Rainbow Islands

[dlfrsilver]

well, if it is a copy, making an ADF out of it is fine. No need to have a raw file of a copy

[Dastardly]

Ok, I'll get it in the post so this version can at least be ADF'd.

[dlfrsilver]

thanks dastardly

[DisposableHero]

I downloaded one crack from PlanetEmu a while back, which had the Rainbow Project loading screen, unlike the Hit Squad release I bought back in 1992 which had the loading graphics. This first crack had a fatal bug on world four so I downloaded another (the Quartex version was recommended on here) which has the loading graphics. Also this one works on the A1200 spec, whereas the Rainbow Project one I had crashes almost instantly after the game starts (not sure if all Rainbow Project ones fail on the A1200, or if all copies with the loading graphics do work on it) but it's worth looking into

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Dastardly

Ok, I'll get it in the post so this version can at least be ADF'd.

Got it yesterday night, but I didn't have the time to make an ADF out of it. Thanks again, Dastardly!

I'll have a shot at it tonight. Will post the ADF on here as soon as I dump it

EDIT: The disk made some really strange sounds while dumping and the ADFs are empty! TSGui gave me read errors all over the place for every SINGLE sector... Tried with both my internal A1200 drive and the external one.
But it works fine on my A500! Maybe there's protection on it? I think I need Denis' help here! Maybe I need to use KryoFlux free?
EDIT2: The extended ADF actually dumps something, but it hangs randomly...

[Dastardly]

Excellent, glad to hear it arrived safely. I'm no help with this dumping stuff so I think dlfrsilver (or possibly someone else who has knowledge) is the person to ask. I look forward to grabbing the ADF

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by jbenam

Got it yesterday night, but I didn't have the time to make an ADF out of it. Thanks again, Dastardly!

I'll have a shot at it tonight. Will post the ADF on here as soon as I dump it

EDIT: The disk made some really strange sounds while dumping and the ADFs are empty! TSGui gave me read errors all over the place for every SINGLE sector... Tried with both my internal A1200 drive and the external one.
But it works fine on my A500! Maybe there's protection on it? I think I need Denis' help here! Maybe I need to use KryoFlux free?
EDIT2: The extended ADF actually dumps something, but it hangs randomly...

Go dump it as CTraw ! It surely use the external rnc protection + copylock !

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Go dump it as CTraw ! It surely use the external rnc protection + copylock !

Great, will try tonight with Kryoflux free then. Thanks Denis

[Amiga1992]

Strange noises, like whistling, could ruin your disk drive. I would stop at this moment and think.
Most probable cause is mold on the surface of the magnetic disk. Does it look stained when exposed to light? Does it smell funny, like a wet attic? If so, then this is the probable cause.

You can fix this by cracking open the diskette carefully, taking the magnetic disk out, washing it with water (rinse it and rub it carefully with your fingers, don't use any products or rub with any brush or anything), drying it perfectly and building it back in.

3.5" disks are harder to disassemble and put back together than 5.25" ones, but this method should work if you are careful, I've seen people do it.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Akira

Strange noises, like whistling, could ruin your disk drive. I would stop at this moment and think.
Most probable cause is mold on the surface of the magnetic disk. Does it look stained when exposed to light? Does it smell funny, like a wet attic? If so, then this is the probable cause.

You can fix this by cracking open the diskette carefully, taking the magnetic disk out, washing it with water (rinse it and rub it carefully with your fingers, don't use any products or rub with any brush or anything), drying it perfectly and building it back in.

3.5" disks are harder to disassemble and put back together than 5.25" ones, but this method should work if you are careful, I've seen people do it.

Yeah, I've thought of that, but I just don't like to stop and think before doing things. Do first, then worry later IF something bad happens!

There's a darkish stain in the middle near the steel ring - which I still don't know if it's mold or not, but I know for a fact that whenever that is present, the disk will have read errors.

