Reading AmigaDOS-formatted disks ?

[that_punk_guy]

You can still write a non-dos floppy, with one of the various command line utilities that are available on the net (Aminet's a good place to look). It doesn't matter that AmigaDOS doesn't  the disk because the disk-writing utility does all the necessary work.

Edit: No, zip and lha are different formats. Although they do a similar job, you can't perform actions on zip files with lha or vice versa.

[GreatLor]

Do you have any direct link to one of those utils, please ? I will go home 1 our after after I write this post, so I would hope to get some things working today.

*Edit*

How much bigger will lha files become after they are unpacked ?

[that_punk_guy]

adf2disk: http://www.aminet.net/disk/misc/adf2disk11.lha (readme)

The contents of lha files will unpack to anything from 100% to (I guess) 250% of the size of the lha archive. The efficiency of the compression depends entirely on the type of data you're using. (Data that's already heavily compressed, for instance, won't compress much at all.)

If I recall correctly (forgive me if I'm wrong, this is all from memory) if you type at the command line:

lha v (name of your archive)

You will be given information on the contents of the archive, the compression ratio of each file and their uncompressed size.

[GreatLor]

Thank you so much that_punk_guy, sorry for replying so late, but I've been sick, thanx again !

Another question, I formatted some HD files with Dos2Dos (with the same Dos2Dos I also formatted 2 DD disks which worked fine), but when I try to access their contents the dos (dos-prompt) gives error messages, the DD disks work fine though, even when I try to format them with a pc with the command "format a: /f:720" it gives error messages, I REALY NEED to get the pc accepting 720k-formatted HD-disks, is there any program out there to that for me ?

Thanx in advance !

[Piru]

I REALY NEED to get the pc accepting 720k-formatted HD-disks

Cover the 2nd hole in the HD-disk (not the one that has the tab you can move!), tape will do.

[Noster]

Hi

> I REALY NEED to get the pc accepting 720k-formatted HD-disks

No way by software!

But it is very easy, have a look at a DD and a HD disk. You will see that the HD-disk has an additional hole at the opposite side than the read-write hole. Just use a small sticker and put it over the hole and the PC will think it is a DD disk.

Noster

[GreatLor]

That easy huh ? wow, thanx guys, I appreciate it, hey the pc I'm sitting in front of at the moment, does not accept my dd-disks saying the the filesystem is fo the type RAW and that the new filesystem is of the type FAT, is this "system" hardware or software, if its not hardware, then why does the ms-dos refuse to format ?

*EDIT*

DAMN this, the damn MS-DOS either says that "the disk is unusable, either the thing is defect or the track 0 is damaged" or it starts "formatting" but it would take 20 minutes or so to format, I formatted these at home with Dos2Dos and most of them (except a few) didnt have any defections, dammit the luck has totally turned its back against me, it seem I have supernatural forces against me, I keep telling myself "It seem I will NEVER get what I want" ...  :-(

[Noster]

Hi

> MS-DOS either says that "the disk is unusable, either the thing is defect or the track 0 is damaged"

I have bad experiences in formating HD disks as DD disks, the density of the read/write head seems to have problems with this, therefore it doesn't work with all HD disks (as one might expect if formating in a lower density). In fact I have major problems in formating any floppy-disk on any PC. I think the disks that are sold now are already very old, because noone uses them any more...

> or it starts "formatting" but it would take 20 minutes or so to format

The damn MS-D**F tries to save the contents of any disk that is formated to allow the "unformating" of a disk (see the dos command "Unformat"). If the disk hasn't been formated or has been previously formated in a different format (as in this case) the stupid OS needs very long to detect that there is nothing it could save for unformating :-(
You should call the format command with the following arguments to suppress this behaviour:

   Format A: /U

(the argument /F:720 should not be required if the HD-hole is covered by a sticker)

Noster

[GreatLor]

Thank you for the explenation, also someone gave me a link to a certain adf2disk progg, so I downloaded it and wend home, and what happens when I type in the sole name ? .. well, the comment says that it's only for OS-2.0 or higher, I have 1.3  :-( , isnt there an END to my anti-luck  :pissed:

[hnl_dk]

GreatLor wrote:
Thank you for the explenation, also someone gave me a link to a certain adf2disk progg, so I downloaded it and wend home, and what happens when I type in the sole name ? .. well, the comment says that it's only for OS-2.0 or higher, I have 1.3  :-( , isnt there an END to my anti-luck  :pissed:

I have not read the thread, but have found some tools that you might be able to use:
try tracksaver
devcopy

I don't know the requirement for them, but try to have a look at them

[GreatLor]

THANK YOU, but how weird, look at the size-contrast between these proggs:

http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/aminet/disk/misc/Image2Disk.lha

and

http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/aminet/disk/misc/tequilla.lha

 :-?

*EDIT*

Nevermind the first link, compare this one to the one above:

http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/aminet/disk/misc/Devcopy.lha


Tequilla:    190 K
Devcopy:  2 K

 :-?  :-o  :-?  :-o  :-?  :-o  :-?  :-o  :-?  :-o  :-?  :-o  :-?

[Noster]

Hi

There is not a so large size-contrast, if you have a deeper look on the files:

Tequilla contains some stuff for the wind**f PC. The part that is for the Amiga is only 11KB (decompressed), so fi this part is packed using lha there is only a remaining size of 5 KB :-)
It's the software for the damn PC that is so large.

Noster

[GreatLor]

well I say kill the pc and put tyhe amiga back on the throne !!!  :-D