Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!lll-winken!decwrl!sgi!shinobu!odin!odin.corp.sgi.com!portuesi From: portuesi@tweezers.esd.sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Subject: Re: Mac drive on an Amiga. Message-ID: Date: 13 Feb 90 09:31:49 GMT References: <1990Feb13.062949.12892@ccu.umanitoba.ca> Sender: news@odin.SGI.COM Reply-To: portuesi@sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mtn. View, CA Lines: 54 In-reply-to: umsmigie@ccu.umanitoba.ca's message of 13 Feb 90 06:29:49 GMT >>>>> On 13 Feb 90 06:29:49 GMT, umsmigie@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Jason Smigiel) said: j> I need to transfer data between a Mac and an Amiga. I have an j> external Mac drive that I could hook up to the amiga. What I need to know j> is: Is this a simple case of connecting the Mac Drive to the amiga and writing j> the Device driver? Or would I require some extra logic between the Amiga j> and the Mac drive? j> I thought there was a commercial product out (Mac2Dos or some such thing) j> that does what I ask. Does anyone know if their approach is the same as j> the simple case I described? And would this be compatible with Amax? I own Mac-2-Dos. It's made by Central Coast Software, and it's a solid product. Mac-2-Dos will do what you want. It is a small hardware plug that goes between the Mac drive connector and the Amiga floppy drive port. (i.e. some extra logic is needed for an Amiga to run a Mac drive). It comes with software that understands the Mac filesystem and reads/writes/formats Mac floppies. It can also convert text files that go between systems and move MacPaint format files to IFF. Central Coast wrote an application program that does the transfers, instead of going the device driver route (like CrossDos). For us techies in the crowd, I would have preferred the device driver solution, but for the masses an application program to do the transfers is probably the preferred solution, so I understand their decision. In any event, their software has a good user interface and it works just fine. I use it to transfer stuff from Usenet onto my Amiga, using Macs at work to download from my workstation. I am using it with an old Mac 400K drive, though it also supports 800K drives. I think the drive may be a tad out of alignment; it reads anything written by a Mac just fine, but sometimes data written by the 400K drive cannot be read by a Mac. I certainly don't think this is the fault of the package. Compatibility with AMAX? Please define what you mean by "compatible" and I'll try to answer. Mac-2-Dos is a good accessory for AMAX, but not a replacement for it. Because both products use different plugs, so in order to use one drive with both products you will have to switch plugs when you switch programs. Other than that, I don't know how to answer this question. --M -- __ Michael Portuesi Silicon Graphics Computer Systems \/ portuesi@sgi.com Entry Systems Division -- Engineering "Why you? Because you're Electro-Cop, the best there is."