Writing ADF to Floppy Disk

ADF

An ADF (Amiga Disk File) is a digital file format for storing an image of an AmigaDOS floppy disk. They are typically used in emulation, or in a floppy drive emulator, or can be used to write back to a real floppy disk.

There are several methods to write the ADF file back to floppy disk:

• On a PC, Mac or Linux machine you can use something like Greaseweazle.

• You can use a Gotek floppy drive emulator and perform drive to drive copy on the Amiga, using a disk copier program like X-Copy.

• You can transfer the ADF to the Amiga and use a ADF to floppy writing program, like tsgui.

ADF Wiring on PC, Linux, MacOS

Greaseweazle and a flux level reader and writer. It can be used to read and write images of floppy disks, including those with disk copy protection.

Requirements

There requirements are:

• An Amiga or PC floppy drive

• A PC, Linux or Mac machine with:

  • A USB interface

  • A suitable Python installation

• An option external 12V power for certain modesl of Greaseweazles, for certain drives that require 12V

This can be summarised by the following diagram:

The main project area on Github:

https://github.com/keirf/Greaseweazle/wiki

There is also an active Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/greaseweazle

Hardware

Greaseweazle hardware can be purchased as kits of fully built, or the design files can be used to build you own. Ask on the Facebook group for more details.

Drive to Drive Copying

Since an ADF file can be used in a Gotek; and the Gotek is a a floppy drive emulator; and the Amiga sees it as a normal floppy drive; you can use a disk copier program such as X-Copy to coper from the Gotek to another Amiga floppy drive.

Typically in this setup the Gotek is an external drive as DF1 and the normal Amiga drive is DF0, but other permutations work too.

For the Gotek, it is recommended to use FlashFloppy (open source) as the firmware:

https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy

But HxC (commercial) can also be used:

http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/

For the disk copier program, X-Copy is recommended, but others will work too:

http://jope.fi/xcopy/

ADF Writing on Amiga

If you can get the ADF file to your Amiga, you can use ADF writing programs to write the ADF file to floppy disk.

A recommended and free ADF writing program is tsgui and it can be found and downloaded from Aminet:

https://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/tsgui

You will need to work out how to get the ADF file to the Amiga first, and there are several methods to do that:

• If you have a stock A500(+) / A600 / A1200 you can use:

  • Null modem serial transfer:

    • Amiga Explorer

    • ToADFish

• If you have a PCMCIA slot and PCMCIA CF adapter on your Amiga

  • PCMCIA Compact Flash Guide

  • ToADFish

• If you have a hard drive for your Amiga:

  • If the Amiga has a PCMCIA slot and PCMCIA CF adapter, transfer the ADF file using that method. PCMCIA Compact Flash Guide

  • You can use emulation on your PC, Linux, MacOS machine and transfer the ADF to it.