ScuzzBlog: Diaries April 2020 Entry 20th April 2020: Post 01: Amiga - External floppy drive. Amiga - External floppy drive. Just a short blog today on the merits of the external floppy drive for the Amiga. Firstly the external floppy drive generally requires a small interface connected between the Amiga and a floppy drive to make it work. The internal floppy drive does not require the interface so be wary of swapping one out for the other. DF1: external and DF0: internal. The external floppy drive will generally have the interface located at the rear of the unit and will be connected via a small ribbon. Most external floppy drives have a daisy chain connector so you can connect another floppy or device from the port. The first floppy device on the chain will be DF1: [ PC1:CrossDOS ] with the next inline being DF2: [ PC2: and so on ]. The floppy port can also be used to power VidiAmiga devices and other drives that require power. Like the Arcos. Power Computing produced an XL Drive that works as a HD disk drive using PC disk sizes of the higher capacity. They are somewhat difficult to distinguish and require a patch to the User-Startup and the corresponding TOOL in the C drawer. It is possible to modify the floppy interface to take a stock PC drive though it will not work with the XL Drive. These units use the Sony MPF920-3 PC drives. OK here are some images of the internal workings of the external floppy drive. They came with a variety of coloured LEDs mostly green, yellow, orange and red. I find red ones on the older models. I also show an Amiga 1011 connected to a 5.25" floppy drive and registering as DF1: and DF2: in DOpus. Be aware that the A1011 does not have a pass through. Also in the image is a Power Computing XL drive though it is not connected. The last images simply show me creating a BootBlock on a disk using the BootWriter software. NEVER HOT SHOE A DRIVE WHILE THE AMIGA IS ON In the words of Dr Peter Venkman ' That would be bad '. Amiga - External floppy drive.

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Last updated 20th April 2020

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