Copying over Amiga files with dodgy filenames to PC

[twinbee]

I have an old CD with Amiga files on that I want to copy to my Windows 7 PC.

When Windows finds a file with a problematic filename, it only allows you to skip that file - it won't automatically copy the file and remove the forbidden characters (such as '?' or '|') in it at the same time.

I want those 'forbidden' files. How do I get Windows to automatically rename them as it copies and continue with the rest?

Will I need to WinUAE for this I wonder or is there a simpler solution...?

I've tried the following file manager programs, all without success. I even tried to dip into the options for each program to hopefully use its own custom copy method:

- FreeCommander XE (has its own copy routine, but still fails)
- XYplorer (has its own copy routine, but still fails)
- Double Commander
- Directory Opus 11 64-bit. (Pro edition)
- xplorer²
- Q-Dir
- Unreal Commander
- NexusFile
- Total Commander

[s2325]

Try to make image file and mount it as virtual CD.

[watsonfmly]

Make an old fashioned bat file.

[Michael Sykes]

Mount the image in WinUAE and copy the files from within emulation.

[twinbee]

Thanks all.

Any easier way than through WinUAE emulation, and renaming all the files manually?

A bat file won't work, since Windows can't even read files that have filenames with weird characters.

[ancalimon]

Originally Posted by twinbee

Thanks all.

Any easier way than through WinUAE emulation, and renaming all the files manually?

A bat file won't work, since Windows can't even read files that have filenames with weird characters.

The only way to copy such files to aPC filesystem was to mount the cd using WinUAE and rename them after copying to Amiga filesystem formatted media. That was what I did.

[Vot]

See if iso buster on windows can extract it. (You may need the registered version however)

[twinbee]

The only way to copy such files to aPC filesystem was to mount the cd using WinUAE

Mount the CD inside Workbench I presume?

What's the best/easiest Amiga rename utility to remove the special characters?

[FrodeSolheim]

@twinbee You don't need to manually rename files. With FS-UAE, You can copy the files from the CD to a directory hard drive (mounted host directory) within Workbench. Files with illegal names on your host OS will automatically be renamed by FS-UAE during the copy process. I believe WinUAE will also rename the files (using a slightly different method).

[Michael Sykes]

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

@twinbee You don't need to manually rename files. With FS-UAE, You can copy the files from the CD to a directory hard drive (mounted host directory) within Workbench. Files with illegal names on your host OS will automatically be renamed by FS-UAE during the copy process. I believe WinUAE will also rename the files (using a slightly different method).

It's called UAEFSDB. And yes it should work from within WinUAE even with a normal mounted windows CD drive and a win dirctory as HDD.

edit: I hope twinbee did NOT tick that box...

[Toni Wilen]

UAEFSDB has nothing to do with name mangling needed to support characters that are illegal on host system. UAEFSDB is (now mostly obsolete) method to store the original name.

[Michael Sykes]

Ahh I see.
Mabe my memory was playing tricks on me. I didn't experience the problem in years.

But reading this after I solved my prblem by mounting an image of the CD and read it with an Amiga filesystem made me think it could have done the trick.

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

UAEFSDB contains list of file/directory information:

- protection flag combinations that native filesystem can't support.
- filenote (comment)
- original and "mangled" filename (Amiga support characters in file names that are illegal in most other platforms)

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Michael Sykes

Ahh I see.
Mabe my memory was playing tricks on me. I didn't experience the problem in years.

But reading this after I solved my prblem by mounting an image of the CD and read it with an Amiga filesystem made me think it could have done the trick.

It is possible old version refused to open "illegal" filename if it needed "mangling" and uaefsdb was disabled.

[twinbee]

Okay, through WinUAE, it successfully translates a filename such as "CAS_BH-#_N?"..... to ......: "__uae___CAS_BH-#_N_". As I think Toni implied, ticking the "UAEFSDB-support" box didn't make any difference to the transfer. Thanks all. Anything else I should be aware of before I start to copy over everything?

Quick suggestion for Toni: Can you make WinUAE load the last configuration used when WinUAE first starts up?

[thomas]

# ? | [ ] ( ) ~ are illegal characters in AmigaDOS file names, too. Some Amiga programs might have difficulties to open such files. For example the Shell commands Copy, Rename and Delete.

[twinbee]

It's silly that WorkBench or Windows restricts filenames at all considering one could use quote marks to surround them, like CSV does.

[thomas]

It has nothing to do with delimiters but with wildcards.

copy sys:~(disk).info ram:

This command will copy all icon files from your boot drive to the ram disk, except disk.info. Now, if you create a file called ~(disk).info on your boot drive and try to copy solely it to the ram disk, the command will look rather complicated because you have to escape each of the characters so that they are not interpreted as wildcards:

copy "sys:'~'(disk').info" ram:

I find it rather user-friendly to restrict file names (like Windows does it) rather than to allow wildcards in file names and cause difficulties in using these names later on.

I think there even was a bug in Workbench which caused it to run amok when you try to delete for example a file called #?. (Running amok in this case means deleting all files and drawers. Rather dangerous, don't you think so?)

[twinbee]

Fair point Thomas - interesting!

[twinbee]

Without using WinUAE, there's another way too (someone's just won the 'bounty' I offered):

http://superuser.com/questions/83610.../839645#839645