I've already tried the "open up the floppy and clean it" thingy in the past, on something like 4-5 floppies (nothing important!)... It just doesn't work for me. They just have the same exact errors after cleaning (or worse ). At least I've managed to reassemble them every time

[Amiga1992]

Well but after clean at least they won't break your floppy disk!
I managed to rescue many 5.25" disks with this method, but yeah if a magnetic problem is present, there's no fixing it. But if a disk was well preserved in general, mold aside, it should read up after you clean it.

I would suggest you give this one a wash before you break something

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Go dump it as CTraw ! It surely use the external rnc protection + copylock !

Success, it seems! They're in the Zone for you to look at, Denis.

1 and 2 have been dumped with my A1200's internal drive (83 tracks), while 3 and 4 have been dumped with my external drive (only up to 81 tracks).
I've also included the ctout.txt with the drive analysis in case you need to understand which drive is the better one.

Thanks!

I'll keep the floppy until Denis says that the images are good to go, then I'll ship it back to Dastardly Thanks again, mate!

[dlfrsilver]

This interesting preview edition v0.01 is :

- manual word copy protected
- AND it use the same disk protection as fire and ice hence your problem to image it as standard adf.

Now the bad part :
- the best dump has ten track in error. Considering the 4 dump you made, the first one had 16 error, the next one 11 and finally the last two only 10 errors.

My advice :
- ask to dastardly if he agrees that you open the disk to clean it we shoulbe able to get a good dump
- clean before imaging the cleaned disk your srive headbecause it had removed progressively some mould from the disk.

The disk has good chances to be correctly imaged

[jbenam]

Oh! I see! So my old mate Akira was right about the mold

Alright, I can start by cleaning the drives I suppose. How would I end up doing that? Any threads here on EAB explaining how to do that? Or is this [ Show youtube player ] good enough?

And about the disks, I've already tried to clean some in the past but with appalling results. Maybe something in my method was wrong? I hope that this time will go better

Obviously that is if Dastardly agrees to me opening RB up!

[dlfrsilver]

You clean gently the drive head with a cotton bud, for the disk surce no cotton bud, this because most of the time you can t see where the mould is. The best way is the woman eye cleaners, but the question is do you have some at home ?

If you don t have any, it s going to be complicated

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

You clean gently the drive head with a cotton bud, for the disk surce no cotton bud, this because most of the time you can t see where the mould is. The best way is the woman eye cleaners, but the question is do you have some at home ?

If you don t have any, it s going to be complicated

I don't have any, but I guess I can always buy some? I have no qualms in spending a bit of money if I can use it to save some innocent Amiga floppies from oblivion!

Only problem is that I don't know how it's supposed to look at all

[dlfrsilver]

it looks like this :

http://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.Mc....1&H=160&W=160

you must put some alcohol on it, not too much, and then you clean gently the surface with it, from the inner of the disk,toward the outer of it. the goal is just to have alcohol spreaded over the disk, then use a second cotton with no alcohol this time, and then
wipe the alcohol from the surface of the disk, you'll see soon that the mould will come without ripping the disk surface.
(operation to do on both sides of course

Once fully cleaned and dried with the second cotton, close again the floppy disk, use some glue to keep both parts glued, and dump the disk. the result should be what we actually want.

PS : i have again my internet connection
PS2 : question to dastardly, what manual is he using to pass the manual protection of this preview ?

[Dastardly]

I'm not using any manual as the password is always the same "FACILITIES".

Re cracking open the disk. I'm fine for this to go ahead if it means achieving the rescue. I would suggest though that maybe the disk is forwarded on to Someone else who has done this before? No offence jbenam, but this seems like a one attempt deal and if it goes wrong then that's that and it's lost forever. I'll leave it to you guys to thrash that out. I would still like it back at some point though

[jbenam]

Indeed, I'd probably feel more comfortable myself with sending this to someone else

Anyone offering for this?

[Retroplay]

I've used this method to rescue and successfully dump unreadable disks.
Just be careful you don't touch the magnetic disk with your fingers and don't press too hard with the cotton swabs.
[ Show youtube player ]