mike@ronin.cc.umich.edu (Michael Nowak) (10/30/87)
I have an Amiga 2000 and Bridgeboard on order. I am having problems understanding the advantages and disadvantages of putting a hard drive on an Amiga 2000 on the PC side vs. the Amiga side. Some people say you have more options if you put it on the Amiga side, some say you're better off with a hard drive on the IBM side. What would be optimal for me is to have a drive that was acessible equally from both sides, i.e. if you type dir from either side (Amiga or PC), you see all the files on the drive, both Amiga and PC. Then, with a TOPS card on the PC side, I could let my Macintosh use the drive as well and all three computers could use the same hard drive, making it very easy for me to exchange files between all three machines. Is such a thing possible? If so, how is it done? If not, what are the advantages of putting the drive on one side or the other? I appreciate any advice you can give me either via mail or here on the net. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Michael Nowak | "You may not be able to buy | | mike@ronin.cc.umich.edu | happiness, but you certainly | | Working for, but not representing | can lease it!" | | the University of Michigan. | - Patrick Nowak | --------------------------------------------------------------------------
daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie) (11/10/87)
in article <368@tardis.cc.umich.edu>, mike@ronin.cc.umich.edu (Michael Nowak) says: > > What would be optimal for me is to have a drive that was acessible equally > from both sides, i.e. if you type dir from either side (Amiga or PC), you > see all the files on the drive, both Amiga and PC. Then, with a TOPS card > on the PC side, I could let my Macintosh use the drive as well and all three > computers could use the same hard drive, making it very easy for me to > exchange files between all three machines. > > Is such a thing possible? If so, how is it done? If not, what are the > advantages of putting the drive on one side or the other? It's potentially possible, but doesn't exist yet. Here's the main reason. The IBM and the Amiga use two completely different filing systems. You can format an Amiga partition on an IBM harddisk, or put an IBM file system in an Amiga file, but it's not the same, because both machines don't initially read the same filesystem. So what you need is to teach one machine to read the filesystem of the other, and then hook this into that machine's operating system. No easy task. The IBM has a basically hard-wired file system, there's no supported way of adding alternate file systems to the IBM. On the Amiga side, this is very possible, for example, the RAM: disk uses a custom file handler different than that of the standard Amiga file system used for floppies and hard disks. And one could write a file system for the Amiga that used the underlying stuctured of PC-DOS, UNIX, or whatever, given enough effort on the part of the implementor. And that effort is non-trivial, which is probably why no one's done it yet (at least to my knowledge). You also risk some compatibility with alternate file systems, if they're not written very carefully. So basically, it's possible, but nontrivial. > Michael Nowak -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga Usenet: {ihnp4|caip|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh "The B2000 Guy" PLINK : D-DAVE H BIX : hazy "Computers are what happen when you give up sleeping" - Iggy the Cat
mike@ronin.cc.umich.edu (Michael Nowak) (11/11/87)
In article <2708@cbmvax.UUCP> daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie) writes: >in article <368@tardis.cc.umich.edu>, mike@ronin.cc.umich.edu (Michael Nowak) says: >> >> What would be optimal for me is to have a drive that was acessible equally >> from both sides, i.e. if you type dir from either side (Amiga or PC), you >> see all the files on the drive, both Amiga and PC. Then, with a TOPS card >> on the PC side, I could let my Macintosh use the drive as well and all three >> computers could use the same hard drive, making it very easy for me to >> exchange files between all three machines. >> > >It's potentially possible, but doesn't exist yet. Here's the main reason. >The IBM and the Amiga use two completely different filing systems. You can >format an Amiga partition on an IBM harddisk, or put an IBM file system in >an Amiga file, but it's not the same, because both machines don't initially >read the same filesystem. > >So what you need is to teach one machine to read the filesystem of the other, >and then hook this into that machine's operating system. No easy task. The >IBM has a basically hard-wired file system, there's no supported way of adding >alternate file systems to the IBM. On the Amiga side, this is very possible, >for example, the RAM: disk uses a custom file handler different than that of >the standard Amiga file system used for floppies and hard disks. And one could >write a file system for the Amiga that used the underlying stuctured of PC-DOS, >UNIX, or whatever, given enough effort on the part of the implementor. And >that effort is non-trivial, which is probably why no one's done it yet (at >least to my knowledge). You also risk some compatibility with alternate >file systems, if they're not written very carefully. > >So basically, it's possible, but nontrivial. > >> Michael Nowak > >-- >Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga Usenet: {ihnp4|caip|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh > "The B2000 Guy" PLINK : D-DAVE H BIX : hazy > "Computers are what happen when you give up sleeping" - Iggy the Cat I asked a friend of mine on my BBS (the Starship Excelsior, 313-662-6609) about this and he suggested the following: Msg: #1968 Sec: 9 - PC Station 08-NOV-87 07:32 PM Subj: SETTING UP BRIDGEBOARD From: Donald Burnett To: ALL Here is what you need to do to make the bridgeboard configure correctly under MS-DOS 3.2. This is glossed over in the bridgeboard manual.. First, run the PCDisk program on the bridgeboard workbench, then go into ms-dos. Use a back-up of the MS DOS disk that comes with it. Type the following: A>Copy CON:CONFIG.SYS (and hit return.) DEVICE = JDISK.SYS (RETURN) DEVICE = RAMDRIVE.SYS (RETURN) (then type CTRL Z). now on the AmigaDOS side of the machine type: 1>MAKEDIR DH0:PCFILES (and hit return). Then on the MS-DOS side type: A>EDLIN autoexec.bat (return). *I (At the Edlin prompt. and hit return). Then type: 1:*JLINK d: dh0:PCFILES (return) 2:*^Z (return) *EXIT (return). This will make an autoexec that will install the virtual drive d: to your amigaDos drive and the floating partition to the already created subdirectory. The earlier creation of the Config.sys file under MS-DOS installs the device drivers for the Janus libraries (bridge to AmigaDOS) and installs ram drive C. Then before rebooting the bridgeboard type the following dos command in immediate mode. A>JLINK d: dh0:PCFILES /c1000000 (return). This initialize the virtual drive d: and tell it what size (in bytes) that the partition should start at. You can substitute the df0: for dh0: just trim down the size in bytes you have available. That's all you have to do to get the 2000 to share resources with the PC.. What will this do for me? Assuming this was done, what happens when I type dir dh0:PCFILES from the Amiga side? Unfortunately, my BridegeBoard hasn't come in yet, so I can't try this out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In Real Life: Michael Nowak | Cogito Via Internet: mike@ronin.cc.umich.edu | Ergo Via UUCP: uunet!umix!ronin.cc.umich.edu!mike | Zoom! Working for but in no way representing the University of Michigan. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------