Can I install floppy drive1.44 on Amiga 600?

[alexandrohipolito]

Can I install floppy drive1.44 on Amiga 600? If can I, which models and brands that ?

[Matt_H]

You can install an Amiga high-density floppy, of course. There are very, very few PC floppy drives that can be used with an Amiga, and even fewer that can be used as high-density drives. There are a few old threads on getting this small population of drives working. Do a search here for 'chinon'.

[Digiman]

Can't use them as HD 1.86mb format though without a Power Computing interface board and even then needs a driver.

[alexh]

http://www.freewebs.com/computolio/amiga_floppy_compatibility.html

What you really want is a Chinon FZ-357A

[Mizar]

Can I install floppy drive1.44 on Amiga 600? If can I, which models and brands that ?

You can install a high density floppy drive in an A600.  The specific capacity isn't 1.44(MB) though, that's for PCs.  (Or to be precise it's 1440KB, or 1.41MB.)  But Amiga high density floppys are 1760KB, or 1.72MB.  I have a Sony model MPF920-E high density drive in my A1200.  It doesn't require any special board or driver, it's just plugged in at the usual floppy bay where the original 880KB one would be.  I'd be surprised if this is any different for an A600.

[gertsy]

You can install a high density floppy drive in an A600.  The specific capacity isn't 1.44(MB) though, that's for PCs.  (Or to be precise it's 1440KB, or 1.41MB.)  But Amiga high density floppys are 1760KB, or 1.72MB.  I have a Sony model MPF920-E high density drive in my A1200.  It doesn't require any special board or driver, it's just plugged in at the usual floppy bay where the original 880KB one would be.  I'd be surprised if this is any different for an A600.

Hi Mizar, you can't use your Sony MPF920-E at 1.72MB though ?

[Mizar]

Hi Mizar, you can't use your Sony MPF920-E at 1.72MB though ?

Yes, I can.  It's a high density floppy drive, so I use 1,760KB floppies in it.  I can also cover the upper left tab hole on high density floppies and use them as low density 880KB floppies too.

[psxphill]

I have a Sony model MPF920-E high density drive in my A1200. It doesn't require any special board or driver, it's just plugged in at the usual floppy bay where the original 880KB one would be. I'd be surprised if this is any different for an A600.

That will only be recognised as an 880k drive.
 
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=29589
 
The only way you'll get more than 880k with that drive is using this software:
 
http://aminet.net/package/docs/hard/HiDensity
 
Which doesn't use the standard amiga 1.76mb disk format, it uses gcr and IIRC it trades reliability for space.

[Mizar]

That will only be recognised as an 880k drive.
 
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=29589
 
The only way you'll get more than 880k with that drive is using this software:
 
http://aminet.net/package/docs/hard/HiDensity
 
Which doesn't use the standard amiga 1.76mb disk format, it uses gcr and IIRC it trades reliability for space.

No, my high density drive actually is recognized as a 1760KB (1.72MB) drive.  It doesn't use GCR.  I never knew about that software.  In that thread the guy seems to say that the HD MPF920-E is only recognized by the A1200 as low density 880KB... unless he's saying that the hardware reconfig he did fixed that.

But the MPF920-E is indeed a high density drive.  It looks like that Aminet package is used to do a high density format with the original Amiga Tech. internal floppy drive (880KB), not a real HD drive.

If indeed it requires some kind of extra board to use a HD drive as 1760KB, then apparently there must be one in my Amiga.  I originally ordered my system from the dealer with a HD floppy drive in it, so perhaps they installed the necessary extra equipment to use it.  But they never said anything about that and there wasn't any extra cost to do it.  I've also been inside my system recently and didn't notice anything obvious of extra hardware attached.  There is a very thin "board" at the opposite end of where the floppies insert, that has connections to the drive, but IIRC it didn't seem to have electronics on it.  That would be the only possibility of a HD expansion board.  I'll have to get the photos I took developed.  I also do not have any special floppy disk driver on my system.

[Digiman]

Yes, I can.  It's a high density floppy drive, so I use 1,760KB floppies in it.  I can also cover the upper left tab hole on high density floppies and use them as low density 880KB floppies too.

You can't format to 1.76mb Amiga format though without extra hardware.

[psxphill]

But the MPF920-E is indeed a high density drive. It looks like that Aminet package is used to do a high density format with the original Amiga Tech. internal floppy drive (880KB), not a real HD drive.

The Amiga Tech A1200's shipped with high density drives, however they could only be used as 880kb drives as they don't spin at half speed when you insert a high density floppy disk.
 
High density disks have double the amount of space per track, so if you spin the disks at the same speed then you need to process the data at double the speed. The Amiga can't do that, so you have to slow the data down to low density speeds. Either by slowing the motor down or by reading the data into a buffer and then passing it to the Amiga at a slower speed.
 
Even if you had a floppy drive that would spin at half the speed, you also need to find someway of getting the motherboard to generate the correct id for a high density drive. I'm not even sure an a500/a600/a1200 can do that, on the a3000/a4000 there are jumper settings on the motherboard to do it.

[zipper]

Even if you had a floppy drive that would spin at half the speed, you also need to find someway of getting the motherboard to generate the correct id for a high density drive. I'm not even sure an a500/a600/a1200 can do that, on the a3000/a4000 there are jumper settings on the motherboard to do it.

Of course they can - but there are "stupid" drives that need software and then smart ones like in my A500's DF0:  that just work.

[psxphill]

Of course they can - but there are "stupid" drives that need software and then smart ones like in my A500's DF0: that just work.

It's not the drive, it's the addon hardware....
 
http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=703163&postcount=6

[freqmax]

psxphill, What PLCC chip did he use?

Another idea is to have a simple buffer that is "DD" to the Amiga with 2x sectors. And "HD" to the floppy drive. Could possible be implemented with a MCU.

[Digiman]

psxphill, What PLCC chip did he use?

Another idea is to have a simple buffer that is "DD" to the Amiga with 2x sectors. And "HD" to the floppy drive. Could possible be implemented with a MCU.

That's similar to how the A4000 does it, the data is read in slower than PCs would.