Workbench 1.3 Disk

[pooboy_92]

You know I have to say this is the most helpful forum I think I have ever been on

[desiv]

... I had to use the Shell for doing most stuff.

You say that as tho it's torture to use a command line!!!  :roflmao:
That Amiga shell is awesome.  Might not be BASH, but at least it's not ksh.  ;-)

Seriously, I got a program included with my external floppy (CLIMate or Diskmaster???) that fit the bill for me.  1.3 with that was great..

Although, I still spent a lot of time in the shell.. Because I like it.. :lol:

desiv

[motrucker]

You didn't list your location, But - I am in Edgewater Maryland, just south of Annapolis. If that's close to you, I can hand you a copy of what you'll need.

[PanterHZ]

I just used Diskmaster 1.4 for file work..

Chris

Personally I used and still use FileMaster for managing files on my Amigas.

You say that as tho it's torture to use a command line!!!  :roflmao:
That Amiga shell is awesome.  Might not be BASH, but at least it's not ksh.  ;-)

Seriously, I got a program included with my external floppy (CLIMate or Diskmaster???) that fit the bill for me.  1.3 with that was great..

Although, I still spent a lot of time in the shell.. Because I like it.. :lol:

desiv

But it was torture to use a command line..... everytime I had to use MS-DOS that is :lol:

I have to agree, Amiga shell is awesome, but I think you didn't get my point here, because what I meant was that for example if I wanted to run a program that didn't have an icon, I couldn't do this from Workbench, I had to open a Shell and run it from there instead. This plus many other things made the actual Workbench seem a bit reduntant in my opinion.

So I made a customized startup disk which booted directly to AmigaDos instead, and by entering a command I got a menu that allowed me to start various programs like FileMaster and a text editor + other stuff.

Later I upgraded to AmigaOS 2.04 where I created a highly customized Workbench floppy which I then used.

And I must say that I regard 2.x to be the most important AmigaOS version ever!

[motrucker]

If you want to meet the cheapest and best amiga seller on Ebay and Ebid, it's Tony. Look here:
http://desc.shop.ebay.es/airey36/m.html?LH_TitleDesc=1&_nkw=disk+drive&_trkparms=65%253A12%257C66%253A1%257C39%253A1%257C72%253A1229&_sop=2&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14

Not likely for people in the U.S. with shipping costs!

[desiv]

... but I think you didn't get my point here, because what I meant was that for example if I wanted to run a program that didn't have an icon, I couldn't do this from Workbench, I had to open a Shell and run it from there instead.

No, I got your point.  I was kind of joking.
But seriously, it didn't take me too long to figure out, all I needed to do was keep a spare "program.info" file that I could copy and rename (using the shell or the GUI file manager program I had).

I admit, it felt like there were a few things missing for the 1.x WBs.

But with a GUI file manager, it wasn't a problem.

It was nicer tho when those were built in in the 2.x/3.x versions.

desiv

[desantii]

Send me a PM with your address and I'll send you a workbench 1.3 disk
 
That way you can start enjoying your Amiga
 
 

Hi everyone this is my fisrt post here so if its in the wrong spot feel free to move it:).
 
I recently bought an amiga 500, but I quickly learned that I did not have the workbench disk. It needs version 1.3, my question is that does anyone in Maryland happen to have a disk or a copy they would be willing send my way. I could pick it up meet you or you could mail it.
 
Any help is welcome thank you. ps also looking for games floppy drives or anything else.

[pooboy_92]

You didn't list your location, But - I am in Edgewater Maryland, just south of Annapolis. If that's close to you, I can hand you a copy of what you'll need.

I sent you a PM I hope you got it

[save2600]

I can't believe some of you guys are ripping on OS 1.3!   lol

It was quite fine for what it was back in the day, plus we had a shell (as others have pointed out), unlike Mac's at the time AND other filemanagers were readily available, even though I never had a real need for 'em.

To those that be hating Workbench 1.3, try using an early Atari ST sometime with its TOS and GEM - talk about a near worthless barebones stripped OS        

To the OP - hopefully the disk you receive from someone is on a DS/DD disk, not a DS/HD disk that may not work in your drive. Best to feed your Amiga double density disks for now, to eliminate and potential aggravation  

[marcfrick2112]

Save; I agree with ya... OS1.3 wasn't that bad. I used it for 5 years on my 500 before upgrading.

Though, eventually, I became an Amiga 'upgrade whore' and went crazy, now all machines are OS3.1 or 3.9

Pooboy_92: In addition to the WB disk, you may want to have someone send a disk of useful utils. , like the aforementioned FileMaster, SnoopDos, Degrader, maybe some un-archivers w/GUI....

I'm in Milwaukee, WI, and poor too... But, I'd be happy to help out.. lord knows, I have enough floppies to spare....

(Yes, even DS/DD disks, save!)

[motrucker]

Save2600; I agree with you too. 1.3 is nowhere as nice as 3.1, but it works rather well, and with the shell and/or DM 2 you can get work done rather easily.

I may be close enough to hand him (pooboy) the disks he needs. So, I'll do what I can. This is one reason I miss the old user groups...

