Task: Purchase and Install a Gotek Floppy Disk Drive Emulator for Your Amiga 500 16-Bit Computer
Needed: Web Browser, Gotek, 34-pin Ribbon Cable, 4-pin Power Connector, Mounting Bracket
Time: 30-60 minutes
Introduction
Floppy and hard disk drive emulators are commonplace for 8-bit and 16-bit computers. Most use an SD cards or USB drives to load and boot software. This eliminates reliance on floppy disks and old hard drives that are failing at a rapid rate. One of the oldest such devices is the Gotek floppy drive emulator that accepts software on a USB drive. These come with a 34-pin connector that matches that of the Amiga and other computers such as the Atari ST. Installation is pretty straightforward, and loading software on the USB is super easy. The following is what I did to get this installed and running inside my Amiga 500.
Instructions
First, purchase a Gotek drive. There are many sources, and most sell them new for around $30 to $50. You can find them on Amazon and eBay, for example. Some Amiga-specific stores also sell the Gotek. For example, Retro32 sells them along with a USB drive loaded with software. Mine came in a case that I removed for installation.
Second, you will need a mounting bracket to install the Gotek in place of the actual floppy drive inside the Amiga 500. These are 3D-printed and available from multiple sources. I got mine on eBay for around $15. Note that some sellers are offering the bracket with the Gotek included. This might be a good option instead of purchasing them separately. I used three black M3 6mm screws to attach the Gotek to the bracket. Note that my Gotek is an older model, and the LED display didn’t fit into the bracket. I positioned it with some glue, and it looks great from the front.
Third, install the mounted Gotek in the Amiga after removing the floppy drive. I attached the mounting bracket to the Amiga case with a single black M3 6mm screw as shown below. You will need a 34-pin ribbon cable as shown in the picture and a 4-pin power connector. These should be available from your removed floppy drive. I did not have a floppy drive, so I sourced my connector separately. They may look different than yours for that reason.
Fourth, it is time to prepare the USB drive for booting. The USB drive should be formatted using Fat32. Once formatted, download the latest stable release of the FlashFloppy software required by the Gotek. The following two files need to be on the root of the USB drive: HXCSDFE.CFG and AUTOBOOT.HFE. For testing, download at least one Amiga disk image (.ADF) file and place on root. You could start with the Sys Info or Amiga Test Kit software, for example. There is a huge archive of games available on Internet Archive.
Fifth, it is time to boot your Amiga 500. If all goes well it should boot into the Flash Floppy Manager software that allows you to select an ADF file and then assign it to a virtual drive number. Below is the screen showing 10 utilities and games mounted to 10 floppy drives. Note that I put Workbench v1.3 in drive one for my regular boot. From Workbench you can press the two buttons on the front of the Gotek to cycle through each of the drives. As each is cycled the disk icon will appear on the desktop allowing you to click and boot (see below). Here is a nice YouTube video from Retro32 that steps through the details of how to do this.
Comments
Setting up a Gotek for the Amiga was much easier than I thought it would be. This project took me about an hour to do the installation and start booting ADF files. It is defintiely clunkier than using a virtual hard drive. However, it is much better than using real floppies. Happy to have this working.