Transferring files between Mac and Amiga with floppy disc

[mauidj]

What is the correct procedure for transferring files between a Mac and Amiga?
I am using WB3.0 and OSX 10.5.

 have a TEAC USB floppy attached to the Mac.

What discs should I be using?
I have CrossDOS on the miggy.

Many thanks.
Aloha!

[StormLord]

you can use any discs that can be formated on 720kb ms-dos format
except if you have a high density floppy on your amiga, that way you can format the disc also at 1.44MB ms-dos.

edit:

go to disk utility on leopard and see if it has an opton to format the disc at 720KB...
otherwise you will need to format the disc from the amiga, but you will need a program from aminet that if I remember correctly its called multidos
and have pc0: mounted

[persia]

Is there such a thing as a Mac floppy?  I've been working with Macs for about 5 years and have never seen one...

[amigadave]

persia wrote:
Is there such a thing as a Mac floppy?  I've been working with Macs for about 5 years and have never seen one...

Yeah, the only floppy your going to see with a Mac these days will likely be a USB floppy, but you are dating yourself as a young whipper-snapper!  :lol:

All us old-timers remember the old Macs that all came with floppy drives as standard equipment, but to read a Mac floppy on an Amiga you needed a program called CrossMac.

Modern Macs can all read PC formatted floppies as far as I know and if you have AmigaOS3.1 or above, it should have CrossDOS included which I believe can format a floppy in 720kb, or 1.44mb PC capacity depending on if you have a DD or HD Amiga floppy drive.  So format the floppy disk in the Amiga and use it to transfer your files to/from the Mac.

[Wolfeman]

Assuming you have a USB floppy drive, there are command line methods to format floppies

http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-15882.html

but with Tiger 10.4.9 I have been unable to get a reliable 720k floppy suitable for the Amiga [or Atari ST as well]. Maybe Leopard will work better?

I've been using my retro Power Mac 8500 to do this. Maybe you can install OS9 under "Classic" and then format 720K floppies that way, I'm not sure but it seems logical.

let us know if it does work.

[quarkx]

Here is one "alternative" that we used at the print shop. Be aware that with a newer Mac, and PC, it won't be Feasible, unless you have access to the equipment.
I had to transfer Quark Xpress files from an old Mac 2 to a new P4 box. Both units had external scsi ports, so I hooked up a "switch box" we had lying around and a zip drive. the switch box was really for a printer, but it worked just fine on the scsi. The only real issue is that Windows sometimes had to be re-booted to see the Zip drive, after it was switched to the PC.
(Quark xpress files can be read on both machines with no issues other than putting a ".QXD extension for Windows).
Now the newer Macs probably don't have an external Scsi port, but it might be of interest for some one else out there. :crazy:

[Darrin]

I'd just like to point out that if you put a Deneb into your Miggie then that USB high density floppy disk drive will also plug into the Amiga and you can read 1.44MB formatted disks from there too.  Mind you, if you had a Deneb then you'd be using a 2GB memory stick to transfer your files...  ;-)

[mauidj]

That's funny because the reason for doing this was to get the latest version of installer from my Mac onto my miggy so that I could install the Deneb software  :lol:

I have to run out and get some new floppies in a bit, but I did manage to get one to work just now.

I will report back on the details later.

Thanks for all the input guys.
Aloha!

[hardlink]

amigadave wrote:
All us old-timers remember the old Macs that all came with floppy drives as standard equipment, but to read a Mac floppy on an Amiga you needed a program called CrossMac.
.

And if you are a real-old-old-timer (back when 'DD' or Double Density floppies came out!) you will remember the Mac used to use variable-speed floppy drives that needed special hardware to read on an Amiga (A-Max and another one). Of course, the original Amigas shipped with DoubleDensity drives, took years for the Mac to catch up!

Not more than 5 minutes ago I just transferred some programs from a Mac to an A4000T using Mac format disks and CrossMac; I was surprised to see this thread! I usually get Iomega Floppy Plus USB drives for the Macs since they also can read almost all types of flash media.
 

[mauidj]

hardlink wrote:
Not more than 5 minutes ago I just transferred some programs from a Mac to an A4000T using Mac format disks and CrossMac; I was surprised to see this thread! I usually get Iomega Floppy Plus USB drives for the Macs since they also can read almost all types of flash media.
 