[Cammy]

VingtTrois, that's very kind of you but I actually have plenty of floppy disks, I was lucky that the electronics shop across the road was getting rid of boxes of 25 and 10 disks for $1 per box, so I grabbed a bunch, went back a week later and they said no one else had bought any so I picked up the rest. I just can't afford postage for them at the moment, I spent my rent money on Halloween props and decorations :p

But for others I think we should clear up the Double-Density/High-Density issue. Amiga Technologies A1200s (not Commodore A1200s) have modified high density PC floppy drives in them, and so they can't read HD disks formatted as DD unless you put a small piece of tape over the extra hole on the disk. Some A4000s with Amiga HD drives might also require the tape over the hole of a DD-formatted HD disk, but they can also read true HD disks formatted in 1.44MB DOS or 1.76MB Amiga format. Amiga 500s and 500+ computers all came with Amiga DD drives, and so they have no idea what a HD disk is anyway, and simply recognize every disk as DD.

However, a Double-Density-formatted High-Density disk is more susceptible to data integrity issues and can develop read errors over time, sometimes even after a few uses. These errors don't seem to be physical, so the disks themselves aren't damaged once the errors develop and you can usually rewrite the disk back from the ADF or DMS image and it will work fine again for a while. Some people say that if you write the image to the disk twice or three times first it stays on there longer. I don't know if it's true, but I do this anyway just to be safe.

I would recommend anyone who is sending out Amiga disks on HD floppies to send two copies of each one, just in case one develops an error and is useless to the recipient.

[ognix]

However, a Double-Density-formatted High-Density disk is more susceptible to data integrity issues and can develop read errors over time, sometimes even after a few uses. These errors don't seem to be physical, so the disks themselves aren't damaged once the errors develop and you can usually rewrite the disk back from the ADF or DMS image and it will work fine again for a while. Some people say that if you write the image to the disk twice or three times first it stays on there longer. I don't know if it's true, but I do this anyway just to be safe.

I would recommend anyone who is sending out Amiga disks on HD floppies to send two copies of each one, just in case one develops an error and is useless to the recipient.

Good point Cammy! That's true.
I don't have direct experience of loss of data (I'm lucky enough to have a good backup of DS/DD disks, even if second hand ones), but data on HD disks shall be written with a stronger magnetic field by the drive head.
This is not the case if you use a double density drive, or a high density drive with the "tape trick".

Just a little fast link to check: (no Amiga related)
http://indra.com/~cliffcan/01fdd1.htm

----- excerpt from page ------------
HD Diskette Risk - Lost Data!
You may say "I have been able to use an HD disk and everything works fine." The real question is - "How long will the data stay on the disk?"
In order to squeeze twice as much data on the same 3.5" disk, changes were made in both the disk drive and media (diskette). HD media is harder to magnetize and demagnetize (erase). HD drives are designed to handle this, but the DD drive in your 01 isn't. A DD drive uses a weaker magnetic field to record the data, and an HD disk may not store that data as long as a DD disk would.
-----------------------------------

P.S. Hope you had nice Halloween  it wasn't my case... not a good beer, much probably, made me pass the night through a bad nightmare!  ...maybe it's due to Halloween :-D

[PanterHZ]

No, I got your point.  I was kind of joking.
But seriously, it didn't take me too long to figure out, all I needed to  do was keep a spare "program.info" file that I could copy and rename  (using the shell or the GUI file manager program I had).

I admit, it felt like there were a few things missing for the 1.x WBs.

But with a GUI file manager, it wasn't a problem.

It was nicer tho when those were built in in the 2.x/3.x versions.

desiv

Yes I should have figured you were joking based upon your smilies
I guess all AmigOS 1.3 users had to come up with various workarounds like the one you mention here.
 

I can't believe some of you guys are ripping on OS 1.3!   lol

It was quite fine for what it was back in the day, plus we had a shell (as others have pointed out), unlike Mac's at the time AND other filemanagers were readily available, even though I never had a real need for 'em.

To those that be hating Workbench 1.3, try using an early Atari ST sometime with its TOS and GEM - talk about a near worthless barebones stripped OS        

And I totally agree with you

Just to be crystal clear here, I don't hate WB 1.3, neither do I think it's bad either, it's just that 2.x & 3.x was sooo much better. But it's true, back in the day 1.3 was all we had, and we somehow managed with that as well.
 
Another thing is that although Workbench 1.3 is ugly as hell with the blue and orange colors, I think it still has a certain charm, and I even created a Winamp skin inspired by WB 1.3 a couple of years ago.

Here is a grab of the skin:

[PanterHZ]

I don't have direct experience of loss of data (I'm lucky enough to have a good backup of DS/DD disks, even if second hand ones), but data on HD disks shall be written with a stronger magnetic field by the drive head.
This is not the case if you use a double density drive, or a high density drive with the "tape trick".

I might also add that using a HD floppy as DD works best if the disk has never been formatted before, but sadly the majority of disks sold for the last ten years or so have been pre-formatted by the manufacturer.

[pooboy_92]

Well I guess since all I have is HD disks I get to make lots of backups of my Workbench Disk.  And just to keep you guys informed its still in the mail it should be here by the end of the week hope my drive still works.  I have read that if I want to use a standard pc floppy drive I just have to switch 2 of the wires.  Is this true and would you recomend doing it on the drive or the cable.