Last updated on December 9th, 2023 at 09:41 am
Back in the days when computers still relied on floppy disks, there was a pressing need to duplicate their contents.
One of the most popular disk copying programs for the Commodore Amiga series of computers was Amiga X-Copy, which boasted countless users worldwide.
As Amiga disks could store up to 880KB on a floppy, compared to the 720KB capacity of PC floppies, the Amiga’s disk controller was more flexible and allowed for more efficient duplication.
Today, enthusiasts continue to explore ways to copy Amiga disks using floppy drives on a PC, with some using X-Copy Professional and Dos 2 Dos to make floppy disks cross-compatible between PC and Amiga floppy drives.
With the right equipment and software, it is relatively easy to turn an ADF disk image into a floppy using X-Copy, GOTEK, and an external drive( or opposite, for example inverting g df0: as df1: by using appropirate command with MKIII Action Replay cartridge)
The disk images on this site have been taken from the actual master disks, to preserve the legacy as authentically as possible.
There were also many hacked versions of X-Copy in existence, modified by members of the Amiga community. As per the copyright owner’s wishes,this site will focus only on the original releases.
X-COPY III, and later the final version, X-COPY Pro, were the most popular Amiga copy programs. They were capable of bit-by-bit copying, also called “nibbling”. Although incapable of true multitasking, the programs were capable of taking advantage of Amiga configurations with multiple floppy drives; for instance, on Amiga systems with four floppy drives, X-COPY was capable of simultaneously copying from a source drive to three others. Coupled with excellent bit-by-bit replication capabilities, these features made X-COPY the de facto standard for copying floppy disks on the Amiga.
When X-Copy copied disks, it wrote a green zero for each track that was successfully copied. However if an error occurred, a red number was written instead. Many wondered what those numbers meant.
Here is a list, taken from X-Copy 2.x
- Less or more than 11 sectors
- No sync found
- No sync after gap found
- Header checksum error
- Error in header/format long
- Data block checksum error
- Long track
- Verify error
X-Copy VI
X-Copy VI was a disk copying software tool for the Commodore Amiga computer that provided several benefits to its users.
According to the search results, X-Copy VI was a reliable tool for copying data from floppy disks on the Amiga computer, and it had a nice silky-smooth GUI version.
One of the benefits of X-Copy VI was that it could copy from df1 to df0 without problems of sort, which was not the case with other versions.
This feature made it easier for users to copy data from one floppy disk to another without encountering any issues.
Additionally, X-Copy VI was useful for rescuing data from flaky floppy disks, which was a common problem in those days.
X-Copy VI provided a reliable and user-friendly way to copy data from floppy disks on the Amiga computer, making it a valuable tool for Amiga users.
XCOPY MANUAL
Here is a compact version of the X-Copy manual:
DEFAULT: Resets all options to their default settings.
SOURCE and TARGET drives: Can be selected by clicking on the light bulb icon positioned above and below the relevant disc icon.
Verification mode: Click twice on a target drive light bulb to select verification mode. A red “V” appears in the bulb to indicate selection.
TO EXIT: Position the pointer in the top left-hand corner of the screen and click once. This will return you to Workbench.
KILLSYS: If selected, you will need to reset to exit from X-COPY PROFESSIONAL.
X-COPY-CONFIG: Loadable from Workbench, enables you to configure X-COPY PROFESSIONAL to suit your own needs. Select the source and destination discs, copy mode, etc., and exit from the program (cursor top left, left mouse button). Your configuration will be saved to disc, and next time you load X-COPY PROFESSIONAL, it will configure itself to your given preferences.
CYCLONE: The CYCLONE program on the X-COPY PROFESSIONAL disc enables Amiga users with access to an external disc drive to make backup copies of discs that the nibble mode on
COPYING ENGINES: It has four copying modes: standard nibble, deep nibble, APWM (Adaptive Pulse Width Modulation) deep nibble mode, and APWM index copy.
To select the required mode, simply press the space bar on the keyboard until the mode is selected.
Laws and Copyright: In order to make backup copies of copyrighted material, permission must be granted by the copyright owner. Different laws apply to different countries, and in some countries, parts of this program may not be lawfully used. X-Copy Professional has been designed to make backup copies of your own software, public domain software, etc.
Included Programs: X-COPY PROFESSIONAL disc contains various programs, including X-COPY-CONFIG, XPHESS (hard disc backup), XLENT (file copier), CYCLONE (allows protected discs to be copied), QED (text editor), and X-It (enables discs to be scrambled so that they can only be used by the password holder).
MANUAL Folder: Contains information regarding the latest release of the software.
