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Author Topic: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk  (Read 12739 times)

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Offline klx300r

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Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #29 from previous page: March 16, 2010, 10:10:45 PM »
awesome story! thanks for coming back to the Amiga :-)
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Offline LoadWB

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Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #30 on: March 16, 2010, 10:18:57 PM »
Quote from: pkivolowitz;547883

From early memory, a Unix "dd" command could be used to suck the data off the tape without parsing it. Is there something like that for Windows tape (which I have never used)?

Once the bytes are on the Windows machine I can transfer to the Linux server and untar them there - shouldn't be a problem, right?


There are several implementations of dd for Windows, though I have only used them with drive devices.  Given time over the weekend, I can see if I can get one of the dd's I use to recognize a tape drive.
 

Offline pkivolowitzTopic starter

Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #31 on: March 16, 2010, 10:24:29 PM »
Quote from: LoadWB;547898
There are several implementations of dd for Windows, though I have only used them with drive devices.  Given time over the weekend, I can see if I can get one of the dd's I use to recognize a tape drive.


Thank you. The probability that the tape will die after one pass is non-zero. With irreplaceable data that could be a problem.

Drive and adapter won't be here till next week.

p
 

Offline desiv

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Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #32 on: March 16, 2010, 10:59:57 PM »
Quote from: pkivolowitz;547900
Thank you. The probability that the tape will die after one pass is non-zero. With irreplaceable data that could be a problem.

True..
You could use a linux Live CD/DVD on your Winderz box and then dd the information from there.

Something like this then:
(assuming /data is some volume that you can write big files to from the Linux boot disk)
[SIZE=-1]
dd bs=265b conv=noerror if=/dev/st0 of=/data/tape.image

Good Luck,

desiv
[/SIZE]
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Offline pault1

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Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #33 on: March 17, 2010, 12:09:32 AM »
(if this message posts twice sorry, I got screwed by having two windows open and it wouldn't recognize the post I spent fifteen minutes typing and researching....  :(

Perry, great to see you here.  I think I must have met you at some West Coast US Amiga show, C= in SF, Amiga shows in Oakland, Sac, or Long Beach/Queen Mary?  I was never to FAUG but was active in ACCESS in Livermore and Amiga Addicts in Walnut Creek/Concord, hung out with Randy from Winner's Circle.

My A1000 was made FAR more enjoyable by use of the RRD and FACC II.  I ended up eventually using C='s RAD: for its ability to accept a Diskcopy from the WB floppy, so that after a speeded up Diskcopy noverify (sounds right anyway), the 1000 would reboot and work from the RAD: like lightning.  It was actually faster to do it that way than to boot from the floppy, too!  Then I had two physical floppies available for software + storage, which FACC II made way faster as well.  Very cool and usable solutions.  In fact IIRC, I could load FACC II and then run some games like Bard's Tale, which cut its disk accesses WAY down and made it way more responsive.

Even if I was using the Starboard 2MB instead of ASDG's memory holder.

But your software always seemed high quality.  I bought a buddy's software including ADPro when he changed platforms, used it to retouch and tile out a scan of my parents' b&w wedding photos for their 50th anniversary.  Printed out at two feet by three feet in b&w on my HP deskjet 500 and carefully pasted up, you really couldn't see from more than three feet away that it wasn't a professional poster.  So I put it behind a velvet rope that was four feet away.  :)   I _still_ think that for many tasks that the Amiga software was just _right_ and far easier to use than packages on other platforms.

Paul T.
 

Offline platon42

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Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #34 on: March 18, 2010, 08:29:14 PM »
Quote from: pkivolowitz;547582
VD0 might be a great-grandfather of RAD.


Nice story ;) BTW: The Deneb USB 2.0 board comes with a 2+4 MB flashrom and there's a virtual drive there too with a 1.4 MB installer image in it. Comes up right on the workbench after plugging in the Zorro card. Pure Fcking Magic ;) So FD0 could be the nephew of VD0 ;)
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Offline pkivolowitzTopic starter

Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #35 on: March 26, 2010, 02:09:33 AM »
Making Progress...

I now own the tape drive and a vintage SCSI controller. The SCSI controller is in the Linux machine and seems to be recognized. Was all set to start testing the tape drive and discovered I could not find my SCSI cables. I had a whole box of every variety but maybe I threw them out.

Just ordered a cable on eBay.

I have a big project come up now so I won't be able to get back to this effort for a couple of weeks.

