Content

ADTWin is a free tool for writing Amiga disks from a PC. It requires a Windows PC with a parallel port and a floppy disk drive that is connected to the PC's parallel port by a self-made cable (detailed instructions are given below). The disk content has to be provided in form of an Amiga Disk File (there are lots of ADFs containing Amiga games and other software out on the web, see the links section) or raw MFM file. Only the original double-density disk format is supported, however, HD disks can be used. The write process is about as fast as on the original Amiga (≈40s per disk using appropriate PC hardware). It is not possible to read disks.

The main use case of ADTWin might be to get Amiga software (that is available on your PC by means of an ADF) running on an original old-school Amiga, e.g. the Amiga 500. There are some other non-commercial solutions (details on the web, see the links section) like using PC-formatted disks or a direct cable connection to transfer data from the PC to the Amiga and vice versa. In some cases those methods might be more appropriate.
Note that since ADTWin uses the parallel port in a way that it was not originally intended for, it will not work on all systems. But if you are lucky enough to have appropriate hardware and did regard the troubleshooting hints, then it works quite well and is very fast.

ADTWin screenshot

• First of all, you need a PC with a parallel port (also known as printer port). It can either be a native parallel port (but today's mainboards often don't have one) or a parallel port provided by a PCI or PCIe card. A USB to parallel port converter, however, is not suitable. The parallel port hardware and its connection must fulfill certain requirements. Whether it does cannot be determined by the common specifications. To get an assessment whether or not writing Amiga disks will probably work on your system, you should run ADTWin's test command (see here).
  When using a native parallel port, success depends mainly on the mainboard chipset. If the parallel port is provided by a PCI/PCIe card, the card's controller chip and the PCI/PCIe bus connection are deciding. The ASIX MCS9865 chip (PCI) and the WinChipHead CH38X chip (PCIe) are known to work in general. CPU speed is of minor importance. ADTWin can work with a 233MHz Pentium processor, as long as the parallel port hardware and its connection to the system is appropriate.
• Supported operating systems are the 32 bit and 64 bit editions of Windows XP (SP2 or SP3) / Vista / 7 / 8.1 / 10. Due to the enhanced security features of 64 bit editions of Windows Vista and later versions of Windows, some extra configuration steps are required before starting ADTWin for these versions. See section Installation for details.
• You further need a floppy drive for 3.5 inch disks. If your PC has an internal floppy drive, you can disconnect the PC's FDD cable and use that one. Otherwise, if you are going to purchase one, make sure that you get an internal floppy drive, not a USB-connected drive. For some drives the hints for incorrectly keyed connectors have to be regarded. Another possibility is to use the original Amiga's internal drive. You don't need to demount it from your Amiga, but you have to open the Amiga's casing to get access to the drive's pin connector (see here).
• If you have a more or less recent PC w/o internal floppy drive, then it might lack a floppy drive power connector. In this case, you additionally need a power adapter cable (see here) that lets you connect a hard disk power connector to your floppy drive's power socket. This does not apply, if you want to use your Amiga's internal disk drive, since it can be sourced by the Amiga. Of course, you can also use any other appropriate 5V power source.
• Finally, you need a special cable to connect the floppy drive to your PC's parallel port. It does not contain any electrical components and simply consists of a ribbon cable with two connectors. You can construct it by yourself if you have a little experience in soldering. The required parts are very cheap. Detailed instructions are given in section How to make the cable below.

»»» ADTWin_1.4.zip «««

Deactivate signature enforcement (for 64 bit editions of Windows Vista or later versions)

