Non-Amiga geeks make a boo boo

[Rabbi]

I feel bad for you guys.  I'd recommend AmiBack Tools for disk problems.

I'd recommend you also get DirectoryOpus as a file manager.

What model Amiga is it?  A Big Box (A2000, A3000, or A4000)?  Or is it a "keyboard type" computer, the A1200? (The others I've eliminated, as they've not got HDs).  My bet is that it's an A2000, as it was common to have multiple partitions that size (small by today's standards) on 1 HD (or multiple small SCSI HDs).

I'd wish I could help you.  Whereabouts are you located.  Amigans like to support each other, especially in times of crisis.

BTW, if you ever end up working on someone's older Mac, would you know how to eject the floppy after formatting it?  :lol:

[Rabbi]

Well, a slow format actually does destroy data, making retrieval of the data highly unlikely.  Your best bet is to take whatever back-ups you have and replace what is missing with the back-up files.  Do you know how to take the back-ups & copy it over to the HD areas you hosed?  If it's on another Amiga computer, you could do the "Floppy & Sneakernet" thing, but you'd need to first get a list of all files missing on the hosed system.  Then you'd get a list of all files on the b/u system & identify which files are only on the b/u system & copy those ones over to the hosed system.

Program data on Amigas are almost invariably within the app's main drawer.  It's really better to have apps & data on separate physical drives, but I'm guessing you have an A2000, an older system, when HDs cost a major amount, where the apps & data are together.

I'm unfamiliar with the Quarterback program, but I believe it's GUI-based, not a command line interface.  See, if you had done a "Quick Format", all that would've affected was table entries of file pointers & your actual programs & data would've remained untouched & been able to be retrieved with proper data retrieval programs, such as AmiBack Tools that I use.  DiskSalv4 is not as intuitive, I feel.  With a slow format, your data is in all practical purposes gone to that great Archive in the Sky, barring any high-priced forensic data retrieval techniques.

I'm going to be driving to NYC this Thursday to pick up my son to bring him back here for the Passover holiday, then driving him back after the holiday.  If you could wait until April 12 in the evening, I'd be passing by, although I'd have to take I-90 instead, I could set you straight & fix it.

[Rabbi]

The thing that concerns me along these lines is that when we've tried to open a few of the backup files, an error was presented that said something like \main\xyz could not be found. This leads me to believe that:

A) there are database queries where paths are hardcoded
B) the directory structure of the hosed partition will have to be exactly recreated.

They're probably either hard-coded in the DH0:s/user-startup/ drawer, a setting in the "Preferences" option (could even be a right-button drop down menu) program of the data base program, hidden away in the icon (in the .info file), or just a plain default of the data base program.

The user-startup file is much like the Windoze AUTOEXEC.BAT in concept.

To view any options hidden in an icon .info file, click only once on the icon itself to select it & then go to the top of the screen and do the right-button drop-down menu thing to highlight & release on Icons>Information.

As far as "B)", you are spot on with this.

BTW, the Amiga system uses forward-slashes, "/", not backslashes, "\" as in Windoze systems, as a separator.

is it possible to do something as simple as copying DH2 from Amiga #2 to Amiga #1?

If so, from there we'd only have to copy back the backup files, right?

If you have knowledge about SCSIs, then you'll understand that you can open up the other computer & remove the HD drive and you'll need to place it with a connecting cable to the external SCSI connector on the hosed system.  You'll have to ensure that the HD drive that you'll be connecting will NOT conflict with any other SCSI devices inside.  I would recommend that you open the system & write down what SCSI unit numbers these devices are using (from 1 - 7).  This would be the quickest way.  You're lucky that you're dealing with an A3000 in that has an external SCSI connector.  You'll also need a power source for the HD drive that you'll be attaching.  See if there's an extra empty power connector on the inside of the hosed system.

Also, I am wondering if you've got CrossDOS installed on that A3000.  Any Amiga that's got CrossDOS installed can instantly read & write to an MS-DOS formatted floppy, so formatting a floppy, which you did to start off this headache might've been totally unnecessary had you known if CrossDOS was installed in the Amiga that you hosed, if you had had pre-formatted floppies.