While looking for the SCSI cables I found just about a complete set of Amazing Computings, a bunch of other Amiga mags including Compute! and Info!, my baseball card collection and the production notes from the Star Trek (STTOS) episode The Metamorphosis, including salaries, hours, addresses down to what lens was used on which camera in what scene. Thought I had lost it.
 

Offline a1200

Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #36 on: April 13, 2012, 04:50:23 PM »
Quote from: pkivolowitz;547900
Thank you. The probability that the tape will die after one pass is non-zero. With irreplaceable data that could be a problem.

Drive and adapter won't be here till next week.

p
Hi, I wonder how the recovery of the VD0/other ASDG sources went? I would be happy to pay a data recovery company to do the extraction forensically as opposed to using a random drive with a dash of "suck it and see". Perry, please PM me if you are listening still and want to organise.

PM'd pkivolowitz too
« Last Edit: April 13, 2012, 04:52:52 PM by a1200 »
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Offline LoadWB

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Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #37 on: April 13, 2012, 05:32:56 PM »
Quote from: pkivolowitz;547900
Thank you. The probability that the tape will die after one pass is non-zero. With irreplaceable data that could be a problem.

Drive and adapter won't be here till next week.

p


I'm gonna look up that drive later today.  I'm concerned that if a single pass can kill the tape, a lot of those tapes are linear and not helical scan, which means that the head traverses the tape multiple times (back and forth) in tracks.
 

Offline smerf

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Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #38 on: April 13, 2012, 06:08:20 PM »
Hi,

@pkivlowitz,

Sorry to hear about your trouble, not programming the VD0, or having no heat, but living in New Jersey, that had to be horrible. No ordinary man could take that, not only living with yankees, but living with New Jersey yankees. Well it could have been worse, you could have lived in New York.

smerf
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Offline smerf

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Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #39 on: April 13, 2012, 06:19:59 PM »
Hi,

@Tension,

Why don't you tell him the truth,

It should be:

Welcome to Amiga.org, home of the "World Famous Amiga Loonies" here you will become addicted to old processors, new ideas in inventing old machines and hardware, using new hardware to emulate old outdated hardware for the Amiga.

so welcome to Looney world

smerf
I have no idea what your talking about, so here is a doggy with a small pancake on his head.

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Offline smerf

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Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #40 on: April 13, 2012, 06:32:51 PM »
Quote from: Bigbronc;547725
Hello, sorry to jump in on a reunion, nice stories. Where is this big Hamfest, I would love to go some place where some one can talk Amiga, most people don't know that there was a choice before. I am in Frederick Maryland and want to start a retro Amiga thing or something.


Hi,

@Bigbronc,

Listen all those Radio Hams want to talk about is their rigs, and what they have planned for the future, 99% of them don't want to talk about no ancient Amiga computer, all the new hams will probably think that the Amiga ran on vacuum tubes, and won't have the slightest idea what the Amiga was.

I mean look at Amiga.org, all these new guys want to talk about is Mac computers, and their new MorphOS Amiga emualtor for the Mac. (they probably don't even know what a real Amiga is, or probably never owned one).

By the way I run a Katrinia 2, 10, and 11 meter in my auto, and run a Yaesu. I also have a
Halicrafters and R-390 receiver. (Lets see if any of these modern day hams recognize this equipment, or a National radio that is up in my attic) I also have an old Zenith shortwave radio.

smerf
I have no idea what your talking about, so here is a doggy with a small pancake on his head.

MorphOS is a MAC done a little better
 

Offline a1200

Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #41 on: April 14, 2012, 11:04:37 PM »
See my ham gear I run on my QRZ page
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Offline LoadWB

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Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #42 on: April 16, 2012, 03:29:28 AM »
Exabyte 8mm drives are apparently helical scan (the first, in fact, for data storage.)  Carry on :)
 

Offline psxphill

Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #43 on: April 16, 2012, 07:42:05 AM »
Quote from: pkivolowitz;547541
I don't remember - was it my RRD that dynamically grew or was it the one that came later?

Fortunately you documented it :-)
 
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Offline kamelito

Re: Story of VD0 - the invention of the recoverable ram disk
« Reply #44 on: June 06, 2022, 01:57:43 PM »
He gave Trevor Dickinson all ASDG source codes to open source them, Trevor never released them. IIRC it was at Amiga 32 see YT
« Last Edit: June 06, 2022, 02:16:22 PM by kamelito »