Reading old 5.25" dos floppies on a Amiga?

[Nick_66]

Hi all,

I have a external 5.25" floppydrive and would like to be able to read some old dos floppies I have on my Amiga.

I am not sure how to manage this so need some help from you all.

Appreciate the help!

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

CrossDOS can do that for you.  It's bundled with most newer versions of the Amiga operating system.  There's also programs like "MessyDOS" and "DOS2DOS" which allow you to read PC-format disks.

Sorry to keep pointing you to google, but there's a wealth of information already out there on this subject:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CrossDOS

http://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics/damigas2.html


*I assume when you say (quote) "I have an external 5.25" floppy drive" that you have one which is made for an Amiga, correct?  Be aware that the common Amiga 1020 (5.25" floppy drive) is only double density (360KB), and many PC floppies are 1.2MB (high density).  Probably a good idea to check the disks before you try reading them.

Bonus tip: apparently the A1020 can also read Atari 8-bit, Apple II, and C64 format floppy disks, with the right utilities.  I had one back in the day and never even knew!  

[darkage]

if the 5.25" drive is originally a PC drive, you will need to build a logic adapter for it.   my dad made me one back in the day.  It was amazing to have DF1: on a otherwise limited A500.

Not sure how this applies to PC 'dos' disks.   would be less heart ache to source a PC for the job.

I was just wondering if you can still purchase blank 5.25" media.  looks grime and limited these days, accept if you look at http://www.floppydisk.com/   they have a service to archive your disks for you.

I already cleared out my local supermarket of all the 3.5" blanks diskettes a few years ago was something like 50 cents a box of 10

[SACC-guy]

Hi all,

I have a external 5.25" floppydrive and would like to be able to read some old dos floppies I have on my Amiga.

I am not sure how to manage this so need some help from you all.

Appreciate the help!

If you have the amiga 1020 drive and 360 floppies, crossdos will let you read them!

[darkage]

I still cant believe only 360k..  seems like a struggle to fit anything on there.  

More info about the Amiga 1020 drive

http://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics/damigas2.html

[pyrre]

I bought an external 5.25" drive on e-bay (i think it was) and it worked right out of the box. I only have PC0 and fat95 installed.
I bought the disk drive to read and write C64 disks.
I just have not come around to do so. My amigas are still a mess in some boxes around the house after moving 5 times since 2006 when i bought the drive.

[Nick_66]

Hi all,

Thanks for the answers!

I have a Qtec EX-510 5.25" diskdrive and it's heavy!

Is this drive capable of reading 720kb floppies?

[guest11527]

I have a Qtec EX-510 5.25" diskdrive and it's heavy!

Is this drive capable of reading 720kb floppies?

Is this a DD drive? If so - yes.

It is not the disk drive that "supports formats". It is the floppy disk controller, and this does not sit on the drive. Anything that can be connected to the Amiga floppy connector is able to support all formats up to the physical limits of the corresponding disk. The Amiga does not have a "floppy controller" in the sense a PC has, all encoding and decoding is software-controlled - unlike what happens in the PC.

Hence, if the drive is able to physically access DD disks, it will be able to read anything that you can possibly encode on a DD disk on an Amiga - let it be a PC format or let it be an Amiga format.

It may not be able to read HD disks, but this is simply because HD requires a different read/write head, and it is beyond the physical limits of a DD drive to grab the magnetization on a HD drive. Physics limits this, not software.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Is this drive capable of reading 720kb floppies?

I think you have your formats confused. 720kb is the standard capacity of a PC double density 3.5" disk.

[nyteschayde]

Does anyone know if there are similar drive restrictions for 5.25" drives for the Amiga as there are for the 3.5"? i.e. Did Commodore attempt to shove more bytes on the floppies than anybody else did? Or can we use C64 drives and or PC drives without (many) issues?

[guest11527]

Does anyone know if there are similar drive restrictions for 5.25" drives for the Amiga as there are for the 3.5"?

The restrictions for 3.5" drives are not due to the storage capacity, but due to the electrical interface between the host system and the Amiga. As the electrical interface is identical, it is quite certain that you run into similar problems with 5 1/4" drives than with 3 1/2" drives - with one difference: 5 1/4" drives typically do not implement the diskchange signal anyhow.

i.e. Did Commodore attempt to shove more bytes on the floppies than anybody else did?

Yes, but this does not require particular drives. The reason why this is possible is simply that the inter-sector gap of the Amiga format is shorter than that of the PC, and the reason for that is that the Amiga always reads and writes entire tracks, whereas the floppy disk controller of the PC only operates on entire sectors. For that, it requires a longer gap between sectors to compensate for mechanical inaccuracies. The Amiga does not need this.

Or can we use C64 drives and or PC drives without (many) issues?

You will (most likely) run into the very same issues than with 3 1/2" drives, but not due to the storage capacity, but because CBMs floppy bus, which is almost, but not quite identical to what a PC uses. Many drives of the same age could be jumpered to support other interfaces, but the modern (ehem) floppy drives are so cheap, they are just "PC only" because that is the only feature that is needed on the market. If it is needed at all - floppies are obsolete since years, so there is not much demand.