• Disable driver signature enforcement
  How to deactivate signature enforcement for the current session depends on your Windows version. Find a short description below or search for further methods on the web.
  Windows Vista/7: Press F8 during system start to enter the Advanced Boot Options menu and select Disable Driver Signature Enforcement. Signature enforcement is only disabled for the current session. You will have to perform this step again for the next system start if you want to use ADTWin.
  Windows 8.1/10: You need to be logged in as administrator. Press the key combination Windows + i to show the settings options. Then, on Windows 8.1 choose Change PC settings, on Windows 10 choose Update & security. Then click on Recovery and then on the Restart now button under Advanced startup. On the upcoming screen choose the Troubleshoot option, then (Windows 10 only) Advanced options and then Startup Settings.
  Remark: The Troubleshoot option is only available, if Windows has been booted from an active disk partition. Use the diskpart command line utility or the disk management tool to change the active partition, if need be. Details can be found on the web.
  Now click the Restart button which lets your computer reboot and show the Startup Settings screen. One of the available options is Disable driver signature enforcement which must be selected by pressing the corresponding key (e.g. F7). This starts Windows with signature enforcement disabled for the current session. You will have to perform all this again for the next session if you want to use ADTWin.
• Enable testsigning
  To enable testsigning for Windows Vista/7/8.1/10 64bit, right-click the EnableTestSigning.bat script in the ADTWin folder, choose Run as administrator from the context menu and confirm the security requester. A reboot is required to make the change apply. This permanently activates test mode which is recognizable by the watermark on the bottom right of your Desktop screen and allows "test-signed" drivers to run.
  To disable test mode again, run the DisableTestSigning.bat script (as administrator) and reboot.
  Remark: Both scripts will only run successfully, if Windows has been booted from the active disk partition. Otherwise you will get an error message like "The system cannot find the file specified." Use the diskpart command line utility or the disk management tool to change the active partition, if need be. Details can be found on the web.

Run as administrator

Adjust power options

Create extract script (optional)

Before you take the effort to build the special cable or purchase a floppy drive, you should run ADTWin's test command: After starting ADTWin.exe and, if need be, selecting the desired LPT port, simply click the "Test" button. ADTWin will perform some hardware tests to figure out whether or not writing Amiga disks will probably be possible. Note that this test can only cover some aspects of the disk write operation. Despite a positive result you cannot be entirely sure that writing Amiga disks will work. If the test reveals that writing Amiga disks is not possible or the performance will be weak, follow the troubleshooting hints. If the test result is still negative after that, then writing Amiga disks is not possible on that system.

The floppy drive has to be connected to your PC's parallel port by a special cable that has a 25-pin D-SUB connector on one side and a 34-pin FDD connector on the other. It looks like this:

What you need

You need four parts to construct the cable:

34-pole ribbon cable

34-pole IDC

25-pole D-SUB

D-SUB housing

• A 34-pole ribbon cable of about 0.3m to 1.0m length.
• A (female) 34-pole insulation-displacement connector (IDC) that can be plugged into your floppy drive's connector.
• A (male) 25-pole D-SUB connector that can be plugged into your PC's parallel port.
• A connector housing for the D-SUB connector (optional).

Floppy drive power adapter

If you want to order the required parts at Reichelt, here are the order codes: AWG 28-34G 3M, PFL 34, D-SUB ST 25, KAPPE CG25G, AK 3191

If you have a standard FDD cable at hand (from an old PC with an internal floppy drive) that is not needed anymore, you can reuse it. Simply cut off one of its IDCs and mount the D-SUB connector.

To build the cable, you furthermore need a soldering iron and solder, of course.

Pinout

The IDC pins (or contacts) are numbered as shown in figure 1. They correspond to the wires of the ribbon cable, wire 1 is marked red. The D-SUB pin numbering is shown in figure 2.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Connector pins that are not mentioned in the table remain unconnected. It is not absolutely necessary to connect all of the ground pins listed in the table, but at least one effective ground connection is required. Note that for some floppy drives not all of the IDC pins with odd numbers are really connected to ground.

Remark: A former version of this web page contained a pinout table with FDD pin 1 providing the only effective ground connection (pin 3 is usually omitted for keying purposes). If you have troubles with a cable that has been build according to the old table, make sure that this pin is really soldered on the PCB.

Incorrectly keyed connector shells

Some floppy drives have keyed pin header shells to prevent the cable from being plugged incorrectly. Figure 3a shows the back of such a floppy drive with a (correctly) keyed shell.
Unfortunately, there also exist some drives that have an incorrectly keyed shell as shown in figure 3b. You can either remove the IDC's keying nose in this case or simply mount the IDC reversed to the cable (that is, with the same IDC position as in figure 1, the red wire must be right). By the way, for the model shown in figure 3b, the shell is not always keyed like seen on the photo. There are also samples that allow for plugging the cable in the correct way.
Other drives have unkeyed pin headers that allow for plugging the cable both ways like those in figures 3c and 3d. Figure 3e shows a drive with a knockout notch which might need to be removed to be able to plug the cable correctly.
In any case, the IDC must always be plugged in such a way that the marked wire is at the left side when looking at the floppy drive's back.

