#CrossDos Problem
11 messages in this thread
Hello there and help????!!!!???
Why can no Mac (using Apple File Exchange) read my MS-DOS formatted disks,
that are formatted on my Amiga 2000? I have to use disks formatted on the
Mac, to use them to transfer data.
Also, I have an AMax II emulator, but there seems to be no driver (?.amhd)
for my accelerator/controller, a Zeus 040. Has anyone a solution (that
costs nothing)?
-Steve
I think MACs will only read 1.4meg DOS floppies. If you haven't upgraded
to a hi density drive on your A2000 that may be it. I had that a slight
problem recently. I copied the files on a DOS machines to a 1.44 and the
MAC read the files just fine.
Robb
Stephen, Robert is correct, the Apple Macintosh will only read 1.44 MS-DOS
formatted diskettes. The reason is probably something to do with the disk
encoding schemes used (MFM, GCR etc) which is usually hardware based. (However
this is not true of Amiga drives which are dumb drives capable of doing GCR and
MFM)
Anyway, the Amiga will not read Mac Disks without extra hardware and PC disks
without extra software (CrossDOS/MessyDOS). Macs will read 1.44 PC disks with
s/ware, PC's can read 1.44 Mac disks with s/ware, but it's a mystery whether
either could be coaxed to read Amiga disks with s/ware (I'll guess we'll never
know…) Hope this is helpful Steve Gardiner – Sipping afternoon tea in London
Steve,
I do this all the time… I put a new DD into a Quadra 950 with Apple
File Exchange running. It asks me if I want to format it as (1) Macintosh
400k (2) MS-DOS 720k or (3) ProDOS 800k. Whats real interesting, though,
is if the disk was previously Amiga formatted (Amiga format), the Mac will
be unable to format it at all, saying the disk is corrupted! ( I find it
insulting!)
-Steve
Not just Macs- IBM drives will likewise fail to format any disk that has
been formatted for Mac. I had to reformat them to Amiga, and THEN format
in DOS. It's all very strange. . . <G>
-Karl
Not all that strange, if you think about how a disk is formatted;
It's all to do with track 0 (on the PC you'll get a bad disk error which
points towards track 0). When different machines format the disks, they
put down different formats (naturally) on track 0, this causes the PC and
Mac to give up!
Proves that the Amiga is the better box, it doesn't have that problem eh?
Kevin
Flying AutoPilot from Surrey in the UK
No, the Mac will read/write/format DD 720Kb floppies as well as 1.44 HD's.
It just wont read DD floppies formatted as DOS disks from my Amiga. I can
read DD DOS disks formatted from the Mac, though. I should get a HD drive
simply because a full screen 24 bit image is too big for a DD floppy. I
think the reason I haven't is, I planned to get my AMaxII+ working again
and use a Syquest to transfer images. But, I can't find a SCSI driver
(#?.amhd) for my Zeus 040 board.
-Steve
I think it depends on what MAC and software you have at hand.
What do you mean you can't find a SCSI driver for your Zeus?
I don't have a clue about the Zeus, but…
Robb
The AMax comes with a bunch of SCSI drivers that provide access to Mac
formatted drives or partitions through certain SCSI controllers.
Unfortunately, the Zeus controller is not one of them. I have a Trumpcard
Pro which will work, but I have other plans for my Zorro slots.
-Steve
Are you doing this with 1.44 floppies or double-density floppies? Lately, I've
noticed that many people are using HD disks in their 800K Amiga drives. This
confuses most computers that using 1.44 floppies… they expect them to be
high-density, because of the extra hole across from the write-protect hole, but
they're not. Perhaps the Mac is having the same problem. I've used both HD and
DD floppies formatted as MS-DOS disks with Apple File Exchange as well as
Access PC without trouble. Of course, to use HD disks, you also need to have an
HD "SuperDrive" on the Mac, too.
Nope John,
I use DD disks. On the very rare occasion, a Mac LCIII will read my DOS
disk, but the Quadra 950 has never and neither has my Quadra 605. When
they format a DOS disk, I have no problem reading and writing to them on
my Amiga.
-Steve