Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: My Amiga Syquest Disk - What to do?  (Read 1418 times)

Description: Help a clueless newb out!

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline MrVotarTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: Feb 2023
  • Posts: 9
  • Country: ca
  • Gender: Male
    • Show only replies by MrVotar
My Amiga Syquest Disk - What to do?
« on: February 02, 2023, 09:06:39 PM »
New member, first post -- and ancient Amiga owner.   

I only recently attempted to revive my old Amiga machines.  I've got my original A1000, a 'Toastered' A2000, and my wife's A1200...   So far, the A1000 turns on successfully, so does the A1200, but the A2000 just dies immediately after I flipped the power switch.  What I really want is all the files (animations, lightwave scenes etc) that lived on my A2000's hard drive.    So just today I found an old Syquest SCSI drive AND a cartridge labelled "Amiga Safety".   So my question is:  if I connect that drive to a Mac running an Amiga emulator, will it 'see' the Amiga cartridge-drive?   And if not, what's the best way for me to access Amiga content that's 'marooned' on a Syquest disk?   

I was also thinking, maybe I can put the A2000 hard-drive in an external case to see if it still works... but what then?

Lastly, I have a Mac diskimage or ".dmg" of the Amiga Syquest disk.  The mac can't read it, just says "no File System found".  But does anyone know of a possible method to 'read' that .dmg file?

So many questions... But please be warned: I am a total newb, I know nothing about programming or soldering or hacking or taking computers apart.  Dumb it down for me as much as you can.  Looking forward to any insights y'all can provide.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2023, 03:04:58 AM by MrVotar »
 

Offline RetroNinja

Re: My Amiga Syquest Disk - What to do?
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2023, 04:01:18 PM »
A couple things come to mind.

* For the A2000, try opening the case and pulling out any cards besides your 'SCSI card+hard drive'. Maybe one of the other cards is stopping the boot process. You can't hurt anything buy pulling out cards and doing a power up, just don't plug/unplug cards while the PC is powered on.
* Look for a label on the SCSI card, does it say anything like Commodore A2091, GVP HC, Trumpcard, ICD? This will help further down the line.
* When you say the A2000 turns on then off immediately, do you mean you see a Workbench screen or flashes of color? Screen colors are a built-in POST(PowerOnSelfTest) if you list the last color you see perhaps we can narrow down the boot problem.
* Depending on when you need your data you can pull the 'SCSI card+hard drive' and take it to the a Commodore club meeting or VCFED show. Someone there should be able to plug it in and tell you if it is good.
* If you're headed to Las Vegas anytime in the next 6 months, bring it along and I can test it for you.
 
The following users thanked this post: MrVotar

Offline MrVotarTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: Feb 2023
  • Posts: 9
  • Country: ca
  • Gender: Male
    • Show only replies by MrVotar
Re: My Amiga Syquest Disk - What to do?
« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2023, 05:38:30 PM »
Thanks for the reply and the tips.

We are thinking along the same lines, because my plan was to pull all the expansion boards out of the A2000 and see if it boots up... But I strongly suspect it's a power supply issue or electrical fault, because it doesn't even get to a blank screen or WorkBench prompt or anything.  The front Power light flickers for less than half a second when you hit the 'on' switch, and then nothing.  So I assume that means the machine failed some sort of initial power test and thus refuses to go any further.

But, aside from my challenges with the A2000, I'm guessing that most of the files I'm after are on this Syquest cartridge, and I DO have a functioning Syquest drive...  I also have an older Windows PC and an old Mac 'Quicksilver' G4 machine.  So my hope was to somehow connect the SCSI Syquest drive to one of those things, and then use Amiga emulation to read the drive.  But I'm still trying to find out if Amiga emulators will read external Amiga-formatted drives.    Anyone with a clue on that conundrum?

Thanks again to everyone here.
 

