Amiga Alphagen MagicBox image import

[Greyrock]

Hello group,
 
I've got the Alphagen Magicbox with internal HD running 4.58 with the creativity pack. I cannot import images to the hard drive. The problem is when I format a DD floppy in the Amiga, no PC (XP or 7) or Mac (10.x) I've tried can read it. I want to copy images to floppy for import to the alphagen HD as bacground images. Likewise, a PC (FAT) formatted DD floppy will not read in the Alphagen. Any help?  Thanks

[amiman99]

The MagicBox (based on A1200) came with High Density Floppy drive and should be able to read PC disks. I'm not sure if the driver for PC disks is loaded and it needs to be verified.
To verify, you could start the MB by holding both mouse buttons during bootup. In the early start menu, choose boot without startup-sequence.
Then in CLI, type LOADWB
there maybe some errors during boot, just ignore.
When the WB is loaded, go to DEVS/DosDrivers folder and see if there is an Icon for PC0:
If is there, then it should work
If is not there, go see if you have STORAGE folder somewhere on the HD.
IF you do, go to DosDrivers folder and drag the icon to System: DEVS/DosDrivers folder and it should work after reboot.

[Greyrock]

Great, Thanks for the advise. I'll try next time I'm back onsite and let you know the results. BTW, it's the Sony MPF920-E Floppy drive installed.

[amiman99]

Same as mine.
When I bought mine from Ebay, the CDROM was busted and the floppy drive was destroying the disks when I tried to write to them.
FYI, you can't just replace the drive, there is a modification done on them and masked by a glue, that can be hard to uncover.

So it could be the disk drive also.

[Greyrock]

The MagicBox (based on A1200) came with High Density Floppy drive and should be able to read PC disks. I'm not sure if the driver for PC disks is loaded and it needs to be verified.
To verify, you could start the MB by holding both mouse buttons during bootup. In the early start menu, choose boot without startup-sequence.
Then in CLI, type LOADWB
there maybe some errors during boot, just ignore.
When the WB is loaded, go to DEVS/DosDrivers folder and see if there is an Icon for PC0:
If is there, then it should work
If is not there, go see if you have STORAGE folder somewhere on the HD.
IF you do, go to DosDrivers folder and drag the icon to System: DEVS/DosDrivers folder and it should work after reboot.

Actually being a rack mount Alphagen Magicbox, the manual says no mouse is needed and they offer no support for it, per their user manual. That being said, how would I check on the drivers as you suggested? I'm not sure if the Sony MPF920-E floppy currently in use is the original, if not, does it need to be modified to read windows formatted discs?  Thanks

[amiman99]

Get an Amiga mouse and plug in the "Mouse" port. It will work.

If no one messed with your MagicBox, then it's probably the original, and easiest way to check is to open the cover and look inside. Easy way to spot it, look for an adapter that plugs in the floppy drive. So between the cable and floppy drive there should be an adapter. Also, if you're brave, you can open the bottom cover of the floppy drive and see if there is a plasic "glue" stuff covering part of the PCB.
Follow my instruction that I gave in my previous posts, you'll get it working.

I made a video awhile ago showing off my Alphagen working as an Amiga 1200.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Fpt47UqEo

[Greyrock]

I haven't tried the mouse yet, but just to clarify, there is no operating system per se, just a Sony 920-E FDD that reads the Alphagen project upon boot, dumps it into RAM and then references the CDROM drive for clip-art and/or the internal HD for stored background images. The user manual claims it needs to be the "image capture" MagicBox to allow the FDD to read windows floppies. So wether you scan an image or not, it claims it will import most image file types from a Windows or Amiga formatted FD. When I insert any type of floppy, it states, "please insert a Amiga formatted floppy and try again" most frustrating since the HD has images on it that were loaded from the floppy (not necessarily this one) when it was at another one of our loactions. They all have Aavelin units now.
Out of 6 MagicBox units, one was pieced together with the best of all to get a working unit. I just don't know what is missing. any help?