Where to get Workbench 1.3 disks?

[Dingo_aus]

I thought everything was going great. Had my old A500 up and running, WB was running well.

Tried making a backup of my Workbench 1.3 backup. Didn't get all the way through. oh well.... try again later.


About an hour later, try and load Workbench from another disk, no dice, read/write error. Tried my backup, still no luck. uh-oh, this could be bad.

Trying again and again, took my a500 apart and cleaned the drive heads, and everytime it stops at the same point in loading WB 1.3.

So now I'm stuck, after 20 years my WB 1.3 floppy just ups and dies! If only Commodore was still around to claim it under warranty

Anyway, I now have no way of loading the CLI to load software from my PC.

Where can I go to get a Workbench 1.3 disk? only possible ebay auction is in the UK and I doubt a disk would make it to Australia unscathed. Plus it is an oringal disk, so it itself is 20 years old too.

Any ideas?

[Cyberus]

Hey Dingo,
Try asking about on here a bit, there may be a fellow Aussie who could send you a spare original (or copy, if its plain that you have the original yourself). You may be able to find an ADF image on the web too, but that may be piracy...

TBH, I'd send you one, but it'd take weeks (literally) to get to you from England, and probably get X-rayed en route.

[motorollin]

Agreed, shipping from UK to Aus would most likely result in the disk being x-rayed which would destroy it. I guess you could write something on the parcel to ask them to manually examine it instead of x-raying, but I don't know if customs would pay any attention.

If you can't find anyone in Aus who can give you a copy then downloading may be the only option if you own the originals. But then, if you have no Workbench disk to boot from, I don't know how you could get the files on to your Amiga  :-?

--
moto



--EDIT
Actually, I've just found this.
So you may want to chance it...

[koaftder]

motorollin wrote:
Agreed, shipping from UK to Aus would most likely result in the disk being x-rayed which would destroy it. I guess you could write something on the parcel to ask them to manually examine it instead of x-raying, but I don't know if customs would pay any attention.

If you can't find anyone in Aus who can give you a copy then downloading may be the only option if you own the originals. But then, if you have no Workbench disk to boot from, I don't know how you could get the files on to your Amiga  :-?

--
moto



--EDIT
Actually, I've just found this.
So you may want to chance it...

Xray machines pose no threat to magnetic media. Some films can be ruined though.

[Markus_Bieler]

If you are shure that its the disk which s faulty, then you
can try "fixdisk" from aminet. It mostly can fix disks
with read/write errors. After fixing the disk, just make a
copy onto a fresh disk.

Or copy files per files from one disk to another.

[_ThEcRoW]

Do you have a hd in your 500 or extra disk drive?. Seems to me that if you only have one drive(the internal), then your only option is to get the disk from a mate that can copy it. Having the original i cannot see any inconvenient of doing it.

[TjLaZer]

Since you own a A500 that automatically qualifies you with a license to own Workbench 1.x, and since you actually own the darn disk, please feel free to pirate a Workbench 1.3 ADF file if you wish!  I am sure Amiga inc will not mind, but they do want you to buy AmigaOS 3.9!

Just have someone send you a backup of WB 1.3 if you cannot do it yourself.

[Eclipse]

If you own them legit then try to ADF2Disk them.
Please support the Amiga community by trying to get originals if you can.

[Lando]

You could try return the disk to Amiga Inc. for a replacement.

Amiga, Inc.
Attn: John Grzymala
167 Madison Avenue
Suite 301
New York, NY 10016

Even though you own the original disk it's still illegal to download an ADF - you could have made an ADF of your own disk while it was still working, but downloading an ADF of someone else's isn't allowed.

[a1200]

Even though you own the original disk it's still illegal to download an ADF - you could have made an ADF of your own disk while it was still working, but downloading an ADF of someone else's isn't allowed.

Yeah right, so what is the difference between one disk image and another. If you own the disk, there is no reason you cannot use a working backup copy. Put it another way, how could you prove that the copy was not made from your own original?

[Tomas]

Does both the orginal and backup stop at exact same spot??
If not, then you could try swapping disks once you get the read/write error and then press retry.

[Tomas]

Markus_Bieler wrote:
If you are shure that its the disk which s faulty, then you
can try "fixdisk" from aminet. It mostly can fix disks
with read/write errors. After fixing the disk, just make a
copy onto a fresh disk.

Or copy files per files from one disk to another.

It is permanently ruined if it does not work though..

[Tomas]

Even though you own the original disk it's still illegal to download an ADF - you could have made an ADF of your own disk while it was still working, but downloading an ADF of someone else's isn't allowed.

That might be so in the usa, but is not the case here.. You should not need to pay twice for a copy that you already own.

It is virtually impossible to get a working orginal copy these days anyways... It is suprising that his orginal floppy has lasted as long as it have. If everyone thought like you, then all this software would end up getting extinct.

[InTheSand]

koaftder wrote:
Xray machines pose no threat to magnetic media. Some films can be ruined though.

Agreed - I posted some WB1.3 disks from New Zealand to the US and they survived the journey!

Dingo: I've PMailed you...

 - Ali

[TjLaZer]

Even though you own the original disk it's still illegal to download an ADF - you could have made an ADF of your own disk while it was still working, but downloading an ADF of someone else's isn't allowed.

That is F-ing bull****.  Every Amiga computer came with Workbench disks.  There are no keyfiles or serials, so if you own the original disk(s) you can download ADFs all day long, you own the license so to speak.  It is like going to the store and buying Windows XP and then cutting up your CD, then downloading a XP ISO off the net and using your serial key with it!

Especially now since there is no Commodore to get a replacement.  I can see back in 1992 getting a copy would not be the "correct" course of action, it would be to contact Commodore-Amiga, Inc., and get a copy for like $7.

As far as I am concerned if anyone comes to me with a Amiga and asks me for a System Disk, I will gladly give them a copy that corresponds to the original ROM and OS that came with the machine when it was released.  ie WB 1.3 for A500/2000, WB 2.x for A600/3000, WB 3.0 Amiga 4000/1200, etc.

If anyone does not like it tough.  :banana: