Threw Amiga away but kept the data?

ath786 · 05 May 2019, 09:08

It looks like quite a few people threw their Amigas away in the late 90s. I threw mine away too but keep thinking if I'd kept my data I wouldn't have regretted it as much ?
I was wondering if anybody who did throw their Amiga away had the good sense to back up their data first? I've got an A1200 now like back then but without the data it's not the same, if I simply copied my backup to the hard drive I bet the feeling would be different!

LongLifeA1200 · 05 May 2019, 13:33

Can't think of what's not already archived on Aminet and such, that would have been worth backing up.

I regret the machines being destroyed more, fewer of them around now.

ath786 · 05 May 2019, 16:04

Not so much programs etc that may be on Aminet. I mean user generated data like documents, pictures, music, samples etc that cant be downloaded from public sites, but is gone forever.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LongLifeA1200

Can't think of what's not already archived on Aminet and such, that would have been worth backing up.

I regret the machines being destroyed more, fewer of them around now.

spiff · 06 May 2019, 00:21

I guess it's different for everyone, but for me, not so much..

I recovered some of my stuff, that I remembered as awesome. These days, nope , priorities and perspective (family) have changed so even with a 1:1 backup.. its not the same.

The memory of producing and swapping with friends is more precious than the actual data.

*edit* maybe its more of a case of "Your biggest regret is the the thing you didn't do" ?

gimbal · 06 May 2019, 11:05

I never really had such data, my Amiga was 100% a gaming machine. Whatever "documents" I had were really single-use school things that I have no problems with that they're gone.

I will forever be sad that the machine was tossed though. I'll not shed a tear when I lose all photographs and what not that I've collected over the last four decades, it's more fun to make new ones anyway. But that one Miggy won't ever come back.

Leffmann · 06 May 2019, 11:41

My brother and I still have our old Amigas, an A500, A1200, and CD32. Almost all the pictures, mods, code and other things we made and collected from 1992-2002 when the Amigas were in use is properly backed up.

This "data" is the only thing that's really important, but I'd still hesitate to throw out the Amigas even if they are rarely used these days.

jizmo · 06 May 2019, 14:18

Personally I just lost most of the Amiga stuff, meaning that I loaned them away and never bothering to get them back. So, I was left with hundreds of disks that I rummaged through a few years ago and restored whatever there was to restore that wasn't readily available elsewhere. Before I wrapped up my Amiga use I did back up all my personal Amiga stuff on a Iomega Zip disk that I still have around somewhere. I remember that due to the slowness of the device I custom formatted it with PFS and it took quite a many tries to get the drive to read and write without errors.

If I ever wanted to read the contents again I'd have quite a hill ahead me to climb.

gimbal · 06 May 2019, 15:55

Yeah backing up stuff on media where you had to do custom formatting does not sound like a robust future proof tactic

ath786 · 06 May 2019, 17:20

What kind of Miggy was it? Sounds like you need to jump in and buy another one like I did

Quote:

Originally Posted by gimbal

I never really had such data, my Amiga was 100% a gaming machine. Whatever "documents" I had were really single-use school things that I have no problems with that they're gone.

I will forever be sad that the machine was tossed though. I'll not shed a tear when I lose all photographs and what not that I've collected over the last four decades, it's more fun to make new ones anyway. But that one Miggy won't ever come back.

Phantasm · 06 May 2019, 20:26

Yes, I had an A4000 and the first thing i did when I bought a PC with a CD-ROM burner was to take it out of the PC and put it in the amiga and burn copies of all the data.

I am very happy I did that as there was a lot of stuff on there that I wanted to keep. I really wish I still had that A4000 but at least I have all my data available to me.

ath786 · 06 May 2019, 23:21

Sounds like a great move.
If you come onto some money maybe another A4000 is on the cards

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Yes, I had an A4000 and the first thing i did when I bought a PC with a CD-ROM burner was to take it out of the PC and put it in the amiga and burn copies of all the data.

I am very happy I did that as there was a lot of stuff on there that I wanted to keep. I really wish I still had that A4000 but at least I have all my data available to me.

Phantasm · 06 May 2019, 23:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by ath786

Sounds like a great move.

If you come onto some money maybe another A4000 is on the cards

I've thought about it many times and even bid on them from time to time but I don't think I'd get enough use out of it for the price they go for now. I have a 1200 that i picked up a few years ago that is good enough, I mostly use winuae for doing the more serious stuff anyway.

Sent from my I3213 using Tapatalk

jizmo · 07 May 2019, 08:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by gimbal

Yeah backing up stuff on media where you had to do custom formatting does not sound like a robust future proof tactic

Having a backup of a 1) computer no longer being manufactured 2) put on an obscure medium nobody's had for a 20 years and and 3) unintentionally
encrypting the contents with a custom filesystem.

Who knew this would lead to trouble?

gimbal · 07 May 2019, 13:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by ath786

What kind of Miggy was it? Sounds like you need to jump in and buy another one like I did

Just a simple A500. Of course I can get a different one, but it won't be my childhood Miggy

Quote:

Originally Posted by jizmo

Having a backup of a 1) computer no longer being manufactured 2) put on an obscure medium nobody's had for a 20 years and and 3) unintentionally
encrypting the contents with a custom filesystem.

Who knew this would lead to trouble?

Captain Hindsight, that's who!

Jope · 07 May 2019, 13:20

The data is the most important I agree. I gave my C64 disks away with the computer and always regretted it.

KONEY · 07 May 2019, 14:25

backed up everything AND kept the machines. Still using both data and machines ^_^

ath786 · 07 May 2019, 16:23

Nice one, if I'd known then I should've just kept the hard drive. What's done is done now though, no going back

Quote:

Originally Posted by KONEY

backed up everything AND kept the machines. Still using both data and machines ^_^

madlax · 07 May 2019, 23:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by KONEY

backed up everything AND kept the machines. Still using both data and machines ^_^

Wise decision. I had a couple of 500s, 2000s, 1200s, 3000D and 3000T back in the day. I wish I had kept my 3000T at least

Magic · 08 May 2019, 03:45

I did keep my A3000T

I still have it with the original shipping box, disks, manuals, and all. The first thing I did when I got it was pull the motherboard and remove the battery. I am sure glad I did. To this day it still runs great. I make sure and power it up and use it from time to time.

jotd · 08 May 2019, 09:50

I've made backups as soon as I had access to CD writers. The first CD writer I had access to was a huge Kodak SCSI one that I borrowed (it was like 1500 euro in 1996) I connected to the amiga with a hard-to-find SCSI cable.

Still have a A1200 nowadays (scrapped my faulty A1200 tower (Faulty tower haha)), but now all data is on the PC, and I copy stuff on throwaway CF cards. Amiga is reserved for gaming / testing.

After a while you have so many backup discs that it's difficult to find interesting and non duplicated information. One thing I lost was (not sure) the source of Premier Manager (2?), some football management game that I was sent to create a HD install, that I never created

05 May 2019, 09:08	#1
ath786 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2019 Location: UK Posts: 10	Threw Amiga away but kept the data? It looks like quite a few people threw their Amigas away in the late 90s. I threw mine away too but keep thinking if I'd kept my data I wouldn't have regretted it as much ? I was wondering if anybody who did throw their Amiga away had the good sense to back up their data first? I've got an A1200 now like back then but without the data it's not the same, if I simply copied my backup to the hard drive I bet the feeling would be different!

06 May 2019, 00:21	#4
spiff Oh noes! Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Neverland Posts: 766	I guess it's different for everyone, but for me, not so much.. I recovered some of my stuff, that I remembered as awesome. These days, nope , priorities and perspective (family) have changed so even with a 1:1 backup.. its not the same. The memory of producing and swapping with friends is more precious than the actual data. edit maybe its more of a case of "Your biggest regret is the the thing you didn't do" ? Last edited by spiff; 06 May 2019 at 00:31.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Trying to send serial data from Amiga to PC	Nightfox	support.Hardware	19	29 June 2016 11:41
Missing Data Amiga Power	alexh	AMR contributions	0	22 January 2010 13:16
Data Logger Utility for Amiga	Miggydatalogz	Amiga scene	0	01 January 2010 17:08
How do you transfer data between Amiga and PC?	Muzer	Amiga scene	25	05 November 2009 07:19
Amiga Games Data Base (ADGB)	Tim Janssen	Amiga websites reviews	25	19 October 2001 06:05

05 May 2019, 13:33	#2
LongLifeA1200 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2017 Location: Amiga Kingdom Posts: 366	Can't think of what's not already archived on Aminet and such, that would have been worth backing up. I regret the machines being destroyed more, fewer of them around now.

