Catweasel MK2 and other disk formats i.e. Apple II and Commodore 64

[MoreBITS]

I was very excited to receive a Catweasel MK2 for Christmas this year.

I have installed it in my Amiga 1200 using the clock port.

I used the included disk to install the drivers etc.

I am able to read a Commodore 64 disk using an old 5 1/4" PC floppy attached to the Catweasel.

I have been searching Google, and this forum like crazy trying to figure out how to read and write disk images.

I threw a couple of .d64 images on a compact flash card as well as a couple of Apple II image files.

The Amiga doesn't recognize either file format.

Is it possible to write .d64 or .dsk files to real floppies and visa versa?

What else do I need to install, or read to do this?

[prowler]

Hi MoreBITS,

Did you get a manual with your Catweasel?

If not, here is a link to an online manual for the Catweasel Amiga versions:
http://siliconsonic.de/t/catman0.html

Edit: Here is the current downloads page: http://siliconsonic.de/t/bin/

In particular, multidisk.device 3.65 is the latest driver for Catweasel MK2:
http://siliconsonic.de/t/bin/multidisk365.lha

[MoreBITS]

Hi Thank you Prowler,

I appreciate the links.

I did receive a printed version of the manual with the card. It appears to be the same as what you have linked to.

I have the card working, I am able to read files from a Commodore 64 floppy disk.

What I am concerned about is the function of being able to create and write image files with the Catweasel.

The product information specifically mentions being able to use D64 image files.

However, there is no mention of the D64 format in the manual.

Is there another piece of software required to create and write image files?

Ultimately what I want to be able to do is create image filles from Apple II, Macintosh, Atari, and Commodore disks. And then also be able to take image files from the web and write real disks for each of the above systems.

Is this within the scope of the Catweasel?

[prowler]

I must admit that I don't know very much about the Catweasel MK2.

I have Catweasels MK1, MK3 and MK4 and have used them in my PCs with the Windows OS. The drivers and software for those comprises an ImageTool, which makes reading and writing of variously-formatted floppy disks possible in order to dump images of the disks and write them back too.

It could be that the Amiga interface for the MK2 card is more geared towards using the floppy disks connected via the card with emulators, and that may be how you should expect to be able to create disk images.

All this sort of thing is certainly within the scope of all Catweasel cards, but the software doesn't seem to have been developed to the extent required to exploit that ability to it's fullest extent.

I haven't read the Catweasel MK2 manual, but I downloaded it last night.

I'll read through it tomorrow if I get time, and see if I can give you some better advice after that.

Edit1: It may help you to read the Catweasel MK3 manual too. It has a 'flipper' design, with a PC PCI edge connector along the lower edge of the card and an Amiga Zorro slot along the upper edge, so it can also be used in big box Amigas (A2000, A4000, etc.). I'll see if I can find a link for that.

Edit2: The latest Catweasel User Manual has a small section covering use in the Amiga, and I'll reproduce it here for you:


Amiga

• I want to use the Catweasel MK4plus in my Amiga. I have PCI slots and OpenPCI installed. What software do I need?

The directory “amiga” on the driver CD contains the LHA-packed driver disk for the Catweasel MK2 anniversary edition. This includes the latest multidisk.device V3.65, which also recognizes the Catweasel MK4(plus) in an OpenPCI slot.

For such an installation, the full Amiga manual applies. The multidisk.device can also be used in emulators that allow access from the emulator to the PCI cards (WinUAE has anoption for that). Again, for such an installation, the Amiga manual will give valuableanswers. Please read:
http://siliconsonic.de/t/catman0.html

It's not much help I'm afraid, but I can maybe upload the content of the MK3/4 driver CDs which applies to the MK2 card for you.

[prowler]

Here's the information relating to the Catweeasel MK2 card which is available on the Individual Computers website Products page:

Catweasel
For Amiga 1200, Amigas with zorro-slots, PCs with ISA Slots

Catweasel is a universal floppy disk controller that uses unmodified PC diskdrives. The Catweasel can handle nearly any disk format, you just have to find a drive for them. Normally, these drives are just 3.5 inch and 5.25 inch drives. PC floppy drives used to be known as being able to work with PC formatted disks only, but now you can access any of the disk formats listed further below. We're updating the software regularly since 1996. Here's the list of the supported formats. This list applies to all versions of the Catweasel!

* all PC-formats (180K up to 1440K)
* Amiga DD and HD (also 5,25" formats)
* Atari 9, 10 and 11 sektor disks
* Macintosh 720K, 800K, 1440K (DD, GCR, HD)
* Commodore 1541, 1571, 1581 (C64, C128 and 3,5" C-64 disks)
* XTRA High density with 2380KByte per disk
* Nintendo backup station 1600KB format
* Atari 800XL (all MFM formats, FM under developement)
* Apple IIe disks (Apple DOS 3.3 and up)
* further 8-bit formats planned

Sophisticated error correction algorithms enable you to read otherwise unreadable disks. In other words, you have an excellent chance to read your formally unreadable floppy disks.

You can connect up to two drives to the Catweasel, and the two drives can be any combination of 3.5" and 5.25".