Figure 3a: SONY MPF920-E

Figure 3b: MITSUMI D359M3

Figure 3c: ALPS DF354H090F

Figure 3d: SAMSUNG SFD-321B

Figure 3e: TEAC FD-235HF

Constructing the cable

Since making the cable is a little fiddly, here comes a step-by-step instruction. First, cut the ribbon cable down to the desired length and clamp the insulation-displacement connector (IDC) to one of its ends. It is important that the red wire gets connected to pin 1 of the 34-pin connector. If you look at the IDC from the plugging side such that the keying nose is on the top, then the red wire must be left. See figures 1, 4a and 4b.
Caution: If your floppy drive has an incorrectly keyed pin header shell, then it is useful to mount the IDC just the other way around. See above for details.

Figure 4a

Figure 4b

Now, prepare the other end of the cable: If you want to mount the D-SUB connector housing in the end, it is helpful to shorten the inner wires of the ribbon cable as seen in figure 5. It's not absolutely necessary, but since the cable will have to be furled, the outer wires should be longer than the inner ones.
Then carefully separate all wires on the last 20-30mm and cut off the unused wires, i.e. wires 2 to 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19 (figure 6). At last remove 2mm of each remaining wire's insulation (figure 7).

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

The cable can now be soldered to the D-SUB connector. Start to solder wires 10,12,14,16,18,20,22 and 24 to pins 1 to 8 of the D-SUB connector, then solder wires 26,28,30 and 32 to D-SUB pins 12,11,10 and 9, and wire 34 to D-SUB pin 13 (figure 8). Note that the ends of the other wires have been bend down and can't be seen on the photo. The upper row of D-SUB pins is now complete.
Now, solder wires 21,23,25,27,29,31 and 33 to D-SUB pins 19 to 25, wire 8 to D-SUB pin 15 and wire 1 to D-SUB pin 18 (figure 9). Note that ribbon cable and D-SUB connector have been turned around for this photo.

Figure 8

Figure 9

To make the cable more robust, you should mount the D-SUB connector housing (figure 10). The unused wires that have been cut off must not get into contact with the D-SUB connector pins. If the cable harness is too thin to mount the cable relief tightly, a coiled strip of paper can be used as an inlay.

Figure 10

The cable is now complete. Make sure that all connections according to the pinout table are operative and that there are no short circuits.

Using ADTWin is rather self-explaining. A short manual is contained in the download file and can also be viewed here.

ADTWin can only write disks in double-density (also denoted DD or 2D) format. Except for the late Amiga models, the Amiga can only operate DD disks anyway. Since original DD disks are rare, you may need to use high-density (HD) disks instead. There should be no problem. When using a HD-capable Amiga floppy drive to write the disk, the disk's HD hole must be masked (e.g. with a piece of adhesive tape) to make the drive run in DD mode (otherwise the drive will run at half rotation speed due to the so called "half speed trick"). For a PC floppy drive, it is not necessary in most cases to mask the HD hole when writing the disk. But when reading the disk in a HD-capable drive at the Amiga (regardless of whether it is an original Amiga drive or a modified PC drive) it is indeed required to mask the HD hole in any case.

If you don't have a 3.5 inch floppy drive at hand (recent PCs often don't have one), it is also possible to use the Amiga's internal disk drive with your PC (but it is more of a workaround). You don't have to demount it from the Amiga, but you will have to open the Amiga's casing. Here is a description for the Amiga 500:
First, you have to remove the top of the Amiga's plastic casing after unscrewing a couple of star screws on the bottom. Then the keyboard has to be unplugged (remember how it was plugged: the black wire is left) and removed. Finally, the top of the metal protection cover has to be lifted off (after removing some screws and bending up the lugs that clamp the top cover). Now you can unplug the Amiga's internal FDD cable from the floppy drive and plug your parallel port cable. Don't forget to select connection mode "Amiga drive" in ADTWin and to switch on the Amiga's power supply before starting to write.

The following hints may help to overcome some of the problems that can arise when using ADTWin.

However, ADTWin will not be able to work properly on ALL systems. If the hardware capabilities of your PC's parallel port are too weak, the required timing accuracy for writing Amiga disks cannot be achieved. Note that the parallel port is actually not intended to be operated as a disk drive controller (but rather to connect a printer, scanner etc.) and ADTWin is acting at the edge of what is possible (with an ordinary parallel port).

