Floppies readable by PC and amiga drives?

[Dreedo]

Hi, i wondered if there are floppies that can be read by standard PC and amiga floppy drives. I know Amiga drives can recognize 880/720kb IBM floppies, but im not sure if they need to be modified for that. But can PC's also read those floppies? As all my current floppies (about 50) are all 1.44mb or 2mb IBM HD floppies, which dont work on most amiga's.

Not sure if this is exactly legal to be asking, but i know a lot of companies have released their games for free, such as Team 17.

[thomas]

DD floppies can be read by all drives. Just Windows XP does not support formatting 720K. But it can read them perfectly.

HD floppies can only be read by HD drives. There are HD floppy drives for the Amiga which can format disks to 1760K Amiga format or 1440K PC format.

A PC will not be able to read/write Amiga format (880K or 1760K). And games will not work from PC formatted disks (720K or 1440K). So the only way to write games to Amiga disks is to transfer the images (ADF, DMS) to the Amiga and then write them to disk.

Or buy a Catweasel controller which is able to write ADF files to Amiga disks with a normal PC floppy drive.

[gilgamesh]

PCs with two floppy drives can read Amiga floppies (unless they are copy protected), but for writing you need special hardware, like thomas said.

[alexh]

Just a few notes:

Originally Posted by thomas

Just Windows XP does not support formatting 720K.

Only the GUI option was removed. You can still open a command window and type format a: /n:9 /t:80

Originally Posted by thomas

A PC will not be able to read Amiga format 880K

I thought you could use two PC floppy disk drives and a tool called DISK2FDI to read non copy protected Amiga disks?

[gilgamesh]

Disk2FDI and ADFRead work. But how many per cent of games are not copy protected?

[alexh]

I guess it depends what character of person you were? I imagine most users disk collections are not copyprotected

[Interceptor]

perhaps KryoFlux beta would be suitable, more info here:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=50936

[_ThEcRoW]

1.44 floppies can be used to write back adf images. I do it with verbatim 1.44 disks and write them with a catweasel. The a500 read these perfectly, and i don't have to tape the hole for it to be recognized by the amiga drive.

[Dreedo]

So basically, i can put a 880KB floppy in my PC, and i can write to it, but it won't be read by my A600 (P.s. i finally purchased one today off of EBAY), unless i use a tool.

So really the only way for me to download and play games on my amiga is to purchase something? Thats annoying. :P

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Dreedo

So basically, i can put a 880KB floppy in my PC, and i can write to it, but it won't be read by my A600 (P.s. i finally purchased one today off of EBAY), unless i use a tool.

It depends what you want to write to it and what Workbench version your A600 is running.

Workbench 2.0+ comes with the CrossDOS filesystem, which means you can read Amiga 880K disks formattted as 720K DOS disks.

Originally Posted by Dreedo

So really the only way for me to download and play games on my amiga is to purchase something? Thats annoying. :P

No, you can download games and split the ADF images or compress them to less than 720K to get them over to your Amiga on DOS-formatted disks.

[alexh]

You've got an A600?

Fit a cheap IDE->CF adapter + CF card to the internal IDE. It will cost about £5. Glue the IDE->CF adapter ontop of the PCMCIA connector on the motherboard & increase the height of the PCMCIA slot in the outer case with a file so you can get your CF card in and out easily.

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=641195&postcount=66

If you don't like the idea of gluing and filing your A600. Spend some more money in addition to the parts above and use a PCMCIA->CF adapter (and CF card) to rapidly transfer files to your Amiga from the PC.

Either write the ADF files back to disk or play games from hard drive with http://www.whdload.de

[gilgamesh]

How about null modem cable + TwinExpress and such.

[Dreedo]

Ugh so many suggestions.

So a null modem cable (serial i presume, do computers still have these?) coupled with that twinexpress program can copy files to an amiga HDD?

I heard that twinexpress is needed on both the PC and the amiga in order to work, how do i actually get the program onto the amiga in the first place?

I looked at the CF card idea, but it seems a little complex and costs a bit, i just spent a ton of my money on the amiga in the first place, so i only have £1.50 atm, the cheaper the better for me.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Dreedo

i just spent a ton of my money on the amiga in the first place

Eh?? An old A600 normally costs about £20. Mint condition and boxed was it?

Originally Posted by Dreedo

copy files to an amiga HDD?

You already have an Amiga HDD?? Whip it out and put it on a spare IDE connection in your desktop PC. Use WinUAE or ADFViewer to write files to it. Then put it back in the Amiga.

If you do not have a 2.5"->3.5" adapter then PM me your details and I'll send you one.

[Dreedo]

>.> £20 is a tonne of money for me, it cost me £29 with shipping, then i had to spend £3 on a 520 adaptor, and i only had £33.50 in the first place.

No i dont have an amiga HDD :/. Im sure i can get one next week sometime, unfortunatly i think im lacking like..... the basics i really need. For example the amiga comes with nothing, except leads, from what i've read, i need workbench discs, the twinexpress tutorial really isnt helping me much.

From what you've said i plug my amiga hdd to my pc, put the files i need onto the hdd then put it back in the amiga and i can run the files? I could probably do that, but it would be a bit of a hassel taking my computer apart everytime i wanted to put files on, and im bound to damage something, im not very good at the internal side of pc's.

[alexh]

Erm ok... ask your dad for a rise in pocket money

[Dreedo]

awwww, stuck with £5 a week im afraid :P.

So can you provide a list of items i need to actually do it?

So far i have:

- Amiga HDD - With this i spend a few minutes pluggin into PC while my parents are cringing as i plunge a screw driver into the heart of the machine, then as i copy the files, i can remove it and plug it into the amiga, hence the files are on their.

I have no idea what a 2.5" to 3.5" adaptor is, presumably Amiga HDD are smaller than the standard HDD, as i think my HDD is 3.5".

And what are peoples thoughts and the null modem cable idea? Does that work similarly to a standard HDD > HDD process that people use everyday over PC's on LAN's?

EDIT#3: Also is an amiga HDD capable of being plugged in externally, otherwise i'd have to unplug the pc, take it apart, put hdd in, put it back together, plugging it in, copying the files, then repeating the process.

[cosmicfrog]

if you got a usb external hard drive you might be able to plug it in to that, still involves taking it apart

either way you going to be learnin a lot about computers


least you come to the right place

[Dreedo]

http://ale.emuunlim.com/guides/file-transfer.shtml

Would that guide work? If i got a Workbench disc?

[cosmicfrog]

thats the gist of coping stuff from pc to amiga pc formated disk

edit

have you got your 600 up and running yet ?