Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: on May 04, 2003, 05:35:36 AM
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Hello all, I'm new here so this may have been answered previously (although i couldn't seem to find anything with the search feature).
Basically, this is the situation: I've got a couple amiga 500s and 2 external floppy drives branded "supra drive". I'm wondering if there's any way to hook one of these to my PC to be able to write amiga disk images to actual amiga readabe disks.
I've been looking into the subject for a few hours and i'm not making any headway. The Catweasel ISA card looks like it may be my best bet if this doesnt work out. Any other possible solutions out there? keep in mind, i've got no hdd for the amigas.
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I have to say, I don't think PCs are capable of writing 880K floppy disks, this is a hardware thing. That said, using an Amiga floppy drive I'm not sure.
However, you've got two floppy drives if you hook one up to the 500 right? Try acquiring an old standalone version of CrossDos put that disk in one drive, than you can put the actual Amiga files(ADF is too large) on a DD (720K) PC disk and put it in the other drive. Write those to the RamDisk, or just use them from the PC disk. I'd say, writethem to the RamDisk, than copy them to a real Amiga 880K floppy. (So now you have a real Amiga disk) I myself have CrossDos 4.02a which is on a standalone disk so I know it exists.
Beyond this, isn't there something you can do with cables thats a lot easier?
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Don't forget that double-density IBM-formatted disks are "Amiga readable", but an ADF won't quite fit on it (you need to compress or split it).
I've seen a hack to attatch an external amiga drive to a PC somewhere, but it wouldn't be easy.
Or you could try networking. There are plenty of other ways to make the transfer, and chances are that everyone here will have their favourite that works best for them.
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@alx
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I've seen a hack to attatch an external amiga drive to a PC somewhere, but it wouldn't be easy.
I guess you mean
http://metamonk.com/afr/
However that solution is read only and only works under DOS.
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Forget about the Catweasel ISA. What you need is the Catweasel Mk3 PCI, that works under windows, you'll also need an extra pc drive to install in your pc as a Catweasel drive, at least if you still want to normally use your other floppy drive, until new drivers are ready so you can use 1 drive for both purposes.
www.jschoenfeld.de/products/cwmk3_e.htm
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I always hear something about null ?modem? cables but I don't know how to use them. I still stand by my previous answer as it works for files, if not adf images.
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@weezly-
No, as I understand it, the only way to gain read/write ability on an Amiga disk on a PC is with a Catweasel solution. (ISA or PCI-Mk3)
The reason for this is that the Amiga floppy controller has further capabilities than the PC floppy controller. Hence to read an Amiga floppy, you need both a floppy drive controller capable of adjusting data-rate, and a drive capable of that data-rate. (The Catweasel controller tricks drives into functioning at data-rates other than they were intended to run, which is how it is able to work with a normal drive.)