Hi all - now I know that games boot directly, so using WinUAE to boot them is the way to go. But what about other files? Things I want to mount within AmiKit? Can I only do that before launching, i.e. adding a floppy to the WinUAE settings of AmiKit? That seems kind of a bother. Surely, there is some better way I am missing here.

Also - is it possible to use Greaseweazle with AmiKit? I know there is a special WinUAE version that gets Greaseweazle directly into your Emulation. Would that be possible with AmiKit?

Hello, AmiKit includes WHDLoad so all you need is to download a game from, for instance, https://www.whdownload.com, unpack it and run it. Such games are already pre-installed from ADF images and you can launch them from AmiKit desktop thanks to WHDLoad.

Just in case, Here's how to unpack archives in AmiKit: https://youtu.be/qY5kiVzLBC8

Regarding Greaseweazle, AmiKit uses WinUAE so if it works with WinUAE itself it should work with AmiKit too.

OK, I will try to get that Greaseweazle thing set up then. I will report here.

But my question was not about games. Let's assume I have several old floppies with some files (e.g. text documents). I want to use these files in Amikit. So I want to insert Disk 1, copy the files to my Ram Disk, then remove Disk 1 and insert Disk 2, copy these files to Ram Disk, etc.

What would be the best way to do this?

You could select your .adf files/disks for any of the four enabled WinUAE -> floppy drives (write-protected or not as you wish)
You need a bootable system unless you are willing to perform plain command line action.

If your disks are keeping a compatible filesystem they should be auto-mounted (speaking of amiga dos filesystem)

If you want local floppy disk handling not needing to use WinUAE floppy drive implementation maybe have a look at HFMounter (MUI)
For reading/writing ADF files there is ADFBlitzer or TSGui

With the latter possibilities you could check the option «add pc drives at startup» in WinUAE -> CD & Hard drives.
Copy your ADF files from Host System drive into your WinUAE Amiga environment, Dopus5 drag&drop method should be most convenient.

With HFMounter and e.g. TSGui you could extract up to 11 ADF images (any, dos or non-dos) to virtual floppy drives on your Amiga disk drive and keep them non-volantile saved until you format the virtual disks again.

I'm using this method since several years to bypass WinUAE floppy drive usage.
Think about some games to play like Monkey Island 2 with 11 floppy disks without HD installation.

Modifying the HFMounter mountlist also gives the option for one or more virtual disks to have higher HD floppy capacity (1,7MB) just in case there is a need.

That sounds fantastic. So let me get this straight:

1. I download and install HFMounter
2. I download and install ADFBlitzer (or TSGui)
3. I add my host system drive to my WinUAE (this is already done)
4. I copy the files from host system drive to my Amiga environment, and then read them with ADFBlitzer, then mount them with HFMounter

Correct?

Two questions maybe: which WinUAE is my Amikit using? I can see the 32 as well as the 64bit version installed. But I am unable to identify which one is actually being used.

Also, I checked DEVS:mountlist and found nothing. Is it somewhere else in Amikit? I assume you would need to add the mountlist of HDMounter to the general mountlist?

Oh, one more question - would you put/install these 2 programs into TOOLS? Or into a different folder?

Silly me:

0. I download and install fmsdisk (!!)
1. I download and install HFMounter
2. I download and install ADFBlitzer (or TSGui)
3. I add my host system drive to my WinUAE (this is already done)
4. I copy the files from host system drive to my Amiga environment, and then read them with ADFBlitzer, then mount them with HFMounter

0. I download and install fmsdisk (!!) - device handler should already be in HFMounter archive /devs/fmsdisk.device
1. I download and install HFMounter - ok
2. I download and install ADFBlitzer (or TSGui) - for all purpose rather use TSGui (both tools mainly executable + icon file + docs, locale language file if needed)
3. I add my host system drive to my WinUAE (this is already done)
4. I copy the files from host system drive to my Amiga environment, and then read them with ADFBlitzer, then mount them with HFMounter

4. ADFBlitzer (it can only deal with df0: - df3:). Very handy (quick) with real Amiga drives as I used them long time (~40 sec. job) . You could only use it with WinUAE Floppy implementation, but what for if you already have .adf files at hand. TSGui can do it all too.

TSGui can deal with different devices dfx:; RAD: (ramdisk), DSx: (Disk Spare Device); or any virtual drive already mounted by HFMounter (HF0: - HF11:)

So, first start HFMounter, mount/format at least one drive so your .adf file can be transferred to it with TSGui or even a .adf file can be created from any HFx: unit (bi-directional usage of course)

«Two questions maybe: which WinUAE is my Amikit using? I can see the 32 as well as the 64bit version installed. But I am unable to identify which one is actually being used.»

Press F12 and click «About»

«Also, I checked DEVS:mountlist and found nothing. Is it somewhere else in Amikit?» - /devs/hf-mountlist should be copied on install

«Oh, one more question - would you put/install these 2 programs into TOOLS? Or into a different folder?»

I have ADF-Blitzer in Tools, TSGui could go there too it's up to you.

My HFMounter is slightly differently installed as explained in the docs:

I mount my own folder for the virtual disk images, hence a small mount script
SYS:c/hfm ;(based on HF-Mounter1_32/storage/dosdrivers/hf-mount)
|
v
assign FMS: SYS:Vir-Disks/ >NIL:
SYS:c/hfm_ ;(binary HFMounter exe file renamed)

It's stated in the docs it couldn't handle non-dos disks, well they are not bootable/readable by a file handler directly but they can be handled in a way like converting them .dms <-> .adf
Some games have a dos boot disk but the remaining disks are non-dos disks (iirc Super Skidmarks is such a candidate). So the routine for reading the non-dos disks is loaded when booting the game.

Never tried it, but maybe give «VF2000.lha» a try too (up to 32 drive units!)

For HD floppy capacity -> /devs/hf-mountlist

Change at will «BlocksPerTrack = 11» [DD] -> 22 [HD] (~1,7MB capacity)
Good luck.