FASTEST,EAYSIEST,CHEAPEST WAY TO TRANSFER ADF IMAGES BETWEEN PC AND AMIGA(mostly 500)

[mikkel_zen]

So many helpful people here full of quality experience.
I like this forum. You guys are awesome!

Guess what I just dug up from my parents basement? A big, maybe ten years old, fully operational, stationary PC with this connector on the back (guess its the right type of connector: its a pink 25 pin she). If its the wrong connector, I will probably buy the right one of you ikonsgr. If you still have them...

Hopefully Im moving in the right direction. In a few days, when my paycheck arrives, I will order the proper tools from you ikonsgr. Just one question: What kind of floppy discs do I buy? Does the A500 require a size limit on floppies? I believe the old ones I have here is maximum 1MB.

I will study this thread further, before I ask any more lazy questions...
Thanks guys.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

The A500 uses standard double density disks.  High density "sometimes" work, but with poor reliability.

[ikonsgr]

It's difficult to find double density 3.5" disks any more, at least cheap ones.
Personally i use only pc formatted High density disks as i can find new ones for 3-4euros/box of 10. You just need to give them a quick amiga format before using them.
I also know a couple of friends that have literally transfer 100's of adf images to HD disks with no problems.
Of course  as Oldsmobile_Mike said, there might be an "issue" of  reliability using HD disks on DD drive, but floppy disks in general, are not reliable mean of storage anyway! :rolleyes:
And in the end, if an HD disk would be unreadable after 10-20 readings you can just rewrite it using the kit in a couple of minutes!

[mikkel_zen]

Sounds good.

The investment here is the file transfer equipment and of course the bunch of amiga music software adf files I've just downloaded.
I'm actually counting on the floppies to get worn out in time. Obviously they dont endure the element of time anyway.

Cant wait to get it all set up, working, and start making music with the amiga. :banana:

[Znapperhead]

Hi!
I have been able to transfer a few games, but suddenly I cannot seem to do it anymore. Some looks okei, but then it all stops, or the game doesnt work.

Is there differences in adf files? should every adf file work? am i doing something wrong?

thanks

[Znapperhead]

If you followed the instructions as you said, then the error messages you get, 99.9% are caused by bad floppy disks!
Anyway, floppy disks as we all now are not a very reliable mean of storage.
Try to amiga format (with verify) a disk (so to be 100% sure that disk is ok) and use it to transfer an image.
In order to make a transfer the disk must be unformatted, amiga formatted, or an amiga disk that already have data on it and you wish to overwrite it.

Btw, if you, or anyone have any problems ,it's better to contact through ebay messages or email me directly(ikonsgr@hotmail.com) to get a much more fast reply, as
i don't get to forums too often.

... and what could cause this error message in the last 00.1 % ? :mickeymouse:

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

... and what could cause this error message in the last 00.1 % ? :mickeymouse:

Bad floppy disks!

[Znapperhead]

Bad floppy disks!

I have formatted and then checked each disk for error. Losts of them was bad and have been thrown out. But the remaining few comes out clean without errors. Still I get the error message as mentioned... Its never the ADF-files? Is there a way I can test something to find out whats up?

[Znapperhead]

As mentioned before, I managed to transfer a few adf images. Suddenly mu luck ran out, and i didnt manage to transfer sucsessfully. but i managed to transfer something. But then the adf transfer program on my pc wouldnt automatically detect the parallel port adress anymore. after counltess restarts etc, it wount connect anymore.

any thoughts?

[ikonsgr]

If, as you say,  adf transfer program can't automatically detect the parallel port adress, then most probable there is aproblem with your pc's parallel port.
First, check your device manager to see if parallel port there works ok (no exclamation marks). Also, if  you are using a parallel port pci card be sure it's plugged firmly into slot.
Hope these help.

[gertsy]

Great doco on using the paradise parallel setup. Handy for disk bound A500 users.

[ikonsgr]

I just "discover" something that might be a cheap solution for all you "laptop lovers" that don't have a desktop pc, and want to use the adf transfer kit:
These pcmcia to parallel port cards
They claim that this offers a TRUE parallel port and they are rather cheap too!

Does anyone know if this kind of adapter really offers a real  bidirectional parallel port (you will probably know this, if you tried  to connect any device other than common printers)

[ikonsgr]

[UPDATE]

I just upload a new improved version of the boot disk.
I use the reorg utility to optimize the boot disk, so now you will only need ~7 sec to boot for PC->AMIGA transfers (previous was ~10 seconds) , and less than 20 sec (previous was ~25 sec) for AMIGA->PC transfers!
You can find the new boot disk here (i also put it inside the 32bit and 64bit versions of the adf transfer program folders, so anyone who downloads them will get the new boot disk inside "usefull adf images" sub folder)

[ikonsgr]

[UPDATE]

I just upload a new alternative version of the boot disk, named "Boot_df1.adf". As you can probably figure out by the name, you can use this boot disk, to make all transfers using the second external drive, instead of the internal!
 By doing so, you can leave permenantly the boot disk on internal drive, and change disks on external drive, so whenever a problem occurs you just reset amiga without needing to insert the boot disk again!


Also,i had some minor bugs fixed in both 32bit and 64bit versions of adf transfer program:
-  Choosing a read only adf image to transfer, doesn't cause "sticking" on  copying this same image. So no need to manually delete the  "temp.adf" file anymore (the workaround used so far)
- No need to restart  application to change i/o address of parallel port. This might also fix  some issues regarding the configuration file of  dosbox being "read only"

As always, you can find the new boot disk and versions of the program here.