Offline MrVotarTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: Feb 2023
  • Posts: 9
  • Country: ca
  • Gender: Male
    • Show only replies by MrVotar
Re: My Amiga Syquest Disk - What to do?
« Reply #3 on: February 06, 2023, 02:24:03 AM »
Somewhat exciting update: I removed most of the expansion cards from my A2000 (Toaster, ALive video card, Emplant emulator card...) and tried to turn it on again.  THIS time the power light stayed lit for a second or two (woohoo!) but then there was a sharp SNAP sound - like a fuse or a circuit blowing - and then a puff of smoke from the back of the machine.  And quite a nasty smell, so I unplugged it quickly.

If something wasn't fried before, it's definitely fried now.  Oh well.  Guess it's time to find someone who knows their way around electronics.
 

Offline AndyFC

Re: My Amiga Syquest Disk - What to do?
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2023, 05:42:07 PM »
But I'm still trying to find out if Amiga emulators will read external Amiga-formatted drives.    Anyone with a clue on that conundrum?

Hi there. I know that WinUAE can mount and use Amiga formatted media, even if the host operating system can't. I've done it with SD cards and others have done it with CF cards...so I'm making an assumption that it will also be possible with your Syquest disk too.

I've got a Powermac G4 MDD running both MorphOS (an Amiga-like Operating system) and MacOS Tiger. I've not had any success with Amiga emulation under old versions of MacOS, but I have just checked and I am able to read an SD Card formatted with an Amiga file system (PFS3) under MorphOS. You can find out more about MorphOS here: https://www.morphos-team.net. The download is free and without registering it you can use it for 30 minutes at a time.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2023, 05:43:52 PM by AndyFC »
A1200 in DIY Tower. 3.2 ROMs (softkicking 3.2.2), OS 3.2.2 with ClassicWB, CF card, CD RW and IDE to SD adapter running off the internal IDE port (using the A4000 4-port IDE adapter from Amigakit), Pistorm 32 lite with Pi4/2GB/Emu68 or Blizzard 1230-IV, with 32MB 60ns RAM and 50MHz 68882 FPU. 3COM PCMCIA Network card running with Miami DX.
MorphOS on PowerMac G5 and ATI 9600 pro
 

Offline Castellen

Re: My Amiga Syquest Disk - What to do?
« Reply #5 on: February 10, 2023, 07:13:26 AM »
there was a sharp SNAP sound - like a fuse or a circuit blowing - and then a puff of smoke from the back of the machine.  And quite a nasty smell, so I unplugged it quickly.

That's often the X2 safety capacitor that does that.  The good news is that it's a simple fix to replace it; it's usually located underneath the IEC inlet connector, surrounded by heat shrink.  Technically the power supply doesn't even need that capacitor to operate, its job is to reduce high frequency switching noise that would be otherwise be conducted back into the AC mains supply.  All switchmode power supplies need a similar form of high frequency AC decoupling to meet conducted emissions standards.

That said, I'd recommend you get it looked at by someone competent working on AC power supplies as it contains dangerous internal working voltages.  I can do the job if you get stuck, though it's not that economic to send a power supply to New Zealand for a simple repair job.

http://amiga.serveftp.net
 
The following users thanked this post: MrVotar

Offline MrVotarTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: Feb 2023
  • Posts: 9
  • Country: ca
  • Gender: Male
    • Show only replies by MrVotar
Re: My Amiga Syquest Disk - What to do?
« Reply #6 on: February 10, 2023, 07:42:36 PM »
This is very interesting because I do still have my old G4 Powermac and I just verified last night that it can still read my Syquest drive, at least with Mac cartridges.  I thought it was busted before but it turned out to be a cabling problem...

So if I'm reading your message correctly, maybe I'll be able to run an Amiga emulator on the G4 Mac, and THAT would be able to read the Amiga format Syquest?

OR it occurred to me that if the Mac can at least 'see' the Amiga Syquest cartridge, is there some kind of tool to convert it into a format that I could bring over to my Windows machine (maybe on a compact flash or something) and then THAT would be readable by the PC Amiga emulator?

