switching from Amiga to PC (no soul overboard )

[Orgue]

This is a tough question to express, so in advance I'm sorry that this question is long and diffuse...

Bascially my question is as simple as it is complex: I want an Amiga laptop...
Okay, so I have this fancy laptop computer (windows XP) but I want it to be an Amiga. Amiga never really made laptops, so I have no real choice... I've already thought about circuit bending an Amiga 600 but I'm afraid I'm too stupid to get that off the ground.

I want to use the laptop for music only, just like I do with my Amiga. I use Octamed 4.0 and I hope I could run that on the laptop becase I refuse to part with that program. Is that possible at all? Can I run Octamed 4.0 on my laptop? And if it ca be done, will it be able to sequence midi thru the USB midi interface I've got?

I'd also like to transfer my .mod's (they only consist of midi notes, no audio at all) to tha same laptop. How can I do such, since my Amiga can not read dos disks and my PC refuses amiga DD disks... I can't hook up my amiga 1200 to internet to download any software I need, but if needed I'm willing to get whatever I need to make this happen.

Has anybody an idea I could work with? I'm rather desperate

(oh, if this is of any help: I've got an Amiga 1200 with workbench 3.9 and 100mb harddisk and a 1ghz Compaq laptop running XP)

[Kronos]

Well thats easy ......

You will need WinUAE.

Install that on the Laptop.
Use the transom-tool to make a snapshot of your A1200's ROM (or google for it).

Find a way to transfer the contents of your HD to the Laptop.

[Kronos]

Transfering file can easily be done with a Null-Modem cable, assuming
your Laptop isn't to new to features that an archaic think as a serial-port.

[Orgue]

Hehe, that easy? I'm already smiling, but if I get this working I'll be the most happy kid on earth and I'll have Santa give my gifts to the poor for atleast 5 years

That transom-tool, how will I get that running on my Amiga? And that transfer, what would be the easiest (not persé cheapest) way to do this? I want to keep using my Amiga and make transfers from time to time.

[that_punk_guy]

There's a page here about using MIDI through UAE:

http://fromwithin.com/liquidmidi/uae.html

It talks about Bars & Pipes, but it should be applicable to OctaMED too. (Incidentally, you might like to find a copy of OctaMED Soundstudio - it takes a couple of weeks to get used to, but it's worth it.)

You shouldn't encounter any difficulty reading DOS disks on your Amiga. Format a DD disk (any old Amiga disk will do) on your PC, choosing 720K format.

On your Amiga's HD, make sure the "PC0" icon shows in your devs/dosrivers drawer, and you should be able to read/write using the disk, using the pc0: handle wherever you would normally use df0:

[Kronos]

The transrom-tool is included in the WinUAE-package, and is run in the
Amiga-Shell. Don't forget to redirect the output  :-o

"transrom >kick.rom" will leave a file kick.rom in the current dir and you
will need to transfer that to the PC. But honestly useing google is the
easier way to obtain such a file  :-D

@some_pop_gal
AFAIK you can't format 720k with XP, but it should be able to read them.
So one would need to format it on the Amiga.

But is still think a serial link would be easier, use "Term" on the Amiga,
and something similar on the XP-side.

[Orgue]

Oh darn... Maybe Santa can stop one time and give me the knowledge I need ;)Or maybe a manual so I can RTFM

First things first

XP can indeed not format 720K disks. However, it should indeed be able to read them. I formatted a disk on the Amiga, but XP won't read it... It says 'disk not formatted'. Did I do something wrong on the Amiga (I formatted it in workbench, no other formatting tool) or is there something else wrong?

[AltRN8]

Oh I have to disagree here. Windows can format 720K disks just fine.
Not easily mind you but it can do it. You just have to think like a Micro$oft programmer. You have to take away choice by removing the GUI cause noone should be using 720K disks anymore anyway, right?

Having struggled with this problem recently myself here is how you can format a floppy as 720K in WinXP.

From a command prompt:

FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9 /X /V:EMPTY /FS:FAT

Obvious right

Just add this one to the stack of one more reason M$ stinks.

[alx]

(I formatted it in workbench, no other formatting tool)

I'm assuming that you just did a normal format rather than formatting it as MS-DOS?  If so, that's the problem - Windows cannot read Amiga disks (without different hardware) - if you can format it as MS-DOS you should be fine.

[that_punk_guy]

Kronos wrote:
AFAIK you can't format 720k with XP, but it should be able to read them.

:-o

For what possible reason?! M$ are so retarded... :-(

[cgutjahr]

Orgue wrote:
XP can indeed not format 720K disks. However, it should indeed be able to read them. I formatted a disk on the Amiga, but XP won't read it... It says 'disk not formatted'. Did I do something wrong on the Amiga (I formatted it in workbench, no other formatting tool) or is there something else wrong?

Your Amiga disk drive does not know about DD/HD disks, it assumes that every disk you insert is a DD disk. A PC knows about HD disks, so if you insert a HD disk, the PC will treat it as such.

If you're formatting HD disks to 720K (these have an additional hole, across from the write protect/enable hole), your PC becomes confused. Use black tape or sth. like that to cover the additional hole and your PC will think it's a DD disk.

If that's not the reason for your problems, try several different disks. Some disks work, some don't. Usually, I get better results when formatting the disk on the PC.

[Orgue]

Luckily I have another computer that runs windows ME and it can format 720. However... when I inser the disk in my Amiga I get the DFO? icon...

[NightShade737]

You can format 720k disks with NT too using the command:

Format A: /t:80 /n:9

[Kronos]

Goto the "storage"-drawer on your workbench, open "dosdrivers", and doubleclick "PC0". Might need a diskchange, but after that it should regognize the disk, with whatever name Win assigned to it.

You can now safely ignore the DF0:, and drop files into the other one.

If you want to have it activated on every boot, you must move "PC0" to the "dosdrivers"-drawer inside the "devs"-drawer on your workbench.

[Orgue]

Yeah, that worrks!!

So now I've gotten this far that I have the kick.rom in my RAM disk. A page on the internet says something about Crossdos? Where can I find that?

(the page I refer to is http://ale.emuunlim.com/get-kick-rom.htm)