(Mac and PC share the same low level format on HD floppy, just the file system is different.)
Title: Re: Idea for cheap HD floppy drives
Post by: Dan on March 18, 2005, 10:21:49 PM
Anybody remmember this (http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=45743) ?
Title: Re: Idea for cheap HD floppy drives
Post by: Dan on March 18, 2005, 11:07:48 PM
And on the other track:
1,44MB FFS-format, didn“t we have that with the LS-120?
How is it useful?