Back to the Future, need help to preserve unique Amiga

[Mallette]

I am going to try to keep this as short as possible.  I am a training developer for a large drilling company in charge of software development in Houston.  I got into the business as a project manager for ARCO Technology Transfer Group in the 90's where we built a interactive training and simulation system patented as SimStation.  While we developed many marvelous packages, the most successful and long lived was Production Safety Systems Training which simulated the safety systems of an offshore oil platform.  I contracted in 1996 to port this to Windows (what a can of worms) and it was still being sold and unsurpassed until just recently.  About 3 years ago I came into possession of one of the last of 60 SimStations.  It is A4000 based with video overlay, a laserdisc player, CDRom, and custom multi-channel audio.  It still booted last time I tried.

I want to preserve it...and maybe use it as there is NOTHING like Deluxe Paint in the PC world for 2D animations.  I have a still shrink wrapped copy of the last DP version on CD.  

Job one, however, is preservation.  I need to back up the over 15 year old system drive first thing and have lost all my Amiga skills and references.

Is anyone interested in helping?  Are there any surviving Amiga heads in the Houston area?

Regards, and long live REAL computers,
Dave

[Bamiga2002]

I would have use for an A4000 too , sure you can spare one of those 60 A4000's ....

Hope you get help to do the preservation.

[vic20owner]

Buy this for $15:
http://www.amigaforever.com/ae/

It will let you (using a null modem or "pc to pc" cable from office depot) drag the entire harddrive from the amiga to the pc as a single file... or all of the files/folders individually into a single folder on your windows desktop.

Another option for backing up the hard drive is to put it into a computer running some form of Unix (mac OSX, Linux, etc), and then issue this command:

dd if=/dev/DEVICE of=/dev/file

where DEVICE is the correct device of the hard drive... such as disk2 or /dev/hda2 , etc.

The first method will be the easiest and least time consuming.

[Mallette]

Thanks for the quick responses and interest.  Gives me hope...

Not sure whether I still have a null modem around or not.  Are there any cards around these days to network the Amiga to Windows?  As I mentioned, I'd like to use the machine once the original system and software are backed up...upgrade the OS, etc. then be able to export to the Windoze world.  

Also, are there any OS references available?  I still have the original A2000 books, but the 4000 was significantly different...plus I've forgotten just about everything I ever knew, except that computing used to be FUN.  

[Tomas]

Not sure whether I still have a null modem around or not. Are there any cards around these days to network the Amiga to Windows? As I mentioned, I'd like to use the machine once the original system and software are backed up...upgrade the OS, etc. then be able to export to the Windoze world.

Yep, you can get a network card for the a4000 and just use samba to access your windows shares or vice versa.
There is one problem though.. I think you need a mediator addon since i dont think there are much zorro based nic cards around these days. It would have been a whole lot of easier if it was a a1200 since you could just put a nic card into the pcmcia port.

[Amiduffer]

Awww. Why go the hard route. Just borrow a CDRW from a PC, get yourself the free version of MakeCD and backup your harddrive onto a CD. Why mess with a dumb PC?

Here's the page MAKECD

[Mallette]

You guys can't realize just how far I am from anything Amiga these days.  I once spoke REXX and knew Fat Agnus personally.  I am quite lost now and a Bill Gates zombie waiting minutes for something that should happen in nanoseconds.  

I have no idea what a mediator is and had to parse awhile to remember what a zorro slot was/is.  

On the CD side, will the Ami recognize an IDE burner?  That appears to be the path of least resistance at the moment, though I do intend to dig around in my junk for a null modem.

I (a year ago or so) tried to get a SCSI HDD to be recognized (there is a SCSI card in SimStation for reasons I cannot remember) but it wouldn't show.  

Dave

[giturox]

Try using PC2AMIGA.

It requires a little fiddling with some serial cables. It requires that you find a live PC with a usable serial port.

A little help can be found here:
Troubles with PC2Amiga

turn of screen blankers and power savers and now use the amiga to transfer the files to the PC. It is a slow option, but it works.

[Amiduffer]

Mallette wrote:
You guys can't realize just how far I am from anything Amiga these days.  I once spoke REXX and knew Fat Agnus personally.  I am quite lost now and a Bill Gates zombie waiting minutes for something that should happen in nanoseconds.  

I have no idea what a mediator is and had to parse awhile to remember what a zorro slot was/is.  

On the CD side, will the Ami recognize an IDE burner?  That appears to be the path of least resistance at the moment, though I do intend to dig around in my junk for a null modem.

I (a year ago or so) tried to get a SCSI HDD to be recognized (there is a SCSI card in SimStation for reasons I cannot remember) but it wouldn't show.  

Dave

Sure, it should recognize any IDE device, since thats the standard in the A4000 and A1200 vs SCSI for all the older Amiga models. Just download the MakeCD program, and it'll list the drives that have been tested with the program.

As with any SCSI device, make sure that the ID on the HD is different from the others (if you have others hooked up).

Did you run HDToolbox or was the HD already formated in AmigaDOS?

[motrucker]

How large is the hard drive to be backed up? a standard IDE CD writer is a good idea, but you will need a CD file system (available on aminet) and the makeCD software. All pretty easy, and straight forward. Or, if you have another IDE hard drive just lying around, that will work too.
If you are going to put the machine into use, just keep an eye eBay for a Zorro network card - they popo up every now and then.
Good luck!

[Mallette]

Amiduffer:
Thanks for the above.  I don't recall, but I think I was using a previously formated disk.  It will likely be several weeks before I can experiment.  I work 10 on, 5 off and will be going on vacation for a couple of weeks starting next week.  

I've a number of burners kicking around so perhaps one will work.  If not, they are certainly cheap enough.  

I am looking forward to this, though I suppose I will be reminded of just how far downhill we've come since the Amiga.  The next iteration of that simulation I mentioned in the opening was going to be VR.  PC still can't handle VR properly.  

Anyway to post pix on this BBS?  I've a number of inside and out pictures I could post of SimStation if anyone is interested.

Dave

[Mallette]

Motrucker:
I think the sysdrive is no more than 300mb.  Seems I tried to get another IDE drive recognized but was thwarted somehow.  I am going to keep all these ideas open until I have the time (several weeks from now) to drag out SimStation (about 75 lbs.!!!) and boot up.  I'll be able to provide a full report to you guys.  

Regards,
Dave

[X-ray]

Ja, choose 'Images' from the top of the screen, and click 'submit your image.' We would like to see those pictures!

http://www.amiga.org/gallery/upload.php

[madsjm]

Wouldn't it be easiest to just unplug the Amiga's harddrive and mount it in WinUAE? It's a no-brainer.
Fiddling with drivers, filesystems etc on the Amiga side is far more time consuming, especially for someone who's been on the dark side for so many years.

[amigakid]

I agree with Amiduffer.  Get a CD Burner, back up the thing and then go from there.  If he cant remember much about Amigas telling him about the Mediators and stuff is just more confusing and a bit of a hassle, not to mention for cost effectiveness the CD Burner is cheaper and probably easily available.