New A600 user needs some advice

[13thDisciple]

Hi, I'm getting used to my new A600, I haven't used one for 30+ years and coming from a PC I wondered about files, I've got a GOTEK drive in my 600, I just wanted to do simple things like take some .mod files from my pc, place them on a USB stick, pop them in my drive and bingo... so I thought, not sure what I'm doing wrong, other disks work and I've been able to copy the contents onto my internal hard-disk, plus I've download a program for the Amiga called PT1210 but it doesn't have an extension, how you do you use these on an Amiga? must I format the USB in a special way or make a disk image for the Amiga to understand packed with the stuff I want it to see? please advise thanks

 

[miggymad]

Goteks usually only accept disk images in ADF format. Performing a straight copy of your MOD files onto your USB stick and expecting them to play simply won't happen.

So what you need to do is have the ability to create the ADF file and be able to drag and drop files into it (such as your MOD files and PT1210) and "load" them into your Gotek drive just as if it was a real floppy disk.

ADF Opus to the rescue! The program lets you do all the above quickly and easily. It's very simple to use too.

link

 

[13thDisciple]

Yes I have that Opus installed, seems like a great program, I was using it to try and located the USB stick I'd inserted, I don't really know how to use it, so I'm using this program on my PC? ah right... I have it on my Amiga... thanks for your reply

 

[13thDisciple]

When I create a new blank .ADF image file and drag and drop my files, I have an error about an unknown device type, now the .mod files I have I know what they are, I assume my Amiga will know what to do with this PT1210 thing... hopefully, actually I'm doing to need a way to transfer files from my PC to my 600 in a speedier way, I was hoping to load sample files .IFF? I think the extension is for those, and .mod files... the slot on the side of the 600 can be used? I don't think I'm going to get on with this as yet, I'll have a look on YouTube for some tutorials, as I'm completely stumped.

 

[miggymad]

Okay, let's start with the PC side of things and ADF Opus 1.2 ...

Load it up, select New from the File menu.

Leave every setting alone, apart from the very last - make sure Open After Creation is selected as shown in the picture ...

Click Create and a new box will open up. This is your ADF file - you can simply drag and drop your stuff in there just like you do in Windows ...

Now click on the Windows Directory window to bring it to the front. Using the Action menu, keep selecting Up One Level until you see all the drives listed (C: D: E: etc. as shown).

Navigate to where your MOD files and PT1210 is stored just as you would if you were using Windows. Now drag your files into the NEW ADF window. (might help if you make the main Opus 1.2 window full screen first, giving you more room to move the others around so you can see better).

In the above example , I dragged and dropped the 3 files from the Windows Directory folder into the NEW ADF one. The program won't let you add more than 880kb because that is the standard Amiga disk size (plus it was pre-selected when you first ran the software).

When you are finished adding your files, remember to select Close from the File menu or your work won't be saved.

Now copy that nice new ADF file over onto your USB stick, go plug it into your Amiga Gotek, select it and enjoy.

If your A600 has a HD or CF/SD card HD then simply copy from the mounted ADF file onto the HD just as you did with the Opus 1.2 software - drag and drop!

 

[13thDisciple]

It worked! I just can't find my nice new ADF file, after I clicked close from the file menu it all went away, is there a place to find it?

 

[miggymad]

Usually it will be in Windows/Documents ... or you can simply do a search for *.ADF

If you find the file and it does not have .adf after the filename then simply rename it so it does.

If you cannot find, you might have to recreate the ADF file. I had to do so on a couple of occasions too but found if I changed NEW ADF to something like C:\NEWADF.adf then it worked every time.

 

[13thDisciple]

Got it, thanks so much for this help, really apreciated!

 

[miggymad]

Any probs, give me a shout and I'll see if I can step you through things some more.

 

[13thDisciple]

These are a couple of images of my Amiga 600, I've been very lucky getting such a machine, I'm still learning the ins & outs of this version of workbench, anyway I saved the *.ADF file to my USB and it loaded ( I had to remember to add the .ADF extension ) anyway I couldn't see anything once it loaded, might be the icons on this version of WorkBench, anyway under that Amiga version of Opus I was able to view the files and copy them across to a drawer on my Amiga 600, the PT1210 seems unusable out of the box and the .mod file I assume I'd be able to play eventually in ProTracker or something, I haven't tried yet, but that program is odd, is there anything I need to tell WorkBench to let it know that the PT1210 thing is an actual program ready to run?, I'm hoping to have drawers for mods, samples and trackers, I'm slowly setting up this A600 for making music on hopefully, anyway please advise me further thank you

 

[miggymad]

On the Workbench desktop, try moving your mouse pointer over to the PT1210 file and double clicking on it with the left mouse button.

 

[13thDisciple]

A box appears saying enter command line parameters, anyway I pressed return and my Amiga reset, perhaps I've downloaded the wrong item, it's from the link below

PT-1210

 

[miggymad]

You downloaded software for the A1200, not the A600 ... an easy mistake to make if you are a beginner.

Try this ... Protracker 3.15

Save the file, unzip to your Windows Desktop and copy the ADF file to your USB stick

 

[13thDisciple]

Thanks for that, I had the ProTracker but a different version, I've used the DSS before back in the day and I've loaded them up again, also an updated version of DSS which is very nice, anyway thanks so much for the help and advice, it's been a real boon, cheers

 

[miggymad]

Anytime buddy!

 

[13thDisciple]

I was hoping you might be able to help me further, I managed to get that PT1210 program working on my Amiga, but the transfer of multiple files is difficult, I have 8MB of *.mod files I wanted to transfer to the hard-disk of my Amiga but my Gotek drive says "Error 34" if I insert the USB, I'm using Opus to create a 'hard-file' type image because I have so many mod files and samples yet to transfer I thought this had to be the way forward, if there anything I have to do to make my Amiga pick up this USB stick has a drive or do they all have to me small disk size ADF images?

 

[miggymad]

Sadly the Gotek will not be able to help you with the HD image, it simply won't read it as you have discovered.

The best way for you is to buy a kit. That way only involves installing the FAT95 drivers onto the A600. Once the memory card is formatted on the PC (Fat32 not NTFS) just drag and drop your files, remove the card from the PC and then plug it into the A600 via the PCMCIA card slot on the left of the Amiga.

Ebay has the PCMCIA kits on there if you decide to go this route - for example: Link or Link (if you already have a spare SD card)

Personally, I use the PCMCIA method myself - especially when transferring lots of files from PC/Amiga to Amiga as only 3 of them have Gotek drives

 

[levo-ace]

Or you could get an A314 for the A600 , this allows drag and drop of files to a share on the pi that both the Amiga and Pi ( therefore you can SSH into it over network ) can read .

This also gives the amiga network access !!