from PC to Amiga using disks

[kvasarnomad]

i just got a new shiny A1200 and i wanted to try somethings on aminet and i have read that in OS 3.1
you can read pc disks and i know how to activate the drivers and i know that i must use a DD disk.
i found 1! PC DD Disk it says 720kb IBM-PC
but my pc disk drive wont reconise it.
cant modern pc-drives read or write to these disks
and if i bought a hd-disk-drive for the a1200
would i be able to copy files from pc to amiga simple.
and are there any otherway of getting the files to amiga

[bloodline]

kvasarnomad wrote:
i just got a new shiny A1200 and i wanted to try somethings on aminet and i have read that in OS 3.1
you can read pc disks and i know how to activate the drivers and i know that i must use a DD disk.
i found 1! PC DD Disk it says 720kb IBM-PC
but my pc disk drive wont reconise it.
cant modern pc-drives read or write to these disks
and if i bought a hd-disk-drive for the a1200
would i be able to copy files from pc to amiga simple.
and are there any otherway of getting the files to amiga

Pop it in the PC Floppy drive, select "format" and make sure you use 720K when you format it.

[pjhutch]

All Pcs can r/w 720K or 1.44Mb disks. When using disks on the Amiga you must use DS/DD disks not DS/HD disks.
To read/write PC disks you need to have the PC0 and PC1 DosDrivers installed, CrossDosFileSystem and so on. For reading long filenames you will need the FAT95 driver from Aminet installed.

[kvasarnomad]

well i guess the disk is damaged then.
but i cant use the amiga disks, can i?
and if not, can you still buy these old 720kb DS/DD pc disks in the shops

and if i buy a cd-rom drive for the A1200 will i be able to burn from the pc and read them on the Amiga?.
the cd´s are the same right?

[xeron]

You ARE trying to read the disk via CrossDOS (ie PC0: or PC1:) and not the normal DF0: or DF1: etc. drives?

[Jettah]

kvasarnomad wrote:

i just got a new shiny A1200 and i wanted to try somethings on aminet and i have read that in OS 3.1
you can read pc disks and i know how to activate the drivers and i know that i must use a DD disk.
i found 1! PC DD Disk it says 720kb IBM-PC
but my pc disk drive wont reconise it.
cant modern pc-drives read or write to these disks
and if i bought a hd-disk-drive for the a1200
would i be able to copy files from pc to amiga simple.
and are there any otherway of getting the files to amiga


So you found 1? floppy of 720Kb? You can use HD (1.44Mb) floppy's by using this trick:
Take a piece of sticky tape of about 1" (2.5cm) length and wrap over the one hole that has no slider in it. When looking at a floppy this way:
In the lefthand upper corner you find an arrow pointing upwards.
The righthand upper corner has a cut-off.
The lefthand lower corner contains a write protector (= slider).
The righhand lower corner has an open hole denoting it a 1.44Mb floppy.

By taping it over on both sides you effectively turn it into a 720Kb floppy after formatting as such. You can simply do this with clear tape. The mechanism used for finding out whether it's a DD or HD floppy is a real construction of mechanically moving parts and a micro-switch. No hitec light beams or whatsoever.

I use such floppy's for years now without malfunctioning!

Regards,

Tjitte

[vortexau]

kvasarnomad wrote:
well i guess the disk is damaged then.
but i cant use the amiga disks, can i?

Certainly, you can! Just FORMAT the disks using the CrossDos (or Fat95) Icons. I use a HD external Floppy Drive and the disk shows up as 'PC2' '1440KB Capacity' (CrossDos), or 'MS2' '1440K Capacity' (Fat95) in the requestor.

and if not, can you still buy these old 720kb DS/DD pc disks in the shops

As I said, just do a PC-Formatting on your old Amiga 880K Disks . . . . . there's plenty of old magazine cover-disks around.

and if i buy a cd-rom drive for the A1200 will i be able to burn from the pc and read them on the Amiga?.
the cd´s are the same right?

Not all CD-Rom drives can read CD-R or CD-RW discs. Get one that will, and be sure to 'create' a disc using the right disc format . . . . . the PCs can do 2 or 3 different formats (extentions, etc) on Disc Burning.

[Vallerian]

@ kvasarnomad

I too had identical difficulties with my A1200 - I formatted a DS/DD diskette as PC0: on my Amiga, but PC just couldnt recognize it. Then I formatted that same diskette on PC, and it became recognizable both by the PC and A1200.

I wonder why is that, but anyway - it doesnt really matter, because now when I want to format a diskette to be readable both on PC and A1200, I use PC's FDD.

Anyway, I suggest that the first thing you transfer from PC to Amiga be PC2Amiga software, so that you may in the future transfer files between Amiga and PC by parallel or serial cable. It is much more convenient :-)

[kvasarnomad]

Thanks for the help every1

[sir_inferno]

Jettah wrote:

kvasarnomad wrote:

i just got a new shiny A1200 and i wanted to try somethings on aminet and i have read that in OS 3.1
you can read pc disks and i know how to activate the drivers and i know that i must use a DD disk.
i found 1! PC DD Disk it says 720kb IBM-PC
but my pc disk drive wont reconise it.
cant modern pc-drives read or write to these disks
and if i bought a hd-disk-drive for the a1200
would i be able to copy files from pc to amiga simple.
and are there any otherway of getting the files to amiga

You can use HD (1.44Mb) floppy's by using this trick:
Take a piece of sticky tape of about 1" (2.5cm)  (blah) (blah)


I use such floppy's for years now without malfunctioning!

Regards,

Tjitte

Umm, i've known those floppies to be picky @ keeping data there. i.e. for me those floppies don't last for a week without corrupting the data  :-( i just use it to instantly transfer stuff (that was b4 i got my network pcmcia card  :-D [flipping amiga don't support wireless *inaudible mumbles*])  ;-)

[kvasarnomad]

Aaaarrrrrgggg nothing works!!
i could't format a hd-disk to be 720 in xp so i did it in ms-dos(and yes i covered the hd-hole on both sides)
but the amiga wont reconise it even then [DF0???] aarrgg

i have put the crossdos files in dev(pc0, pc1, .....)
(i have a hard-drive but i think its broken so the OS is read of disk)

so why, why won't it work

could there be anything im doing wrong  :-x  :-(  :-x  :-(  :-x  :-(  :-x  :-(  :-x  :-(  :-x  :-(  :-(  :-(

[kvasarnomad]

hey i just read in the wb3.1 manual that when a ms-dos disk is in the drive the icon df0? scould show and a pc0 with the name, but it also says that when the dos drivers are activated and you insert a ordinary amiga disk the icons df0 with the the name AND pc0? should show!
BUT when i put a ms-dos disk in the only icon that show is df0?(hey wheres that pc0) and when i insert a amiga disk the only icon that show then is df0 with name(hey again, wheres that pc0)

is't the cross-dos drivers working then :-?

[Speelgoedmannetje]

do not use winXP, use dos instead, then:
format A:  /F:720
make sure if you use hd floppies, that the hole without the switch is closed with tape or so
-edit- uhm now I see you did such

[Abou27]

Are you booting from harddrive or floppy?  Anyway try double-clicking on the PC0 or PC1 device drivers (icons may not be shown; select Show>All files from Icons menu in Workbench first).

[Neo]

If you get a CDROM that is not from the stoneage you would be able to read CD's written on a PC as long as you use the standard ISO modes.

Unfortunatly, if you use the standard CD filesystem with the Amiga you can only read PC CD's with DOS 8.3 names.

For floppys I suggest FAT95 from aminet. CrossDOS that is included in AmigaOS suxx!