HDF file wont boot in Winuae

[mcnab69]

And the rest? Does it list it as a raw device?

In WinUAE's harddrives list, is there anything in the column left of "Device"? (Like the E in front of Share in my hardcopy)

I couldnt find "select raw device" option in TSGUI?

Here's a snip of the WINUAE and TSGUI windows, there is no E, just a *

[Thomas]

It's in the menu.

[mcnab69]

I got TSGUI from Aminet (which is the first hit on Google) and that just says About, Partition Info and Quit its v2.2 (see picture)
I didnt realise your link was to a newer version (2.5 b15) with more menu items, sorry!

With 2.5 I can select Raw Device, then Devices, then can select uaehf.device
this allows me to select UAE myamiga.hdf 0.3, which shows a 772MB, Full HDD image (see picture)

Hope this helps, what do you suggest next?

[Thomas]

Sorry for the delay. I didn't see that you added something to the thread because edited posts don't appear in the unread posts list.

Please after selecting the raw device choose "save RDB to file" from the menu and attach the resulting file here.

If it does not let you save the RDB please cut off the first 2 MB of the HDF, compress it with ZIP or RAR and attach it here. If you don't know how to cut off a part of a file, let TSGUI save the virtual HDD into a new HDF and cancel the process after a few seconds.

[mcnab69]

Thanks for coming back Thomas, I've thought about this and to be honest this is taking far too much of your time, just to resolve for a simple backup question in the beginning. Clearly there is something Ive done wrong somewhere along the line, so its time to call it a day.

Because of this Ive now bought a 4GB CF card and PCMCIA reader, so can effectively backup the Amiga that way, plus now using TSGUI - great program by the way rather than using the original DD on the Mac method.

Very many thanks for all your help and patience, its been most appreciated

All the best to you sir!

Sorry for the delay. I didn't see that you added something to the thread because edited posts don't appear in the unread posts list.

Please after selecting the raw device choose "save RDB to file" from the menu and attach the resulting file here.

If it does not let you save the RDB please cut off the first 2 MB of the HDF, compress it with ZIP or RAR and attach it here. If you don't know how to cut off a part of a file, let TSGUI save the virtual HDD into a new HDF and cancel the process after a few seconds.

[Thomas]

I've thought about this and to be honest this is taking far too much of your time

Actually I enjoy solving such challenges and I am still interested in what went wrong or how it is possible to make a HDF which looks like it is partitioned but cannot be read.

And last but not least there is still the chance that there is nothing wrong with the HDF but there is a bug or a not yet implemented feature in WinUAE which prevents it from booting.

Because of this Ive now bought a 4GB CF card and PCMCIA reader, so can effectively backup the Amiga that way, plus now using TSGUI

Using real Amiga to make a backup is rather slow compared to modern hardware.

You already removed the HDD from your Amiga and connected it to an USB reader once. I would suggest to do this again but this time use the Windows PC instead of the MAC. WinUAE should be able to access the HDD directly and it can also do a full volume image copy (similar to what dd does).

[mcnab69]

I tried putting the Amiga hard drive on to my IDE adapter and on Windows, interestingly, WinUAE can see the drive, but it still wont boot from it. Maybe there is an inherent fault with the hard drive, so even more reason to back it all up!

I agree this would be a lot faster, so I'll figure something out so that I can take a backup.

You already removed the HDD from your Amiga and connected it to an USB reader once. I would suggest to do this again but this time use the Windows PC instead of the MAC. WinUAE should be able to access the HDD directly and it can also do a full volume image copy (similar to what dd does).

[mcnab69]

Also before I sign off I did try selecting raw device and choosing "save RDB to file" from the menu but TSGUI said I had to select a partition first.

[Thomas]

Then there is something wrong with the RDB. Does it still boot on the real Amiga?

If an Amiga HDD is connected to a Win98 machine, a few bytes are overwritten although the Amiga parttions cannot be accessed. This certainly renders the HDD unusable for the Amiga. This special case will be repaired automatically by WinUAE. Perhaps the MAC does something similar which is not known to WinUAE yet.

Please do what I said above as second option, i.e. let TSGUI read the first few MB of the HDD and attach the result here (compressed).

[mcnab69]

Yes it boots fine on the Amiga, which is strange isnt it!

Then there is something wrong with the RDB. Does it still boot on the real Amiga?

If an Amiga HDD is connected to a Win98 machine, a few bytes are overwritten although the Amiga parttions cannot be accessed. This certainly renders the HDD unusable for the Amiga. This special case will be repaired automatically by WinUAE. Perhaps the MAC does something similar which is not known to WinUAE yet.

Please do what I said above as second option, i.e. let TSGUI read the first few MB of the HDD and attach the result here (compressed).

[Thomas]

Can you "save RDB to file" on the real Amiga?

If yes, what happens if you use this saved RDB to "restore RDB from file" in WinUAE?

[mcnab69]

Interesting idea, yes I can

Saved the RDB to a zip, I loaded Winuae mounted the saved zip as an archive along with TSGUI. Selected the Raw Device in TSGUI, restored the saved RDB over the top of the HDF file after reading the warning (i was working on a backup .HDF anyway) and tried to boot but it said not a DOS disk in DH0 this time. Not sure if thats what you meant to try?

Ive attached the saved RDB from the Amiga for you.

Can you "save RDB to file" on the real Amiga?

If yes, what happens if you use this saved RDB to "restore RDB from file" in WinUAE?

[Thomas]

The RDB is of not much use because it's obviously correct.

The experiment shows that the HDF is not accurate. Something went wrong either with dd or when you transferred the HDF from the Mac to the PC.

I would suggest that you create a new HDF on the PC or on the Amiga. The one you have is unusable and I doubt that it can be repaired easily.

[mcnab69]

Thanks Thomas, that does seem to be the case, but still doesnt explain why Winuae wont boot from the the Amiga hard drive when connected to the PC via USB? do you think it needs a full IDE connection instead? (somewhere I think I have a 40>44 pin IDE cable lying around)

At the end of the day I just want to backup the Amiga, quickly, reliably and easily, but if it means just keeping a copy of the files via Compact Flash, that would have to suffice. I don't have a parallel port on my PC anymore to use my old Paradise cable, so the options I have are limited.

The RDB is of not much use because it's obviously correct.

The experiment shows that the HDF is not accurate. Something went wrong either with dd or when you transferred the HDF from the Mac to the PC.

I would suggest that you create a new HDF on the PC or on the Amiga. The one you have is unusable and I doubt that it can be repaired easily.

[Thomas]

Do you run WinUAE as administrator? It needs administrator rights to access real harddrives.

[mcnab69]

Yes, if I dont, it doesnt list any drives to select from

Do you run WinUAE as administrator? It needs administrator rights to access real harddrives.