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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

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

4962.0. "Getting Fish Disks via MS-DOS to Amiga ????" by SNOFS1::FARRELL () Wed Aug 14 1991 00:55

	Greetings All,

	    I have a slight problem that I was hoping somebody who has been 
	there, done that and got a t-shirt, could help me with....

	    I have a A1000 sitting at home and due to the high cost of telephone
 	calls to the office I do not want to use a modem to load the fish disks
	onto my system. What I do have though is access to a lap top PC running
	MS-DOS with a 3.5" floppy drive.

	    Is there any way that I can get the .Zoo or .Lzh files to my amiga ?

	     I have tried to get a copy of FF382 but I was unsuccessful. The 
	steps that I took were :-

	1. Copy the FF382.LZH file to my acocount on the Vax
	2. Using Kermit perform a binary copy of the file to the MS-DOS
	   formatted floppy.
	3. Take the floppy home and copy the file to a amiga formatted floppy
	   using Crossdos V3.02.
	4. Unpack the save set.


	    Everything appeared to be working fine until the stage where I was
	unpacking the LZH save set. For about 90% of the files I was unpacking
	I got a stack of CRC errors. Some of the files did copy down
	successfully but most of the files were corrupt. 

	    Can somebody tell me what I am doing wrong or if any one has
  	actually done this and got it to work. Any other suggestions hints,
	comments etc etc help help help.......


	Thanks, 

	    Brett.	
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4962.1MS-DOS to AMIGAARCCAD::BILLWed Aug 14 1991 08:1525
    Three possibilities spring to mind:
    
    	1) Crossdos has an in-built file filter for text files which can
    	   be enabled at boot-time. The file filter should be off when
    	   transferring savesets (ZOO,ARC or LZH) from MSDOS to AMIGA. This
    	   can cause CRC errors in the saveset.
    
    	2) Files on the VMS side the wrong format - Normally VMS files will
    	   be STREAM-LF and this can sometimes cause problems on the AMIGA
    	   side. If this is the case then use CVTARC U 'filename' to
    	   convert the file to FIXED FORMAT. You can tell which format the
    	   file is in by doing a DIR/FULL.
    
    	3) The Kermit transfer may be causing the problem, I don't use this
    	   method personally for transferring files. I have installed
    	   SOFTPC on my 3100 (DEC Product emulating PC-AT) and CROSSDOS on
    	   the AMIGA side to format and read the MSDOS floppies.
    
    	Hope this helps.
    
    	You can reach me on ARCCAD::BILL
    
    	Regards
    	Bill Gourley (Mechanical CAD Support - AYR - Scotland)
    
4962.2Another Victim of RMS Record AttributesTLE::RMEYERSRandy MeyersThu Aug 15 1991 02:539
Re: .0

I agree with reply .1.  I suspect that the problem is VMS file formats
and the Kermit file transfer.  Heed the advise about CVTARC.

In general, what you are doing should work.  I've done the exact same
thing in the past (download via Kermit to a laptop and use CrossDOS
to read the floppy).  After messing enough with VMS file formats, I
got it to work.
4962.3NFTFORTY2::CADWALLADERThu Aug 15 1991 07:3125
	
	If your PeeCee is linked to the net it probably has NFT on it.

	I find this easiest to use. Simply copy files on the VAX to a 
	convenient directory then on the PeeCee, do:

	NFT DIR NODE"username password"::[dir.subdir]

	to see files on the vax and simply
	NFT COPY /ASCII	<from spec.> <to spec.>
		 /BLOCK

	/ASCII is for text (really?), /BLOCK is for ARCed stuff, or .EXEs.
	The file specs are the usual PC and VAX formats e.g.
	
	NFT COPY /BLOCK MYVAX"bob bulb"::[bob.amiga.demos]wheeler_demo a:
	to copy "wheeler_demo" from VAX to PC floppy.

	As mentioned previously, if you transfer ascii files you will
	usually need to use CVTARC (u  or v) <filename> to transfer to/from the
	VAX format for text files. Okay?

	You could also use PCSA too, but I find the above the really simple.

								- JIM CAD*
4962.4It Works !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SNOFS1::FARRELLThu Aug 15 1991 20:0115

	Hi Guys,

		Thanks for all of the answers..... 


	The problem turned out to be that I hadn't CVTARCed the file before
	transferring it with KERMIT. I did that and everything is fine.



	Many Thanks,

		Brett...
4962.5any one else with cvtarc probs?? or just me??MEO78B::MANDERSONAmiga + &#039;030 == MicroCRAYFri Aug 16 1991 09:3917
    While we are on CVTARC.....
    
    Is it just me or is it:
    
    	a. FF disk problam
    	b. CVTARC problem????
    
    I have now copied ff52* a few times and with VMS/LHARC they seem
    corrupt. So i did a dif/full as a comparison.. ok so i try cvtarc to
    get the files to stream_lf. boof. actually it is quite a constant. 
    acvio....... (vms 5.4.1)
    
    hopefully minds far better than mine...
    regards
    kevin
    
    
4962.6TERSE::ROBINSONFri Aug 16 1991 14:378
>any one else with cvtarc probs?? or just me??

 I guess it is just you Kevin ;^) ;^)

 I successfully used the VMS    $ CVTARC U   on one of the new FF disks
 yesterday (VMS 5.4-2).  Is that statistically significant? %^}

 Dave
4962.7Specify options on command lineCSC32::T_HUTCHINMon Aug 19 1991 11:3311
    
    	RE: .5
    
    	Kevin,
    
    	You CAN get an ACCVIO from CVTARC if you try to run the program
    	without options specified on the command line (i.e., U/V option
    	or input/output file specifiers).
    
    	Terry
    
4962.8thanks,MEO78B::MANDERSONAmiga + &#039;030 == MicroCRAYTue Aug 20 1991 19:557
    .7 - was playing with it again last night and also figure this to be
    the problem. The other night I thought I had tried all sorts of
    combinations and it crashed every time.
    
    
    Thanks all,
    kevin