Quarterback Floppies?

26 August 2008, 05:03

Hello all

Let me give you a bit of backstory: My grandparents used to own an Amiga 2500 (and a 500 which is long gone). They gave me the 2500 a couple of years ago, and I recently had a chance to pull it out storage with the intention of backing it up to emulation.

Unfortunately the 2500 won't boot - I suspect a Mobo-type problem (probably CPU or RAM) - as it randomly WSOD and Gurus whenever it is started. So hopefully the hard disk is still intact.

In the mean time - I've purchased an Amiga 500 off eBay and am about half way through backing up the floppy collection using Amiga Explorer. And I've come across a set of disks labeled "DH1: QB#" (where # is a set of numbers). I assume these are Quarterback backup disks - most likely of the 2500's hard disk (although they're probably much older than the real HDD - so I'll be looking at that later still)

So my question is this:

Given a set of QB floppies - and possibly an incomplete set (I have disks labeled 1, 5, 6 and 7 - although I may find more) - how might one restore them under emulation? Keeping in mind that I have never used Quarterback and have no idea how it works. I suspect I have Quarterback itself somewhere.

Thanks for your help.

illy5603 · 26 August 2008, 07:56

If you can make ADF's out of the quarterback diskettes, I don't see any reason you can't restore them in emulation with quarterback. I was surprised to find my amiback sets restored with only a couple of disk errors after being in the garage for over 13 years! One of them had 13 disks in it too. I know with amiback you can skip missing disks but I am not sure about quarterback.

I ended up building an "ADF PC" which was a spare tower PC I had at work that supported two 3.5 drives. I then used ADF READ to create ADF's of all my important disks. It doesn't work as well as creating ADF's on an Amiga (seemed to get a lot of disk errors and retries) but they did work. You can find info on that here:

http://www.amigaforever.com/kb/3-118.html

I have Quarterback Tools 2.01 (disk repair etc) and Quarterback versions 4.3 and 5.02 if you need em send me a PM.

haynor666 · 26 August 2008, 08:41

If you select only files from these disks you may restore them. Most important is always disk 1. Since You cannot say on which disk which files are you probably need to approximate locate files on disks.

26 August 2008, 09:56

OK - so an update - after a bit of searching I found a disk for Quarterback 4.2. So I've been able to mess around and answer my question myself: A Quarterback disk is necessary for restoration - run it from the disk from workbench. And Quarterback is quite happy to skip missing disks during restoration.

It also seems I have at least two backup sets. One of which is three disks and complete - and I managed to restore that under emulation. It's undoubtedly a much older set. I will give the other set a go later, once I've gone through the remainder of the floppy disks.

andreas · 28 August 2008, 00:32

Nice to hear.

Well, I have also had trouble with backups which I let loose at various QB versions.
Some simply do refuse to get unQB'ed with newer versions of the backup software.

rkauer · 28 August 2008, 06:49

Not related to the Quarterback issues, but you did say your A2500 is not booting?

Open it and check the battery. Those evil little devil pawns are prone to leak and destroy the motherboard.

26 August 2008, 05:03	#1
Andrew Russell Posts: n/a	Quarterback Floppies? Hello all Let me give you a bit of backstory: My grandparents used to own an Amiga 2500 (and a 500 which is long gone). They gave me the 2500 a couple of years ago, and I recently had a chance to pull it out storage with the intention of backing it up to emulation. Unfortunately the 2500 won't boot - I suspect a Mobo-type problem (probably CPU or RAM) - as it randomly WSOD and Gurus whenever it is started. So hopefully the hard disk is still intact. In the mean time - I've purchased an Amiga 500 off eBay and am about half way through backing up the floppy collection using Amiga Explorer. And I've come across a set of disks labeled "DH1: QB#" (where # is a set of numbers). I assume these are Quarterback backup disks - most likely of the 2500's hard disk (although they're probably much older than the real HDD - so I'll be looking at that later still) So my question is this: Given a set of QB floppies - and possibly an incomplete set (I have disks labeled 1, 5, 6 and 7 - although I may find more) - how might one restore them under emulation? Keeping in mind that I have never used Quarterback and have no idea how it works. I suspect I have Quarterback itself somewhere. Thanks for your help.

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26 August 2008, 07:56	#2
illy5603 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: SPaT CiTY Posts: 557	If you can make ADF's out of the quarterback diskettes, I don't see any reason you can't restore them in emulation with quarterback. I was surprised to find my amiback sets restored with only a couple of disk errors after being in the garage for over 13 years! One of them had 13 disks in it too. I know with amiback you can skip missing disks but I am not sure about quarterback. I ended up building an "ADF PC" which was a spare tower PC I had at work that supported two 3.5 drives. I then used ADF READ to create ADF's of all my important disks. It doesn't work as well as creating ADF's on an Amiga (seemed to get a lot of disk errors and retries) but they did work. You can find info on that here: http://www.amigaforever.com/kb/3-118.html I have Quarterback Tools 2.01 (disk repair etc) and Quarterback versions 4.3 and 5.02 if you need em send me a PM.

26 August 2008, 08:41	#3
haynor666 retro maniac Join Date: May 2002 Location: Tarnobrzeg/Poland Age: 45 Posts: 1,771	If you select only files from these disks you may restore them. Most important is always disk 1. Since You cannot say on which disk which files are you probably need to approximate locate files on disks.

26 August 2008, 09:56	#4
Andrew Russell Posts: n/a	OK - so an update - after a bit of searching I found a disk for Quarterback 4.2. So I've been able to mess around and answer my question myself: A Quarterback disk is necessary for restoration - run it from the disk from workbench. And Quarterback is quite happy to skip missing disks during restoration. It also seems I have at least two backup sets. One of which is three disks and complete - and I managed to restore that under emulation. It's undoubtedly a much older set. I will give the other set a go later, once I've gone through the remainder of the floppy disks.

28 August 2008, 00:32	#5
andreas Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Age: 50 Posts: 5,857	Nice to hear. Well, I have also had trouble with backups which I let loose at various QB versions. Some simply do refuse to get unQB'ed with newer versions of the backup software.

28 August 2008, 06:49	#6
rkauer I hate potatos and shirts Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Sao Leopoldo / Brazil Age: 58 Posts: 3,482	Not related to the Quarterback issues, but you did say your A2500 is not booting? Open it and check the battery. Those evil little devil pawns are prone to leak and destroy the motherboard.

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