06 May 2019, 11:05	#5
gimbal cheeky scoundrel Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Spijkenisse/Netherlands Age: 42 Posts: 6,905	I never really had such data, my Amiga was 100% a gaming machine. Whatever "documents" I had were really single-use school things that I have no problems with that they're gone. I will forever be sad that the machine was tossed though. I'll not shed a tear when I lose all photographs and what not that I've collected over the last four decades, it's more fun to make new ones anyway. But that one Miggy won't ever come back.

06 May 2019, 11:41	#6
Leffmann Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Sweden Posts: 2,269	My brother and I still have our old Amigas, an A500, A1200, and CD32. Almost all the pictures, mods, code and other things we made and collected from 1992-2002 when the Amigas were in use is properly backed up. This "data" is the only thing that's really important, but I'd still hesitate to throw out the Amigas even if they are rarely used these days.

06 May 2019, 14:18	#7
jizmo Registered Abuser Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Valencia / Spain Posts: 361	Personally I just lost most of the Amiga stuff, meaning that I loaned them away and never bothering to get them back. So, I was left with hundreds of disks that I rummaged through a few years ago and restored whatever there was to restore that wasn't readily available elsewhere. Before I wrapped up my Amiga use I did back up all my personal Amiga stuff on a Iomega Zip disk that I still have around somewhere. I remember that due to the slowness of the device I custom formatted it with PFS and it took quite a many tries to get the drive to read and write without errors. If I ever wanted to read the contents again I'd have quite a hill ahead me to climb.

06 May 2019, 15:55	#8
gimbal cheeky scoundrel Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Spijkenisse/Netherlands Age: 42 Posts: 6,905	Yeah backing up stuff on media where you had to do custom formatting does not sound like a robust future proof tactic

06 May 2019, 20:26	#10
Phantasm Not a Rebel anymore Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: UK Age: 51 Posts: 497	Yes, I had an A4000 and the first thing i did when I bought a PC with a CD-ROM burner was to take it out of the PC and put it in the amiga and burn copies of all the data. I am very happy I did that as there was a lot of stuff on there that I wanted to keep. I really wish I still had that A4000 but at least I have all my data available to me.

07 May 2019, 13:20	#15
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,861	The data is the most important I agree. I gave my C64 disks away with the computer and always regretted it.

07 May 2019, 14:25	#16
KONEY OctaMED Music Composer Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Venice - Italy Age: 49 Posts: 666	backed up everything AND kept the machines. Still using both data and machines ^_^

08 May 2019, 03:45	#19
Magic Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: USA Posts: 359	I did keep my A3000T I still have it with the original shipping box, disks, manuals, and all. The first thing I did when I got it was pull the motherboard and remove the battery. I am sure glad I did. To this day it still runs great. I make sure and power it up and use it from time to time.

08 May 2019, 09:50	#20
jotd This cat is no more Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: FRANCE Age: 52 Posts: 8,160	I've made backups as soon as I had access to CD writers. The first CD writer I had access to was a huge Kodak SCSI one that I borrowed (it was like 1500 euro in 1996) I connected to the amiga with a hard-to-find SCSI cable. Still have a A1200 nowadays (scrapped my faulty A1200 tower (Faulty tower haha)), but now all data is on the PC, and I copy stuff on throwaway CF cards. Amiga is reserved for gaming / testing. After a while you have so many backup discs that it's difficult to find interesting and non duplicated information. One thing I lost was (not sure) the source of Premier Manager (2?), some football management game that I was sent to create a HD install, that I never created

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)