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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: dansilvester on August 29, 2003, 10:09:21 PM
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Hi!
I have an A2000 which has an internal hard drive and SCSI card, this all works fine. Ihjave aquired a CD ROM and plugged it all in. It powers up OK but I have no idea what to do after this! Do I need some software to get WB to recognise the drive? If I type mount CD0: in shell it says it's already mounted! I'm runnning and Kick 2.0 and it's the Commodore SCSI card.
Any help greatly appreciated!
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Go to AmiNet and download AmiCDFS (AmiCDROM) v2.40. This is one of the best CD File Systems available for the Amiga 2000HD. I hope that I have helped you. :-D
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Thanks for your reply. I think I've found Aminet, but I can't seem to connect to any servers?
How do I use software on the Amiga that I have dowloaded on the PC?
Sorry for being infuriatingly clueless!
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You have to format a DD/DS 720k disk on your PC. Then copy the Amiga files to that disk. Next, place this PC 720k disk with the Amiga files on it into the DF0 drive on your Amiga. Then use CrossDOS, which is part of Workbench 2.x to copy those Amiga files from the PC 720k disk to your Amiga hard drive. That's all there is to it. I hope I have helped you. :-P
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Cool, understand that, thanks!
You don't know where else I can get the file you mentioned? I can't get into Aminet!!
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Um, how do I find/ use crossdos??
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dansilvester wrote:
Um, how do I find/ use crossdos??
Your local Amiga dealer should be able to help you just fine! ;-)
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Aww nuts. :-(
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I've got MessyDos or something, it's saved as a .lha on the PC, how do I get to work on the Amiga? It's just says DF0:???
I have got WB 2.04, so no in-built CrossDOS :-(
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Crossdos Related Answers
Q: What is Crossdos?
A: Crossdos is a program that allows you to mount drives which can read and write to MS-Dos formatted disks. After you have mounted a drive, you can use this just like any other drive on your Amiga. For instance, you can mount a drive called PC0. Then every time you insert a MS-Dos formatted disk into DF0 (the internal disk drive of your Amiga), it will be shown as a disk in PC0. Crossdos is available for Amigas with Kickstart 2.x and 3.x.
Q: I've got WB 3.x. What do I do?
A: Crossdos is an integral part of WB 3.x, here's how to use it: Boot Workbench. Insert the Storage disk. Click on the Storage icon, then on the Dosdrivers Icon. You'll see several dos drivers. The neccesary ones are PC0 and PC1. PC0 is the driver you want if want to use DF0, PC1 is for DF1. You can use both if you require. If you want to use DF2 or something, you can easily modify the files to match your needs. See the manual.
Q: I've got an Amiga equipped with a Hard Drive, and I want the PC drive to be automatically mounted every time I boot. How do I do that?
A: Make sure the file PC0 or PC1 (or whatever) can be found in the Devs/Dosdrivers directory on your SYS: partition (the partition you boot from). Just copy it from your Storage: disk or the Storage/Dosdrivers directory on your Hard Drive (if this dir exists).
Q: I've got an earlier Amiga. What do I do?
A: You can use WB 3.x on your Kickstart 2.x computer. If you just want Crossdos, then the newest version, Crossdos 7, can be used on any Kickstart 2.x+ Amiga. For Kickstart 1.x computers, see the next question.
Q: Are there any shareware/freeware alternatives to Crossdos? Preferably something that runs on Kickstart 1.x as well?
A: Try Messydos. This is shareware, and it works on all Kickstarts from 1.2 and up. You can get it from the Aminet. You can probably find it in most good pd-libraries as well.
Q: OK, I've got Crossdos. What next?
A: You'll need a 720 kb MS-Dos disk. You can use a standard 1.44 Mb disk, but you'll have to format it as a 720 kb disk. I've never had any problems with this, but apparently you should put a piece of tape over the left hole on the disk (not the write- protect hole), in order to make the PC see it as a DD disk. If you have any problems, try using an original DD (like a standard Amiga uses) disk.
Q: How do I format a 720 kb disk?
