Can Amiga read a floppy made on a pc?

[CYCLO]

Hi All,
i make music with 2 c64 and a gameboy and i decided that the last piece is going to be an amiga 500! so i found some free software on the net that i want to install on my new A500 but...there's a way to do that? i mean can i save from pc and read on amiga without problem or i need some special converter? which is the "easy" way?thanks to all...

[koaftder]

Theres a program that you can run on the pc that sends an adf or dms file to the amiga that lets the amiga write the disk. Sorry I can't remember what it is. I use a catweasel in my pc to make the amiga disks, if you have a little money it's the best solution by far.

[JC]

Well I have a high density disk drive in my 4000 and when I stick a pc formatted disk in there it reads it automatically and I can write to it as well. It's been so long that I can't remember if there is something that I had to do to make that work or if it is just the OS3.9 that allows it to work.

[wurzel]

You need CrossDos on the Amiga to read PC formatted floppies, but beware. The stock Amiga can only read DD disks, not HD disks. You need an external HD floppy disk drive, like the Power Computing one, to read HD disks.

Ther eis a freeware crossdos type program on Aminet, but not sure what it's called. Search for PC format disk or something like that.

But, I think CrossDos came with WB2 onwards (?) so you should have it, I think.

:shrug:

[Nlandas]

I'm doing this from memory.

If you have AmigaOS 2.1 or higher, Go do storage/dosdrivers and copy PC0 to devs/dosdrivers. Double-click PC0 or reboot. This should let you see PC disks mounted as PC0.

There is also a great program that A4000Mad told me about called fat95 that will let you read long file names correctly. Otherwise, you are limited to 8.3.

So the answer to your question is. Yes, you can ready PC floppies in your Amiga.

[golem]

As previous poster said you will only be able to read DD PC disks on an A500 with the aid of Crossdos or Messydos. Crossdos comes with wb2 onwards I think and is a lot easier to set up (usually by clicking on the PC0 icon in Storage/DOSDrivers). You will only be able to read 720K formatted PC disks with your nice Chinon A500 drive. And it is an art in itself to format a floppy disk as 720K with Windows XP but once you get a transfer disk set up it is relatively easy for small files if you know what you are doing.

[amiga_3k]

With Workbench 2.x and newer, with the needed kickstart ROM version, you indeed get CrossDos for reading / writing PC floppies. If your Amiga is an 1.3 version then you'll have to dig deep into the internet. With the remaining problem of: How to get the piece of software found on Aminet (probably with the PC) onto your Amiga? And that's how your question started :-).

If you indicate your country of residence, fellow countrymen/countrywomen might be able to help you with an Amiga floppy with all the Aminet programs needed to get you going.

Or buy a Catweasel ;-)

[Piru]

I think CrossDos came with WB2 onwards (?) so you should have it, I think.

WB 2.1 onwards. WB 2.0, 2.04 or 2.05 don't have it.

[A4000_Mad]

Nlandas wrote:
There is also a great program that A4000Mad told me about called fat95 that will let you read long file names correctly.

8-)

MS0 was the driver that went into Workbench:Devs/DOSDrivers :-)

[rkauer]

A4000_Mad wrote:

8-)

MS0 was the driver that went into Workbench:Devs/DOSDrivers :-)

 Sorry _Mad, but PC0: is the only original M$ disk driver supplied with the Amiga. Other drivers and programs are always third-part. Nothing wrong in use those third-part programs, of course.;-)

 MS0 is messy-disk-device findable on Aminet (3rd-part program).

[InTheSand]

Hi,

Also take a look at XFS as this allows reading writing of multiple disk formats. Bit flaky under 1.3 but fine on 2.x+.

 - Ali

[Jiffy]

When running KS1.2 or 1.3, MessyDOS is great for reading and writing pc-formatted disks. Used that years and years ago before I owned a 1200, 2000 & 3000 with KS3.1.

[Speelgoedmannetje]

CYCLO wrote:
Hi All,
i make music with 2 c64 and a gameboy and i decided that the last piece is going to be an amiga 500! so i found some free software on the net that i want to install on my new A500 but...there's a way to do that? i mean can i save from pc and read on amiga without problem or i need some special converter? which is the "easy" way?thanks to all...

If you have Workbench 1.2 or Workbench 1.3, your best bet is AmigaExplorer from Cloanto. It's being used with a null-modem on the serial port (it also works with an USB to serial cable)
If you use Linux instead of Windows, you need LXAmiga, which works together with the amiga side of AmigaExplorer.
If you don't have any workbench 1.2+ disks at all with your Amiga, you'll NEED the catweasel controller (or somehow get a workbench 1.2+ disk)