Transfer of date from PC to Amiga

Hi all,

I was wondering how I can transfer Amiga files I downloaded from the internet on my PC to the Amiga.

I tried using Workbench 3.0 and changed DF0 to PC0 and then copied files from the PC disk onto a formatted Amiga disk.

Unfortunately, the Amiga disk was reading as a PC disk after that, so I could not access the files or read the disk properly.

The reason for all this hard work? I really would like to get a SWOS 96/97 editor working on the Amiga.

So could someone please help me. Tell me how I can move amiga files on the internet from my PC to an Amiga disk and get them working.

Thanks,

Matt.

[TikTok]

When you try to copy to the Amiga floppy, make sure you are using the right icon (the one for DF0, not PC0). Remember, you may only have one floppy drive, but the Amiga can "see" it as two different devices - PC0 for PC disks, and DF0 for Amiga disks.

Best bet might be something like this:

<insert PC floppy>
copy pc0:#? ram: ALL
<insert Amiga floppy>
copy ram:#? df0: ALL

Hope this helps If you need any more assistance, just ask.

[Akira]

Why don't you read our announcement about that?

Click here to read it

Thanks people,

I'll try out your idea when I get home, TikTok. Just a question- Is "#?" The filename of what I am copying or do I just use that as it is? Probably a stupid question, but I am ignorant.

One more thing. As I said before, the PC0 drive allows me to copy the disk, but when I use it, the contents of the PC disk cannot be seen (when I double click on the disk, it opens up a window that is empty- saying 51% full). Is this normal?

Anyway- hope it all works.

Cheers,

Matt.

[TikTok]

The "#?" is what you should type. It is a wildcard (similar to MSDOS' *.*). The hash means "any number of characters" (inc none), the question mark means "any character".

You have selected window/show all files when viewing the PC disk, right??

As Akira said, the announcement can also provide a lot of help. Hope this all helps

Thanks for your help,

got the file onto an Amiga floppy disk. However, now I have another problem. The file appears to be an LHA file and will not execute. I think I need this LHA program to run the file properly. I'm now going to try and get that. I think it is a compression program, but I'm not sure.

Any thoughts?

Matt.

[Akira]

http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/aminet

do a search for LHA, I think the file is named lha38.exe or something like that.

Cheers,

I downloaded LHA. It seems to work. However, I have no idea how to use the bloody thing!

The readme does not work, unfortunately. The SWOSED File is not executable, apparently.

Thanks for the help, but it looks like i've got plenty to do yet.

Matt.

[Akira]

You haev todo lha -? to get all its parameters. To extract a file you have to do something like lha -e filename pathtoextract (I am not sure about this, check the online documentation. I have automatized this task with Directory Opus so I kind of forgot how it went )

lha x archive.lha

This will extract to the current directory with full path

If you want to extract it to a different directory

lha x archive.lha Partition:directoryname/path/etc/

Cheers again,

I'll try that when I get back from work. One thing- the SWOS editor has a hammer symbol- what does this mean? I'm sure this is a basic question, but I have not used the Amiga workbench for a few years and even then I never learnt to use it properly.

The hammer sign is the default icon for a tool in workbench where there is no .info file.

Its not a problem.

Double click on the file.

Since it's a hammer icon, it should come up with a box asking for paramaters. Ignore it. Just push ok and it should start

Thanks all,

I tried to open it with LHA just like you said, but unfortunately it did not work. It said that it could not open the archive. I think this editor just doesn't work for some reason, so I'm going to find another one.

But I did manage to updater the game itself with some team files off the net. So I can transfer data between my machines no problem. This editor is a bitch, though!0

Best Wishes all,

[Akira]

Why not post the LHA file so I check it out?

The file is too big to attach- 202kb. It is zipped. Have you got an e-mail address I can send it to?

By the way, on the PC the file has been changed to a word file. I want to change it to an archive again, but I don't know how. Any ideas? This could be the problem.

Cheers,

Matt

[Akira]

Post it in the ADF Zone. Zip it up first.

It's ready to be picked up. Thanks for this.

Matt

[Akira]

I don't have an amiga setup here at work so I'll unLHA it when I get home, ok? Will tell you how it goes tonight.

[Twistin'Ghost]

It sounds to me like you are trying to double-click on the LHA file, which is not yet decompressed. To do this, you need to open a shell/CLI window and extract it from the command line as in Amigaboy's example above. But lha needs to be somewhere in your path first (such as in your C: directory).

Other possibilities:
maybe you is not specifying the location of the file when you are trying to execute it.

A lot of LHA and LZH files downloaded from the net are not recognized by the browser and extra padding gets added to the file, making it not recognized by LHA (or LZX). There is a util (I think at Aminet) called LHAfix or something like that. It strips this data from the file and returns it to normal. As I recall, that tool is a bit of trouble to get working, though.

[Codetapper]

The tasks you have mentioned are all trivial and can all be done with DirOpus - I think you are one of the people that Microsoft dumbs down by trying to make everything nice and pretty with little icons and pictures and sweet lullaby music...

The real power user ditches all the slow graphical CRAP on operating systems as soon as they can do the basics or have a clever replacement program like DOpus.

