Any advantage to using a real Amiga drive (or .hdf) file in WinUAE?

[mingle]

Hi,

I've been using WinUAE for quite a while now and have often noticed people discussing the problems they have getting a real Amiga hard disk to run or using hard disk files with WinUAE.

What I did was to simply copy all of my Amiga files (directory structures and all) directly from my Amiga partitions straight across to a sub-directories on the hard disk of my PC, using "twin express" and a serial-port connection. Sure it was slow, but now all of my Amiga files are not only accessible from WinUAE, but also from PC apps if the need arises (MP3s, pics, text files, etc).

It's a much more flexible way to access you Amiga files and also makes copying and moving things around a breeze, since you can use the file manager (Explorer, or whatever) on the PC. I can also burn it to CDs or DVDs simply and quickly, so making backups or creating copies to use on other PCs is a breeze...

I just wonder is there any real benefit to using a real Amiga disk or a hard disk file, when having your Amiga partitions sitting 'natively' on your PCs hard disk seems so much more practical?

Cheers,

Mike.

[Thomas]

The Windows file system cannot store all attributes of the Amiga files (i.e. file notes and protection bits). WinUAE stores these attributes in files called _UAEFSDB.___. The handling of these UAEFSDB files was very buggy in previous releases of WinUAE. Deleted files reappeared as phantom-directories etc. The only solution was to delete the UAEFSDB with all its consequences.
It has become quite stable recently, though, so using a directory is not as bad as it used to be.

So for a fully compatible backup of your Amiga HDD you should use an archive like LhA or a HDF.

But I agree, for normal every-day work with WinUAE, directories are much more flexible.

There are some programs which need the compatibility of a HDF, though. For example MakeCD always looses its registration when used from a directory. Therefore I usually create a small HDF for my boot drive which holds all programs which should never loose their attributes or need a HDF for compatibility. All other drives are Windows directories.

Bye,
Thomas

[madsjm]

Also, Amiga filenames are not always valid in the Windows world. I copied some thousand mod files from an Amiga hd to Windows (in UAE), and many of them were renamed automatically.

[maffoo]

I tend to just use directories, much easier when I just want to try out something before copying it to my real Amiga. I can download something and copy it across while UAE is running, and access it straight away on the vitual Amiga.

For me, the real advantage to a real Amiga hard disk is that I can transfer it between machines quickly and easily, eg. I didn't have a working CD drive on my A4000 when I got it, so I installed OS3.5 to a Compact Flash card under emulation, then transferred it directly to my A4000 and it worked right away.

Matthew