So your miggy reads Mac formatted floppies eh?
Where could I find Cross Mac?
Are they 1.4Mb or 720kb discs?

That Iomega is a nice piece of kit...never seen that before.

[rockape]

Hi,

I have a Packard Bell USB Floppy Drive (bought from a charity shop for a quid" installed into a Poundland USB Hub on my Mac G4.

I've installed Fat95 (see Aminet) on my A4K and my Mac reads 1.4 M and 770 kb formatted disks from my A4K no probs.

Fat95 is better than CrossDos and also gives long file name support.

Kind Regards, Michael

aka rockape

[jkadaver]

Yeah, the only floppy your going to see with a Mac these days will likely be a USB floppy, but you are dating yourself as a young whipper-snapper!  :lol:

All us old-timers remember the old Macs that all came with floppy drives as standard equipment, but to read a Mac floppy on an Amiga you needed a program called CrossMac.

Modern Macs can all read PC formatted floppies as far as I know and if you have AmigaOS3.1 or above, it should have CrossDOS included which I believe can format a floppy in 720kb, or 1.44mb PC capacity depending on if you have a DD or HD Amiga floppy drive.  So format the floppy disk in the Amiga and use it to transfer your files to/from the Mac.

Yes I'm trying to work out an issue. I'm trying to create a diskettes for the Amiga WB v38.36 . The Macintosh Performa 6200CD is running Mac OS 8.6 these are proper MF2-DD 3.5 Diskettes. The Amiga refuses to format them but the Mac has no issues. So my question is to you or anyone.. is there a classic Mac program that can read/ write proper Amiga disks I Currently can't use WB 3 until I get my Kickstarts & order WB3. If I need a older Apple System Software to accomplish this that's not a issue I have machines that still runs System Software 7. Any help is appreciated-cheers!

[scuzzb494]

I was just updating the site with the AMaxII guide when I read this thread. Interesting that I have an A3000 with an AMaxII card by ReadySoft.

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz527.htm

Not a great fan but yes the old Mac drive was variable speed and had its own format for encoding information to the drive so complicating the process.... Hmm Spectre and Magic Sac. Interesting.

[paul1981]

Yes I'm trying to work out an issue. I'm trying to create a diskettes for the Amiga WB v38.36 . The Macintosh Performa 6200CD is running Mac OS 8.6 these are proper MF2-DD 3.5 Diskettes. The Amiga refuses to format them but the Mac has no issues. So my question is to you or anyone.. is there a classic Mac program that can read/ write proper Amiga disks I Currently can't use WB 3 until I get my Kickstarts & order WB3. If I need a older Apple System Software to accomplish this that's not a issue I have machines that still runs System Software 7. Any help is appreciated-cheers!

Sounds as though your Amiga floppy drive has a problem. Are the heads clean? Kickstart 3 / Workbench 3 isn't going to fix your floppy drive. Why would you think it would?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Yes I'm trying to work out an issue. I'm trying to create a diskettes for the Amiga WB v38.36 . The Macintosh Performa 6200CD is running Mac OS 8.6 these are proper MF2-DD 3.5 Diskettes. The Amiga refuses to format them but the Mac has no issues. So my question is to you or anyone.. is there a classic Mac program that can read/ write proper Amiga disks I Currently can't use WB 3 until I get my Kickstarts & order WB3. If I need a older Apple System Software to accomplish this that's not a issue I have machines that still runs System Software 7. Any help is appreciated-cheers!

I'm not sure I understand this post, seeing as you're commenting on a  thread that's 8 years old, but if I understand correctly you've an Amiga  running Workbench version "38.36" (2.1) and you're trying to transfer files to and from an old Mac.

Workbench 2.1 should contain CrossDos, which can read & write 720K PC-format disks.  If your Mac can do the same you should be able to transfer files that way.  Format a 720K PC-format disk, save the files to it from the Mac, and then read them back on the Amiga.  Bit of a primitive way of doing things but it should work.

Alternatively you can try MessyDos, that's what I used waaay back in the day:  http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/MSH-1.58