zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle) (04/16/91)
In article <1991Apr15.205242.1@acad2.alaska.edu> axpmw@acad2.alaska.edu writes: >Stupid question - but I thought I read somewhere that there was >a program that would read an ibm disk (ascii datafiles) from a >normal amiga disk drive. "Stupid" questions like this belong in comp.sys.amiga.introduction. In fact, is this in the FAQ file? If not, it should be there. >Is there one? Will it work an an a3000 under 2.0? Where can I find >it, if such a program exists? There are two. One, called MessyDos is free. You'll find it on a Fred Fish disk. It malfunctions under 2.0, however. The other, called Cross Dos, is not free. You can buy it at your nearest Amiga Dealer or via mail order. It does work under 2.0. Both of these systems turn your Amiga drive into an MS-DOS drive. You can use the drive to do anything to an MS-DOS disk that you can do to an AmigaDos disk. Dan Zerkle zerkle@iris.eecs.ucdavis.edu (916) 754-0240 Amiga... Because life is too short for boring computers.
jlong@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (John Long) (05/09/91)
In article <8790@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle) writes: >In article <1991Apr15.205242.1@acad2.alaska.edu> axpmw@acad2.alaska.edu writes: >>Stupid question - but I thought I read somewhere that there was >>a program that would read an ibm disk (ascii datafiles) from a >>normal amiga disk drive. > >There are two. One, called MessyDos is free. You'll find it on a >Fred Fish disk. It malfunctions under 2.0, however. The other, >called Cross Dos, is not free. You can buy it at your nearest Amiga >Dealer or via mail order. It does work under 2.0. Both of these >systems turn your Amiga drive into an MS-DOS drive. You can use the >drive to do anything to an MS-DOS disk that you can do to an AmigaDos >disk. > > Dan Zerkle zerkle@iris.eecs.ucdavis.edu (916) 754-0240 > Amiga... Because life is too short for boring computers. Good question indeed. After looking at the docs for both products, I down- loaded a demo of crossdos for free. CrossDos appeared to be the easiest to install, and it was *fairly* easy to install on my 2000. The way it is set up now, drive df0: can also be called di0: When a msdos disk is in, you call it di0: and when an amiga disk is in, you call it df0: It is transpearent compatible with all directory requesters I've used. In the demo version, you can read, but not write, which is a good demo strategy, imho. If you attempt to write, you get a "disk protected" alert box from the o.s. Good error handling, that. If you put an amiga disk into the drive, and say 'dir di0:' you will get an alert saying 'not a dos disk' and vice- versa if you go 'dir df0:' with a msdos disk in the drive. Good. For me, it's exactly what I need. I do an ftp download to our local vax, next I send via zmodem to a mac being used as a terminal on the vax at 19,200 baud. Then I use 'apple file exchange' go from the mac to a msdos disk. And from there to the Amiga. The disk is formatted for msdos but never touches a msdos machine! A round-about way I admit, but it works. (The amiga is located some- where else, so I can't plug it into the vax. Shucks. Also, because of the way the different disk formats are, the 'dir' command is notably faster on an msdos disk. I don't have the ftp location handy, but I could find it if you can't find it yourself. Aloha, -LongJohn