1. If the tool fails to start due to a missing DLL on Windows XP, then make sure that service pack 2 or 3 is installed.


2. If ADTWin cannot allocate the parallel port, it will (after confirmation) try to disable the "warm polling" mechanism by changing the Windows registry. If even this fails (error message "Cannot disable warm polling! ..."), you can achieve the same result by executing the following command in a command window with administrator privileges:
   

   REG ADD HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Parport\Parameters /v DisableWarmPoll /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

   This will add a flag to the Windows registry that deactivates "warm polling" after the next reboot. If you want to re-enable the "warm polling" feature after uninstalling ADTWin, use the following command:
   

   REG DELETE HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Parport\Parameters /v DisableWarmPoll /f



3. If a PCI/PCIe-card-based parallel port does not appear in the drop down list in the Port field, please make sure that the PCI/PCIe card's device driver is properly installed and that the device appears under Ports (COM & LPT) in the device manager's hardware tree (it can be opened under Windows XP by clicking or, respectively, double-clicking Start -> Control Panel -> System- > Hardware -> Device manager (refers to Classic View), similar under other Windows versions).
   If all this applies but ADTWin still cannot detect the port, then try to start ADTWin from the command line (Windows XP: Start -> Run..., then enter cmd, on later Windows versions you need to start an admin command prompt) and specify the port's (hexadecimal) base address with the -port option and as well as its LPT port number with the -lpt option, e.g. "ADTWin.exe -port B800 -lpt 3". The base address can be found on the Resources tab of the device's property page (choose Properties from the device's context menu in the device manager). It's the first value in the I/O Range line. If there are two such lines, it might be the the first value of the first or second of these lines.
   It might happen that the PCI/PCIe-card is not displayed as LPT port in the device manager but only beneath Multifunction adapters. In this case it might not be possible to determine an LPT port number and the -lpt option is to be omitted.


4. On a multi-core system ADTWin will block unused CPU cores during write operation, because activity on those cores can disturb the write operation. If this causes any problems (e.g. Blue Screen with Bug Check Code 0x101 (CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT)), then all but one CPU core have to be deactivated. Cores can be disabled either by the PC's BIOS settings or by changing the Windows configuration as follows (you need administrator privileges for this, furthermore a restart is necessary to make the change apply):
   Windows XP: Click the Windows Start button, click Run..., enter "msconfig" into the input field and press Return. In msconfig select the BOOT.INI tab, click Advanced Options..., activate the /NUMPROC= check box and select 1 from the drop-down list.
   Windows Vista/7: Click the Windows Start button, enter "msconfig" into the input field and press Return. You might need to confirm a security requester or enter administrator credentials. In msconfig select the Boot tab and, if need be, select the appropriate Windows partition. Then click Advanced Options..., activate the Number of processors check box and select 1 from the drop-down list.
   Windows 8.1/10: Move the mouse cursor to the lower left corner of the screen, press the right mouse button, select Run, enter "msconfig" into the input field and press Return. You might need to confirm a security requester or enter administrator credentials. In msconfig select the Boot tab and, if need be, select the appropriate Windows partition. Then click Advanced Options..., activate the Number of processors check box and select 1 from the drop-down list.
   


5. If you get error messages like "No disk drive seems to be connected!" or "Cannot move head to track xy!" or if the motor does not start when you try to write a disk, then there might be a problem with the cable.
   • Check whether your drive is configured as drive A or drive B (usually by a jumper or a solder strap) and choose the correct connection mode in the tool (or simply try out both). There is a special mode for an Amiga drive, too.
   • If you have multiple parallel ports, make sure that the correct port is selected in ADTWin.
   • Use a multimeter/continuity tester to check the pin connections of the cable.
   • Make sure that the FDD connector is correctly plugged. If your floppy drive's socket has no keyed shell, then it is easily possible that the connector is plugged one pin position aside or the wrong way round. Furthermore, there are some floppy drive models with incorrectly keyed connector shells, see here.
   • Make sure that at least one of the parallel port ground lines is really connected to the floppy drive. Note that for some floppy drives not all connector pins with odd numbers are connected to ground on the PCB. Furthermore, pin 3 is usually omitted.


