| Title: | AMIGA NOTES |
| Notice: | Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2 |
| Moderator: | HYDRA::MOORE |
| Created: | Sat Apr 26 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Wed Feb 05 1992 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 5378 |
| Total number of notes: | 38326 |
I've just bought an Amiga 500. From time to time I want to work
at home, which means transfering text files to and from the Amiga
and a VAX. I don't want to bring the Amiga into work, or take a
VAX home, or use a modem. What other possibilities are there?
At work, we have various machines with 5 1/4 inch diskettes (VAX
8250, Rainbow, Professional, Decmate).
Can the Amiga read and write IBM-format diskettes, using the optional
5 1/4 inch drive?
Can the Rainbow read such a diskette? How about the VAX 8250?
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 927.1 | DICKNS::MACDONALD | WA1OMM Listening 224.28 | Thu Nov 26 1987 10:14 | 8 | |
The Amiga can read 3.5" IBM diskettes formatted to 360K or 720K
(with Transformer V1.2 software and MS-DOS), but you would be using
it as an extremely slow IBM-PC. The Amiga can also read 5 1/4" IBM
diskettes formatted to 360K with the optional 1020 disk drive. I
believe only the Amiga 2000 with a bridge card can actually transfer
the data back and forth between IBM and Amiga drives.
Try a modem.
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| 927.2 | Works for me! | POLAR::GOSLING | KANATA MFG I.S. | Thu Nov 26 1987 11:23 | 49 |
Re:0
I'm glad you asked the question because I just got a 5 1/4" drive
and have saved myself hours and hours of downloading via modem
(unfortunately, my wife now has more time to call her mother -
long distance!).
With my VAXmate at work, the process is as follows:
If files are on the VAX, transfer files (arc's, etc.) to VAXmate
using Kermit (Procomm) - set file type binary and all that stuff
for binary files.
On the VAXmate, copy the received file, or VAXmate created file
(example Lotus 123 for use with VIP Professional), to a floppy
formatted on the AMIGA using the Format utility found in the PC
TOOLS drawer supplied on the 1.2 Extras disk (could probably
format the floppy on the VAXmate, but I haven't tried).
Take the floppy home and transfer the information to a 3.5"
diskette via the AMIGA->PC copy utility (again located in the PC
TOOLS drawer).
To go the other way, the process is simply reversed.
The above has worked for me for AMIGA executable files (ARC's and
the like), text files (I use SEDT on both the VAX and VAXmate, and
UEDIT on the AMIGA) and as previously stated, LOTUS to/from VIP
Professional.
I haven't tried the above with a Rainbow floppy so can't comment
other than to say that IF the formats are not compatible, you can
likely use a VAXmate as an intermediary (VAX to/from Rainbow
to/from VAXmate to/from AMIGA) given that the VAXmate can read and
write to a RAINBOW formatted floppy. Not the most expeditious
route, but means tying up a VAXmate for only a few minutes to copy
from one format to another versus tying it up longer doing the actual
file down/up loading.
Art
P.S. using 5 1/4" floppies is an inexpensive media for archiving
and file backup, versus the relatively expensive (in comparison)
3 1/2" diskettes. Now if I could only afford a hard drive, I
could bury myself in diskettes!
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| 927.3 | BAGELS::BRANNON | Dave Brannon | Fri Nov 27 1987 01:46 | 8 | |
re.2
reading 360K disks on the VAXmate's 1.2Mb disk drive is supported,
writing 360K disks isn't - it works most of the time, but not always.
The write head is too thin to reliably write tracks for a 360K disk.
(ibm pc hardware limitation)
-dave
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| 927.4 | HASN'T FAILED YET | POLAR::GOSLING | KANATA MFG I.S. | Fri Nov 27 1987 08:29 | 10 |
re.3
while this might be true, I have been using this process for
almost 2 months now (on average I do some sort of file transfer
using this method 3-4 times a week) and have NEVER had any fallout
during either a read or write operation.
Art
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