A: Easy. In Win 95: Double-click on My Computer Right-click on A: Choose the Format command Under the word Capacity, you'll see a menu gadget. Click on the down-arrow, and select 720 kb 3,5 inches Select "Full". You cannot quick-format a disk if you want to change it's capacity. Press Start. In Dos, just type: format a: /f:720 You can format a PC disk with your Amiga as well, but apparently this option is a bit unreliable. This is done the regular way, but you must select the disk in the mounted PC drive.
Q: Help!! I can't create a 720 kb disk! What's wrong.
A: Unfortunately, some newer PC drives does not support 720 kb disks. I have only seen this once, on a Compaq portable computer. I don't think there's any way around it, except perhaps to install a new drive. Sorry.
Q: What if I own a High Density drive for my Amiga?
A: Then you can use 1.44 MB PC disks too. You're quite lucky.
Q: Ok, I've formatted a disk. What now?
A: Copy the desired files on to the disk, turn on the Amiga and mount a PC drive (like I explained earlier).
Q: Hmmm. I've inserted the PC disk into my drive. Now all I get is an empty window with no files displayed.
A: Make sure you've selected "show all files" from the disk menu. If you still can't see the files, try selecting "view by name" from the same menu. If the problem persists, then make sure you actually copied the files to the disk :-)
Q: Yikes! I'm using an older version of Crossdos (pre-Weird Science), and now the filenames are all messed up!
A: Before Windows 95, PC's didn't use filenames with more than 8+3 letters. If your file is called Verylongfilename.dms, it will be renamed to VERYLO~1.DMS As long as you're dealing with archives, this should not be more than a minor hassle, as you're the only one who need to know the filenames. You either choose to accept the new filenames, or you can rename the files on your PC before copying them. If you're copying a program with loads of files, and you haven't archived it first, then you must take care, however. If the program needs the file called Verylongfilename.dms, it won't understand that VERYLO~1.DMS is the same file, so you must make sure that you rename the files again. Also, there will be problems if there's a file called, say, Verylongfile.dms, as this file will also be called VERYLO~1.DMS. In this case, you should rename the files before copying them from the PC.
Alternatively, you could upgrade to Crossdos 7.
Q: I haven't got the software required. Where can I get it?
A: Workbench 3.x can be purchased from several sources. For instance, Epic Marketing stock it. Crossdos 7 was published by Weird Science. Here's the sales blurb from their website:
"CrossDos is a software product that allows the user to read and write MS-Dos formatted disks, directly from the Amiga. CrossDos integrates into the Amiga operating system, allowing access from virtually any Amiga utility or application, including file requesters."
You can perform most AmigaDOS functions, for example:
Read and Write files
Create directories
Set file or directory dates and protection bits
Relable the disk name
Rename files and directories
Supported drives are as follows:
3.5" 720k floppy disks
3.5" 1.44M floppy disks
5.1/4 360k floppy disks
5.1/4 720k floppy disks
Hard drives
Zip drives
Jaz drives
SyJet
EZ135
SyQuest and
Bernoulli
Other features include an ASCII text filter option, translation tables that handle international text character sets, automatically senses disk changes, floppy disks parameters are sensed automaticaly, various disk utilities, MS-DOS hard disk configuration software and many other improvements over the original CrossDOS.
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Few clarifactions.
A: Crossdos is an integral part of WB 3.x
CrossDos is also included in Workbench 2.1 (http://www.gregdonner.org/workbench/wb_21.html).
A: Try Messydos. This is shareware, and it works on all Kickstarts from 1.2 and up. You can get it from the Aminet.
messydos (http://www.aminet.net/misc/emu/msh-156.lha) doesn't handle VFAT, but XFS (http://www.aminet.net/disk/misc/xfs.lha) does. XFS is freely distributable.
XFS also works on AOS 2.x and 3.x, so if you want VFAT support and don't have CrossDOS V7, XFS is worth a look.
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Will an Amiga read a .lha file off a 720kb formatted disk?
thanks for the links to the programs, I am having diffidculty getting the Amoga to recognise the disks.
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Please can anyone help me! I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I realise this is very basic for you all, but I have never done this before. I don't know how to get the Amiga to read the stuff I put on 720kB formatted disks from this PC.