I'm assuming that the Mac's " dmg" disc image format isn't something the PC can read.   

My head's spinning (like an old hard drive) with all the possible permutations of this nonsense.   

 

Offline MrVotarTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: Feb 2023
  • Posts: 9
  • Country: ca
  • Gender: Male
    • Show only replies by MrVotar
Re: My Amiga Syquest Disk - What to do?
« Reply #7 on: February 10, 2023, 07:47:26 PM »
Thanks for the tech help.   I was a little freaked out by the toxic smell after the 'poof', so I put my Amiga in the garage for a while to air it out...  :-)

But I agree with you, shipping this big beast to New Zealand for a repair job would probably not be a fiscally smart move.

On the one hand, I realize all I really need to do is rescue the hard drive.  And as I mentioned above, I have this 270 mb. Syquest 'backup' which probably has most of my 'important' files on it.   But it's kinda too bad I can't just get the 2000 working like it used to, with the video cards and Toaster graphics and all that.   Probably not worth the time and investment tho.

I'm looking to find somebody local who has enough electronics know-how to at least get the machine to power up.  We'll see how that goes.

 

Offline AndyFC

Re: My Amiga Syquest Disk - What to do?
« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2023, 07:46:38 PM »
So if I'm reading your message correctly, maybe I'll be able to run an Amiga emulator on the G4 Mac, and THAT would be able to read the Amiga format Syquest?

Yes, that's right, you MIGHT be able to. The problem is that the PowerPC macs are now so old that the emulators are not up to date. I've spent a little time looking into emulating an Amiga on PowerPC MacOS, but it looks challenging, especially when I can run MorphOS on the same system.

I'm assuming that the Mac's " dmg" disc image format isn't something the PC can read.   

I've not tried it myself but quickly did some research and it appears you can use 7-zip on Windows to extract .DMG files.

It's a shame you are so far away, if you were local this is the sort of challenge I'd happily spend a free day to try and resolve.
A1200 in DIY Tower. 3.2 ROMs (softkicking 3.2.2), OS 3.2.2 with ClassicWB, CF card, CD RW and IDE to SD adapter running off the internal IDE port (using the A4000 4-port IDE adapter from Amigakit), Pistorm 32 lite with Pi4/2GB/Emu68 or Blizzard 1230-IV, with 32MB 60ns RAM and 50MHz 68882 FPU. 3COM PCMCIA Network card running with Miami DX.
MorphOS on PowerMac G5 and ATI 9600 pro
 
The following users thanked this post: MrVotar

Offline MrVotarTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: Feb 2023
  • Posts: 9
  • Country: ca
  • Gender: Male
    • Show only replies by MrVotar
Re: My Amiga Syquest Disk - What to do?
« Reply #9 on: February 13, 2023, 09:42:37 PM »
Yes, that's right, you MIGHT be able to. The problem is that the PowerPC macs are now so old that the emulators are not up to date. I've spent a little time looking into emulating an Amiga on PowerPC MacOS, but it looks challenging, especially when I can run MorphOS on the same system.

I've not tried it myself but quickly did some research and it appears you can use 7-zip on Windows to extract .DMG files.

It's a shame you are so far away, if you were local this is the sort of challenge I'd happily spend a free day to try and resolve.

Well it looks like I may have to move to take advantage of your offer then!  :-)

I feel like I'm stuck in a weird retro-computing puzzle where all the pieces ALMOST fit.  My old A1200 boots up, but only reads floppies with no SCSI.  My old PC can run the Amiga emulator, but has no floppies or SCSI.   And my old G4 Mac does have SCSI and can 'see' the Amiga Syquest drive but can't run the emulation to decode it...  And also no floppies or even CF reader.

Lately I'm thinking the path of least resistance is to a) get an old SCSI card for my PC,  and/or b) get a PC floppy drive, and maybe even this 'GreazeWeasel' thingamabob.   As long as nobody expects me to do any soldering.  That will NOT happen.

Or, as I say, change continents.

Sheesh.