Reading 1.44m pc disks on Amiga 1.76m drive

[ancalimon]

I've installed a FZ-357A inside my A1200 for testing. Tried formatting the disk in PC CMD. copied some files there. Now how do I make the Amiga read that high density disk?

Do I need to install the newer version of CrossDos? (I think I have the one that came with os3.9 installed on my Amiga) Right now there is pc0 and pc1 but they look like they are for 720kb disks. what should the mountlist be for high density pc disk?

EDIT: it works after I installed Crossdos7 Gold. Just need to figure a way out how to upgrade the 7.02 files to 7.04. It gurus right now when I try to. I guess something related to spatch.

[PopoCop]

Amiga 1200 with 1.76 MB drive should read and write PC 1.44 MB disks with standard PC0/PC1 drivers. No other software is needed. The only disadvantage is that standard PC drivers from Workbench 3.0/3.1 only show MS-DOS filenames (8 characters long).

[AmigaFriend]

Originally Posted by PopoCop

Amiga 1200 with 1.76 MB drive should read and write PC 1.44 MB disks with standard PC0/PC1 drivers. No other software is needed. The only disadvantage is that standard PC drivers from Workbench 3.0/3.1 only show MS-DOS filenames (8 characters long).

True. 3.9 has the same behaviour.

But standard WB 3.0> PC0 drivers always worked well for me on my 1.76MB drive no need to install anything else.

[lifeschool]

That's right, nothing to add here except that I used to have a Power XL drive which did need to use a special patch to access the 'HD' side of the drive - it worked fine for 880/720 disks. I guess that only applies to that particular drive though.

[thomas]

If the drive automatically distinguishes between 880KB and 1760KB disks, it should distinguish between 720KB and 1440KB disks in the same way.

Try to insert a 1760KB disk and format PC0: on the Amiga, then check if the PC can read it.

[ancalimon]

I didn't actually mount the PC0: file that came with OS3.9 I just looked at the PC0 text file and saw "720k PC floppy" entry there. So I thought I needed CrossDos Gold for HD

Anyway I installed CrossDos gold and updated it to 7.4 using spatch command. It reads 1.44 mb disks. Somehow, it feels real nice knowing that I can make my Amiga read high density disks. Not that it's useful.. Sending files via wireless is much faster. :P

The Amiga keeps writing and writing to the floppy. Pretty weird! Maybe I can create a 1 disk version of a 2disk game I like.

The drive is FZ 357A. It knows when I insert a hd floppy. Though it becomes very slow when using high density floppies. :/

[prowler]

Originally Posted by ancalimon

The drive is FZ 357A. It knows when I insert a hd floppy. Though it becomes very slow when using high density floppies. :/

This is because the drive runs at 300rpm (just like normal DD drives) when reading/writing DD floppies, but slows to 150rpm when reading/writing HD floppies. This is how the drive fits twice as many sectors on a track while maintaining the same data rate.

Originally Posted by lifeschool

I used to have a Power XL drive which did need to use a special patch to access the 'HD' side of the drive - it worked fine for 880/720 disks. I guess that only applies to that particular drive though.

The Power Computing XL external High Density floppy drive needs no patch to read HD floppies; the patch is required only to write/format them.

[LocalH]

I recommend using fat95 over CrossDOS thanks to VFAT LFN support, no more 8.3 crap (and no more .INF<->.info conversion).

[ancalimon]

Originally Posted by LocalH

I recommend using fat95 over CrossDOS thanks to VFAT LFN support, no more 8.3 crap (and no more .INF<->.info conversion).

hey thanks for reminding me! It's been a long time since I started using a real Amiga again. I forgot all about it