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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: ehouet on June 27, 2004, 09:53:01 PM

Title: Connecting a floppy-drive to the pc
Post by: ehouet on June 27, 2004, 09:53:01 PM

Hi,
I bought a commodore Amiga 500. But it did not contain much discs. Also, no hdd and extra mem are available.
I want to store ADF-files on amiga discs. I have read somethings about connection the amiga and the pc. But most of the times they say the Amiga must have enough memory. I do not believe this is the case.

So my question is:
Is it possible to connect the amiga floppy-drive to my pc. It is not a problem if I have to switch OS to Linux.

Greetings,

ErX

Title: Re: Connecting a floppy-drive to the pc
Post by: that_punk_guy on June 27, 2004, 10:01:42 PM

It's probably not possible to write the ADF images using your Amiga, judging by your description of the machine.

Amiga floppy drives can be connected to the PC using a Catweasel floppy controller. Images can then be written to the floppy using your PC. I've never used one personally, though.

Welcome to Amiga.org. :-)

Title: Re: Connecting a floppy-drive to the pc
Post by: Thomas on June 28, 2004, 09:12:28 AM

Connecting an Amiga drive to the PC will not help. The drives actually are the same, it's the controller which is different. The only way to write Amiga floppy disks on the PC is a Catweasel controller as mentioned above. You can use a standard PC floppy drive with it.

http://ami.ga/products/cwmk3_e.htm

However, you should be able to write ADFs to disk on a 512kb A500 with one of these:

http://homepage.uibk.ac.at/homepage/c725/c72578/amiga/
http://amiga.nvg.org/warlock/wartrans/

Bye,
Thomas

Title: Re: Connecting a floppy-drive to the pc
Post by: Ilwrath on June 28, 2004, 09:29:29 AM

Quote

Amiga floppy drives can be connected to the PC using a Catweasel floppy controller. Images can then be written to the floppy using your PC. I've never used one personally, though.

Actually, the Catweasel is a custom controller, not an Amiga floppy -> PC adaptor.  The Catweasel needs a standard PC floppy drive, not an Amiga floppy drive.  (Apparently some people mis-understand and hook Amiga floppy drives to it... That won't work.  Just use a $1 cheap standard floppy drive.)  And it does, indeed enable reading and writing to Amiga disks.  

Title: Re: Connecting a floppy-drive to the pc
Post by: Naeem on June 28, 2004, 10:59:42 AM

Catweasels are tooe xpensive!

Use a PC - Amiga serial link wherever you can.

:-)

Title: Re: Connecting a floppy-drive to the pc
Post by: Khephren on June 28, 2004, 11:53:04 AM

An Amiga to PC parallel link might be a faster way.
I get over 50k a second on mine.

Wasn't there some software available that allowed a PC with twin floppies to read Amiga disks?

Title: Re: Connecting a floppy-drive to the pc
Post by: Piru on June 28, 2004, 12:06:55 PM

Quote

Wasn't there some software available that allowed a PC with twin floppies to read Amiga disks?

http://www.oldskool.org/disk2fdi/

It can't write adf to floppy however, and thus is useless for ehouet.

Title: Re: Connecting a floppy-drive to the pc
Post by: bloodline on June 28, 2004, 12:28:24 PM

I was thinking about this recently... would it be possible to build a conector that would allow one to connect the Amiga to the PC via the serial/parallel port and the Floppy port?

Like this:

PC->Parallel/Serial------>Microcontroler-----> Floppy Port->Amiga


One could then write a program that would allow you to mount ADF files on the PC which the Amiga would see as real disks!

That would be a fun project.