I assume you have never gotten out your AmigaDos manual and had a play with the commands? All the tasks you say can be done in ONE shell window in 2 lines of code:

(insert pc disk)
copy pc0:swosed.lha ram:
(insert amiga disk)
lha -x e ram:swosed.lha df0:

I think it's quite disgusting how manufacturers try and hide anything which their crappy systems can't do with a mouse click. Microsoft's philosophy is "we don't need to give you any source for this, use our dll we have provided to do it all" even if the dll is crap, bug ridden and full of shit you don't need...

I suggest you get out your manual and have a serious play - make directories, copy files, play with wildcards etc... set protection bits, all easy and explained in the manuals. It's better to understand what is going on and break down a simple task like you originally wanted into it's components (file from pc to an amiga disk after unpacking) than to do it this time and not understand every step.

Read the LHA docs too, they explain everything very well with lots of examples.

Cheers fellas, but I can't find my manual. The machine is quite old and I think my mother threw the manual away. So you can imagine how I felt about that one!

Anyway, you are right that I have never used the manual before anyway. I am more PC literate than Amiga literate, but all I know about the PC I picked up through trial and error. Mainly error.

I'll try out those methods when I get back from work...

KRs,

Matt.

[Akira]

Ok, how do you want this file? I have unLHAed it perfectly. Tell me how you want it (zip, adf, whatever) and I'll up it to the ADF Zone.

HOWEVER I urge you to follow Codetapper's advice, get some practice on AmigaDOS, it will surely pay off

To learn about AmigaDOS (or to have a refresher course), the best way would be to visit http://www.nethkin.com/bmori/amiga/dos1.html

Zip file should be fine, Akira. As long as when it is unzipped it can fit on a floppy...

Thanks lots. I'll try my hand at some practice.

Cheers fellas,

Matt

Right then. I got it working fine. Opened up editor, tried to run it....... ERROR

"Can't open muimaster.library."

So I then looked at the help file, and the damn thing needs MUI 3.5 (or newer) to run. At this point, I am banging my head on the wall. So I've looked around for this. Can anyone tell me where to get MUI, please? I'm gonna keep hunting, but I don't know if I can find it. I found one file but it's over 1 MB. That means I can't transfer it to the Amiga by floppy. Is there a file of less than 800MB?

Thanks for all your help so far,

Matt.

MUI is a GUI package

It's available on Aminet (http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/~aminet/) as a 1mb+ archive. I don't know of any smaller version

[Akira]

And I dont think MUI runs on ANY Amiga... You will need quite some config methinks (but you dont need MCP also, right? I am not sure, I think you dont)

From memory, I think you need Kickstart 2.0+ and at least 1mb of memory (since this thing sucked up half of it)

You don't need MCP to run it

Isn't Kickstart2.0 a piece of software that comes with the Amiga anyway? If I'm wrong, then where would you get hold of it?

Matt

Kickstart is the actual chip inside the computer. If you own an Amiga 1200, 4000, 600, 500 plus (not a standard Amiga 500), 3000 then you have 2.0 or above

Workbench is the software which ships with the Amiga (the current latest being 3.9). If you have a machine running kickstart 2.0 or above, then you are most likely to be running Workbench 2.0 or above.

Thought so,

Mine's a 1200. The workbench is 3.0. So Kickstart is in there.

I just need to get hold of this MUI thing. I downloaded it onto the PC, but it will not fit onto the floppy. Pain in the butt...

Maybe I could connect the two and transfer data through a cable. Is there any way to do this?

http://eab.abime.net/announcement.php?s=&forumid=20

That might help you

[Twistin'Ghost]

You might also consider going to one of the myriad PC PD/SW sites and getting a split/join util that will split the file so it will fit on a PC floppy. Of course, you will also need one on the Amiga to rejoin it.

Splitz/Joinz is an Amiga util that works great for this and you can grab it from Action Amiga Web HQ (Codetapper's site) here:

http://members.tripod.com/whdload/utilities.html

[Akira]

Again, I ask you to check the announcement on this board about the subject. All the info you need is there.

Personally transfering stuff thru disks is quite shitty, you should be using a cable.

[TikTok]

Does your Amiga have a hard disk? I am fairly sure you will need one to install MUI. I get the feeling from all your playing around with floppies that you may not have one???

[Twistin'Ghost]

I personally always hated MUI. It was like java or javascript. Or like a system wedge running in BASIC. I can't put into words quite what I hated about it so much, but very often I would see PD/SW apps that I was interested in and as soon as I'd see the requirement of MUI, I'd just toss them aside. Only a couple of times did I ever break down and install/use MUI for an app that I just had to try out. But never once was it worth it.

[Akira]

I agree. First, it would die on my amiga (I have 2MB but that is not enough), and second, it makes programmers more lazy. Like "Im not goin to program this, MUI handles it".. I hate that kind of shite, that's why I hate the GNU.

[Twistin'Ghost]

Agreed. Furthermore, I always found that the interfaces used from the MUI library were usually gawdy looking. And if you used these apps in a lower resolution, they would usually not display properly (such as not fitting on screen). And their response time was not good, either.

MUI must have sounded brilliant on paper, but at the end of the day, it's shite.

I'd sooner use AMOS apps...

I have no hard drive, which means it probably won't work then. Oh well. I'll just have to find a SWOS editor that can run without the program. I'll post a new thread and see if anyone knows of such a thing.

Thanks all. At least I've learned alot more about my Amiga.

Matt.