6. If writing Amiga disks produces low quality or is slow, or if the hardware test function predicts that this will be the case, please consider the following measures.
   • Verify the power option settings (see section Installation).
   • Unplug all USB devices. USB connections can affect the CPU's access to the parallel port. If possible, replace USB mouse and USB keyboard by PS/2 mouse and keyboard. Don't move the mouse while the tool is writing or running the hardware test. Also the serial port or other parallel ports must not be used during the write process. Close all applications that might use these ports.
   • If the write operation becomes slower by the end of the write process or the test function predicts low quality, then reduce write-precompensation for high cylinder numbers, e.g. by changing the generic setting to custom setting 0,50,79,100 (see ADTWin's manual for more information on the write-precompensation settings).


7. If writing an Amiga disk works but you encounter read/checksum errors on the Amiga, try using different disks. In particular, very old disks may have hardware defects. If you are writing disks in Amiga disk format (from ADF files), then you could verify the disks on the Amiga with a disk check tool. If only some tracks are faulty and these tracks remain the same after multiple write attempts, then this indicates a defective disk.


8. When using a parallel port PCI/PCIe card: If you get read errors on the Amiga although the disk has been written without error messages, then make sure that no other PCI/PCIe device (e.g. a soundcard) is used during the write operation. ADTWin's access to the parallel port can be disturbed by other activities on the PCI/PCIe bus.


9. To keep your disks unimpaired, you should not insert any disk into the floppy drive before ADTWin is running and the right port is selected, and you should remove it again before the port selection is changed or ADTWin is closed.


10. If an error is reported when starting ADTWin, because the device driver cannot be started, then make sure that driver signature enforcement has been disabled for the current session or that the test mode is active. This is explained in section Installation. A more detailed description for Windows 8.1/10 can be found here.
    For 64bit editions of Windows 10 starting from version 1607 it might be necessary to disable the Secure Boot feature (see here).


11. If any further problems occur when starting ADTWin or if the help file cannot be displayed by clicking the Help button, then the firewall settings might need to be adapted.

ADTWin is free for non-commercial use. Distribution, modification or use for commercial purposes requires a written permission by the author.

ADTWin comes without any warranties or conditions. The author cannot be hold liable for damages caused by using ADTWin, including, but not limited to, hardware defects and loss of data.

To drop me a message, write to:

If you have noticed any mistakes, ambiguities or missing information on this web page, feel free to give me a hint. Other kinds of feedback are appreciated as well.

Sources of Amiga Disk Files

Planetemu	Thousands of Amiga games and a few hundred applications.
The Old Computer	Thousands of Amiga games, a few hundred applications, Kickstart/Workbench disks and documentations. A free registration is required.
Games-Coffer	More than thousand Amiga games with screenshots, over hundred utilities and other Amiga software.
Amigaland	More than hundred Amiga games for different chip sets with screenshots and descriptions plus many other information and news about the Amiga (in German).
Amiga Future	A few hundred Amiga games and applications for different chipsets plus miscellaneous information and news about the Amiga (mainly in German).
Emuparadise	More than thousand Amiga games with screenshots.
AMI Sector One	More than thousand Amiga games with screenshots and descriptions, as well as other downloads.
The Good Old Days	A few hundred Amiga games with screenshots and descriptions.

Complementary tools

ADF Opus

A tool for creating and editing ADFs on the PC. Can be used in connection with ADTWin to transfer files from PC to Amiga by simply putting the files into an ADF with ADF Opus and writing the ADF to an Amiga disk by ADTWin.

Other methods for reading / writing / transferring Amiga disks

Reading Amiga Floppy Disks on PC	List of free and commercial tools/hardware for reading Amiga disks on a PC.
Transfer AmigaPC	A description (in German) of how to transfer Amiga disks from/to PC over a null-modem cable.
How To Use CrossDOS On Your Amiga	Description of how to transfer an Amiga disk to one or two PC formatted disks that can be read on a PC. This solution requires CrossDos which comes with AmigaOS since version 2.1.
How do I transfer Amiga disks?	Lists different methods for transferring ADFs between Amiga and PC.
Hombre AMI<>PC software package.	A collection of tools for reading/writing/transferring Amiga disks by different methods (floppy disk, serial connection, parallel connection).
Paradise	A tool for reading/writing Amiga disks and transferring the disk images over a parallel connection. This tool is also contained in the Hombre package listed above. It requires a self-made parallel port cable.
A.S.T. Amiga PAGE	Tools to transfer ADFs between PC and Amiga over a null-modem cable.