Amiga.org

Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: FedGizmo on November 02, 2025, 10:26:29 PM

Title: Help needed recovering data off an Amiga hard drive but not using an Amiga :/
Post by: FedGizmo on November 02, 2025, 10:26:29 PM

Hello,

I used to have a towered Amiga, sadly that died some ago so I now have an A1200 with compact flash hd. However I still have the spinning rust drives from the tower. I have also found a drive that is probably Amiga based but may not be.  :-\

I would like to try and recover the data of these drives, but am running into some issues.

I'm using a Linux (mint 21.3) with an usb adaptor to pull the data off the drives. Linux has Affs baked into its kernel (the OS' guts) and you can use a command to grab the raw data of a hard drive into a file. Sometimes the image produced behave nicely and you get

Code: [Select]

sudo parted 3gb1.img
GNU Parted 3.4
Using 3gb1.img
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) p                                                               
Model:  (file)
Disk 3gb1.img: 1622MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags:

Number  Start  End     Size    File system  Flags
 1      0.00B  1622MB  1622MB  affs1

This can be mounted in Linux and read.

However often I am getting

Code: [Select]

NU Parted 3.4
Using AmigaDisk.img
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) p                                                               
Model:  (file)
Disk AmigaDisk.img: 40.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: amiga
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1280kB  8591MB  8590MB               DH40  boot
 2      8591MB  17.2GB  8590MB               DH41
 3      17.2GB  25.8GB  8590MB               DH42
 4      25.8GB  34.4GB  8590MB               DH43
 5      34.4GB  40.0GB  5638MB               DH43

Which cannot as Linux cannot recognise the file system.

I have been trying, without any success, to get the above AmigaDisk.img recognised by Amiberry - a fork of UAE - as I am guessing that the fs is either Smart File System. Professional File System or maybe fro  OS 3.9 - which might not be compatible with the kernel. It could also be Affs, but patched using ide-fix97

If I just use the image as a hard drive on Amiberry I get 4 drives displayed, but they are just garbage.

So any suggestions as to how I might be able to recover this drive?

Thanks in advance.

Title: Re: Help needed recovering data off an Amiga hard drive but not using an Amiga :/
Post by: F0LLETT on November 03, 2025, 09:17:01 AM

Hi,

Have you tried fsuae?

Title: Re: Help needed recovering data off an Amiga hard drive but not using an Amiga :/
Post by: FedGizmo on November 03, 2025, 10:03:24 AM

Hi,

Yes and no. For some reason the fsuae launcher is not part of the mint packaging system. fsuae is, but without any way of configuring it I am somewhat stuck.

I have no idea why it was removed as it was part of previous versions.

Title: Re: Help needed recovering data off an Amiga hard drive but not using an Amiga :/
Post by: F0LLETT on November 03, 2025, 10:20:37 AM

Quote from: FedGizmo on November 03, 2025, 10:03:24 AM

Hi,

Yes and no. For some reason the fsuae launcher is not part of the mint packaging system. fsuae is, but without any way of configuring it I am somewhat stuck.

I have no idea why it was removed as it was part of previous versions.

Are you able to use a windows PC with winuae, as it has a option in menu to copy entire (real) drive to image file.