Thanks! :)
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I am having diffidculty getting the Amoga to recognise the disks.
This is so called "chicken-egg" problem: In order to get the software you need to read the PC disks, you need to move some files to amiga. But how can you move the files if you can't read the PC disks in the first place?
So basically you're stuck, unless if you find some friendly local Amiga user who can write the software (XFS or messydisk) to Amiga formatted disk.
If you can't find such friendly person, you need to buy CrossDos from your Amiga dealer.
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If you're really stuck, you can always get a NULL-modem cable and connect your PC to your amiga via the serial port and use a program such as transdisk to transfer files over (or if the files are small, you can route them to RAM-DISK via the TYPE command, but this command has buffer limitations)
I would really only recommend this as a last resort however as it can be very frustrating to get set up properly, and the file transfer is SLOW.
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@dansilvester
Hi,
here is a link for aminet, it is working just fine for me:
http://www.aminet.net/
On the left, you will see links, dirs and search field. Just type your's search criteria, like amicdfs and it will display files for you. Browse thorugh dirs section, you will find a lots of useful stuff.
Here is the link for lhA archiver for amiga,
http://lha.warped.com/Downloads.html
Go for exe version.
If you are not sure how to use command line for lhA, go to
http://www.ghisler.com/
That is shareware file manager for windows and it is able to unpack your lhA files. You still need 720K floopy drive. If you are going to unpack under windows, unpack the whole archive, copy some of it on a floppy, move it Amiga, erase files, go back to win, copy rest of the files and so on, but I think that is not going to be a problem and unpacked files should fit fine on that one floppy, at least for the cdrom drivers.
For a crossdos, check this out:
http://www.l8r.net/technical/t-crossdos.shtml
I found that searching the net with google, that is always a good way to find useful informations, or whatewer you are looking for.
www.google.com
And at the end, like Piru said, it will be very good for you to find somebody in your area who know how things works, and just explain for you, plain and simple. Also, always read read.me files :)
Take care dude,
levelLORD
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does OS 2.04 have the PC0: device in Devs/storage like in OS 3.0? because if it did, arguably you could just drag that into Devs and then reboot and the Amiga should 'just read' the PC disk automatically, provided it's not a 1.4MB hd floppy - that would require the rarer A4000 HD Amiga floppy drive to pull off....
kevin orme
amiga university
www.amigau.com
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levellord:
Thanks alot for your help, I will try that!
amigau:
No, my 2.04 workbench does not appear to have a storage dir in the devs folder.
Thankyou!
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@dansilvester
That would be a Devs drawer in your Storage drawer.
On floppy systems, Storage is usually a disk. On HD systems, it is a drawer in your Workbench partition.
I'm not sure about versions but I first saw the Storage disk / drawer in OS3.0. I had 2.05 for my A600 and cant recall if it had crossdos or not :-?
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First, I'm assuming your A2000 came with the GVP A2008 HC+8 scsi board. You need the latest GVP scsi drivers, found here (http://www.gvp-m.com/gvpmfiles/a4008.dms). Then, download AmiCDFS, found here (http://www.aminet.net/disk/cdrom/amicdfs240.lha).
You'll need to extract the GVP drivers to a floppy by decompressing the DMS archive using XDMS, found here (http://www.aminet.net/util/arc/xDMS.lha). This will give you an ADF disk image which can be transferred to floppy with tracktool (http://www.watts5.demon.co.uk/amiga/files/emu-tools/Tracktool101.zip).
Each of these tools is pretty self explainitory in terms of usage... Run the program and it'll tell you what to do.
Once you've made the GVP disk, run the installer... Select all the defaults. Extract AmiCDFS to a folder on your harddrive, and run it's installer.
When done, reboot.
Then, modify the CD0: file that comes with AmiCDFS, with the lines device=gvpscsi.device and unit=(the scsi id of the cdrom drive). Place the CD0: file in the workbench:devs/dosdrivers folder... Reboot again, and your CDROM drive should be working!
If you're still having trouble, send me a private message, and I'll give you more precise instructions. I know how it is, since I had to figure all this out myself with my A2000 and A4000 :-D
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LG is the only brand I use for CD ROM