U39648@uicvm.uic.edu (Darius Vaskelis) (01/30/91)
Problem: Two computers, one is a 386 MS-DOS computer with a 1.44M floppy, the
other is an Amiga 500 with a Xetec FastTrak SCSI Host Adapter hooked
up to a Seagate 277N 65M drive. It has 1M RAM and a SuperAgnus.
It's occasionally become necessary to exchange data between these
computers, and it would be highly desirable to allow the exchange of
floppy disks between them... so...
What is the easiest way to get the Amiga to read MS-DOS 720K or 1.44M
floppies? Or, to get the 386 to read AmigaDOS 800K floppies?
A CHEAP solution is being sought, preferably free, so steer away from
recommending commercial solutions. Any help from anyone out there is
appreciated.
Also, I've heard that there are software-only ways to get an Amiga to
emulate an MS-DOS computer. Could someone outline a few, and any
advantages or disadvantages of each? Keep in mind this needs to be
compatible with a 1M Amiga 500. Even a SSSLLLOOOWWW emulation of
MS-DOS is acceptable.
- Darius
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BITNET: U39648@UICVM | "Don't set fire to strangers."
Internet: u39648@uicvm.uic.edu | - Mr. Zarniwoopdweaver@phoenix.pub.uu.oz.au (Justin Deeley) (02/03/91)
In <91029.212530U39648@uicvm.uic.edu> U39648@uicvm.uic.edu (Darius Vaskelis) writes: >Problem: Two computers, one is a 386 MS-DOS computer with a 1.44M floppy, the > other is an Amiga 500 with a Xetec FastTrak SCSI Host Adapter hooked > up to a Seagate 277N 65M drive. It has 1M RAM and a SuperAgnus. > It's occasionally become necessary to exchange data between these > computers, and it would be highly desirable to allow the exchange of > floppy disks between them... so... > What is the easiest way to get the Amiga to read MS-DOS 720K or 1.44M > floppies? Or, to get the 386 to read AmigaDOS 800K floppies? > A CHEAP solution is being sought, preferably free, so steer away from > recommending commercial solutions. Any help from anyone out there is > appreciated. > Also, I've heard that there are software-only ways to get an Amiga to > emulate an MS-DOS computer. Could someone outline a few, and any > advantages or disadvantages of each? Keep in mind this needs to be > compatible with a 1M Amiga 500. Even a SSSLLLOOOWWW emulation of > MS-DOS is acceptable. >- Darius HI, probably the best two cheap solutions are either MessyDos which consists of a file system and a mountlist entry. One simply mounts the device and then use your existing Amiga floppy drives under a different device name for 720k IBM disks. e.g. df0: could me mounted as ms0: etc... This is a public domain package and is widely available on BBS's all over the place. The other cheap solution is Dos2Dos which is slow but does the job. I'm not sure if this is P.D. though. If you want to spend money you can always invest in CrossDos and I don't think that this is too much. As regards software emulators, there is the IBM Transformer which one sees floating around in various places. This is VERY slow, and very limited but it DOES work (Just!). I think that some releases of this were P.D. and some were not. The other alternative, as you have a 500, is to invest in one of these IBM emulator cards for the 500 and I think you'll find that these aren't too expensive. If you have any trouble getting hold of any of this, Mail me! Justin Deeley (dweaver@phoenix.pub.uu.oz.au)