Using a Zip Drive with WinUAE

[Buleste]

In a bid to help out with screenshots for the main site i've just started using Winuae and wa wondering if anyone knows any way to allow Zip disks as HDD. I have Zip drives in my PC and Amiga as it's the easiest way to transfer medium size files between the two computers. However it could be extremely easy for me to copy my workbench onto a Zip disk and hopefully if someone can help me out i could then use it as a HDD under UAE.

[Harrison]

You should be able to just set the Zip Disk as an HD in WinUAE.

Once you have started WinUAE go down to the Hardware/Hard drives section. From here you can add real Amiga harddrives, create a virtual harddrive called a hardfile, or use a PC directory as an Amiga harddrive (useful to access files from the PC). I would suggest first trying to add the Zip Disk as a harddrive, by clicking "Add Hard Drive". This will give you a list of the physical HDs attached for you to choose from.

If that doesn't work try adding it using the Add Directory or Archive option and then selecting the Zip Drive.

[Buleste]

I've got to try adding a RDB to my Zip disk at the moment before i can use it as a HDD. When i've tried that i'll explore what else i can do.

[Buleste]

Now i've got a problem. My sytem recognises the Zip drive as a large disk drive (naming it DF7 and so it uses the trackdisk.device. I've tried using the HDTools on it and whilst it will initially install a RDB the disk becomes unreadable until formatting and the format then wipes off the RDB. I've tried using the Partion part of HDTools and it doesn't do anything (No i'm not splitting the Zip disk into smaller partitions i'm just trying to make it bootable.). Has anyone got any idea how to turn a Zip disk into a Bootable removable hard disk?

[Harrison]

Nope. I have always just used my SCSI ZIp drive on my A4000 like a removable HD. I use a specific Zip disk device driver on the Amiga that I originally got from a coverdisk many years ago, so it appears as a zip disk with a zip disk icon in workbench, and I just format it as you would an unformatted HD.

And I can put these into my PC's USB Zip drive and read the disks in WinUAE and copy the contents to the PC.