CompuServe Thread

If you've got a 3.5 inch drive, you can download files to that disk and give it to him. However, in order to read it he'll need special software to read it with the Amiga drive. You can get that software commercially, or from our library. I think the commercial program is called CrossDos. The PD/Shareware program is called MessyDos and is available in AmigaTech's libraries Another method is to hook up the two machines via a null modem cable. If you do this, be careful and check the pinouts on both machines! The Amiga has power going out on a couple of pins on the serial port, and you might end up frying something. If he's really interested in getting software, you might want to see about getting him signed up for CIS. We've got a program called WHAP! in the libraries that will automate sessions to CIS and save a lot of money. Hope this helps! Steve

Michelle: Steve left out a couple of things. a) in addition to MessyDOS (here) and CrossDOS (a commerical Amiga program which permits MSDOS 3.5" disks to be read in an Amiga drive) there is also Dos-2-Dos, which does the same thing! b) in all of the above cases, so far as I know, the 3.5" disk MUST be formatted at 720K, NOT 1.2K. ?|^] Ray Lewis

Michelle, It can be done easily if your friend has one of the several programs that will read MS-DOS disks. My favorite is a commercial package called CROSSDOS, which he can get from any dealer for about $20-25. It lets him use his drive as an Amiga drive when he calls it an Amiga name; as an MS-DO S drive when he addresses it with the name he selected for MS-DOS drives. There is a freely distributable program that does much the same thing, though it did not work as dependably for me, but it is in Library 9 of AmigaUser: MSDOS.ARC/B 24K 22-Feb-89 Transfer IBM-format files to AmigaDOS format There is another commercial program called DOS-2-DOS that is good, too. I used it until CROSSDOS came along. With these programs, he can just put your disk into his drive, copy the programs to an Amiga disk in the other drive, and then unarchive them, etc. Betty

If he has an external 3.5" drive, he could use the PcCopy program that came with his system on the extras disk along with a PD program called PcPatch to enable the reading of 720K floppies. Without the PcPatch program, he'll only be able to read 360K 3.5" floppies. Good Luck! Bruno Kochan 76665,376