Catweasel MK2 for Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000
[sold out since october 2001]
The fastest way to give a HD diskdrive to your Amiga! Compared to a standard Amiga-HD drive, Catweasel-drives are up to 2.6 times faster! This peak value is reached when accessing PC 1440K disks. The performance on Amiga HD disks is also very good: We have cracked the speed barrier of 50 seconds for reading a whole Amiga 1760K disk. A HD drive by any other vendor takes more than 80 seconds for the same operation. The Catweasel software is programmed totally system-conform: Programs like ReOrg, Shapeshifter, Fusion, PCx, Frodo, CrossDos and CrossMac work fine with the Catweasel. The latest version of Diavolo Backup also supports the Catweasel, so you can make backups on XTRA HD disks with 2380K per disk!

There's two ways for connecting the Catweasel MK2: In the A1200, it fits to the clock-port. That's the small 22-pin header located between the Kickstart Roms and the memory chips. The function of a real-time clock located on an accelerator board or a memory board is not harmed.
In the A4000, the Catweasel MK2 is connected to the internal IDE port. Again, the function of the IDE port is not harmed in any way: The pass-through of the Catweasel can still be used to connect two IDE devices: One master and one slave. When connected to the A1200 clock-port, the local expansion port is also activated. This port is meant for the Silversurfer Limited Edition.

The Catweasel MK2 is shipped with all the necessary cables and the software on disk, including a filesystem that lets you access C-64 disks as if they were Amiga-disks. You can either directly access files, or make the popular .d64 images. If you feel like writing a .d64 image back to a disk, it's no problem with this filesystem. The disk can then directly be placed into your old C-64 drive!
Catweasel ZII S-Class
The Zorro-Catweasel is a combination of two individual Computers-products. You have a Buddha Flash IDE controller and a Catweasel MK2 on the same card. The Buddha has even got one more IDE port, so you can connect up to six IDE or Atapi devices. You get the full Buddha software package as well as the Catweasel software package - for an incredibly low bundle price!

Some software titles written specifically for use with the Catweasel are mentioned above. Diavolo Backup was featured in a recent thread here and may still be available in The Zone.

Edit: Other useful links:

English Manual for Amiga Version Catweasel Controller:
http://y23.com/apd2/catwmane.htm

Catweasel User Manual (latest version):
http://siliconsonic.de/t/catweasel-usermanual.pdf

Amiga Hardware Database Catweasel MK2 page:
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/catweasel2

Catweasel related pics and archives:
http://siliconsonic.de/products/catweasel/

[zharn]

easy1541 cable (easy to make, amigakit sells them as well) and software (aminet) for reading writing d64 images works perfectly. Did it the other day and real 1541 worked fine.

i use kryoflux for reading amiga & 64 disks.

also have a catweasel mk2 but gave up its appears to be aimed at presenting usable volumes. is there an image tool for the mk2 i would like to try that out. the kryoflux is much better as getting past read errors.

yeah, so image tool link for mk2?

[Jope]

There is no Amiga based image tool for mk2 as far as I know. There are a couple of pre-made mountlists/dosdrivers provided for you in the installation package.

Use dd from the fat95 package to make images after mounting the device that corresponds to the disk type you want to dump? Also I seem to remember the Amiga 1541 filesystem handler might have had a metafile show up inside the disk that allowed you to copy out a d64. Time to read some manuals and doc files. :-)

[MoreBITS]

Originally Posted by Jope

There is no Amiga based image tool for mk2 as far as I know. There are a couple of pre-made mountlists/dosdrivers provided for you in the installation package.

Use dd from the fat95 package to make images after mounting the device that corresponds to the disk type you want to dump? Also I seem to remember the Amiga 1541 filesystem handler might have had a metafile show up inside the disk that allowed you to copy out a d64. Time to read some manuals and doc files. :-)

I am getting back to playing around with this. I didn't have any luck learning the DD command. Would you mind giving me some pointers or an example code to copy a floppy to a file?

If I understand correctly, the DD comand should do a bit for bit copy of the floppy right?

[Jope]

The dd command supplied with Fat95 has its command line arguments adjusted to be more Amiga compatible, so if you just google for instructions, you will find that they are all related to the Unix dd command, which is a bit different.

As far as I remember it, it's

dd df0: myimage.adf

to make an adf of the disk in df0:

Running

dd ?

will give you the usage, check it out and experiment a bit. Be sure to write protect any important disks. :-)

[MoreBITS]

Awesome, I will run a few tests with it.

Hopefully I can get this card to do what it seems to be advertised to do.

Thanks,

[prowler]

Hi MoreBITS,

Please let us know how you get on with your Catweasel MK2 tests, whether you are successful or not.

Experience with this card is rather scarce, and finding relevant and useful information is therefore difficult, as you have found. Anything at all you can report after you have run your tests will improve this situation.

[Calabazam]

Hi.
Bumping this old thread because i would like to know if the Catweasel MK2 for clockport or the Zorro Catweasel finally do allow to read and write 5,25' disks for Apple II and C64.
My only experience with the Catweasel before is with Amiga and MSDOS format 3,5' disks.

[Jope]

It should be possible to write C64 disks to blank floppies at least. I never tried the Apple II format personally, multidisk.device supports it but you'll have to write your own dosdriver and I'm not sure if a filesystem handler exists for those disks.

The flipsides of C64 and Apple II disks will not work without a modified 5.25" drive. I seem to also remember, that CatWeasel always requires an 80 track drive. At least the documentation I found doesn't mention any possibility of disabling double stepping for 40 track formats.

Especially for the Apple II use case, I'm not sure if the Amiga version of the CatWeasel is the best choice in 2023.