3.5" floppy. Unreadable?

[JZon]

Hello. My name is Brother Jzon.

I make an art picture, in college, 1990, and I find an old DP4 disk, which I think may have the greatest art work I ever made on an Amiga.

So, I take the disk up to the local computer tech store and they said it's unreadable.

"There's been a great disturbance in the force, as if a million voices cried out at once and were suddenly silenced."

Is there any hope left? They wouldn't tell me anything about what they did. But they didn't charge me either.

Is there like a digital forensics lab I could send my 3.5" floppy disk? Or maybe is there some one in or around the east coast (US) area who might have an Amiga running?

Any information or recommendations would be highly regarded.

Thank you very much! Brother Jzon

[thomas]

Not much information in your post.

I suppose that DP4 means "Deluxe Paint IV"?
And as this is an Amiga forum, I also suppose that this disk is from an Amiga?

At your local computer tech store, did they have an Amiga to read the disk? PCs cannot read Amiga disks. You need an Amiga to read it.

[JZon]

Yes, an Amiga disk with DpaintIV. (I thought they were a little too busy and too young to know these things) (even though I tried to tell them)

But, I really didn't know what to tell them other than if they could simple copy it and produce an adf from it. The disk looks good. (The guy at the counter scribbled ADF on the paper, but...) (And another dude was there when I went to go pick it up)

On my pc, oh sorry forgot to qualify, HP2000 laptop Windows 8.0 WinUAE 3.3, on my pc I still show files with .info extensions. I thought maybe this was what they were going to produce and then burn it to dvd or cd so I could put that in my laptop. When they put that 3.5 floppy in their drive, it probably tried to tell it to boot Workbench 1.3? LOL

Thank you very much! Brother Jzon

[JZon]

IDK, maybe I go back and ask them to download WinUAE?

[idrougge]

Won't help. You really need an Amiga or exotic PC hardware to read that disk.

[JZon]

Yes.

Exotic PC hardware.

I have an old desktop pc. Does WinUAE make an access point for an actual floppy um.. drive?

Thank you very much! Brother Jzon

Or maybe there is a device available like at AmigaKit?

[JZon]

Oh, scratch that last statement, I see what you're saying, it won't help as in you need a special amiga drive that works with Win 8. Got it.

Maybe there is a place I could send it off to?

Thank you very much! Brother Jzon

[JZon]

Where do I get a legal cybervision ppc rom? Is that such a thing?

I found a 68060 upgrade library. My setup is working with 68060. But, I'm looking online and not seeing this. Thank you very much! Brother Jzon

[thomas]

Create an empty file called cyberstormppc.rom in WinUAE's Roms folder. Select this as accelerator ROM (it's not detected automatically). Start this config and run a FlashROM update for CyberstormPPC. http://aminet.net/package/driver/oth...dates-26042002
This will turn your empty file into a full ROM. Now you can rescan ROMs on the Paths page and it should detect it.

[fryguy]

If you want to read the disk, try to find someone with an Amiga or a Kryoflux (or SuperCardPro or Catweasel) floppy controller.

[idrougge]

I think most anyone here can read that disk for you. I can take it upon me if you wish.

[JZon]

OK. I (thought) I created an empty file. I use a raised CommandPrompt and..

fsutil file createnew <filename> <size>

in my case..

fsutil file createnew CyberstormPPC.rom 1024

It puts it in C, Windows folder. I move it to ROM folder of C,ProgramFilex86,WinUAE.

But, when I navigate to my ROM folder, it's only 1 kb. Will that grow if I try to put the update in there (via executing the ppc udate on Aos in WinUAE)?

Why doesn't it already show 1024 kb's?

The readme's seem to indicate it wants one to hold the s key when booting and press both left and right mouse buttons to access Amiga Dos. Where upon which one is supposed to turn off all hard drives, and boot with Workbench to add the updates. (Is that for real Amiga's?) So, I put the updates on a floppy, and reboot with WB3.1 from floppy. When installing I get :

CyberstormPPC 128KB FlashTool V1.6
No Cyberstorm PPC installed

I have the updates, unarchived, on my hard drive (directory). But when I set the config to include the expansion settings, I get the insert disk anim when starting WinUAE. (which is why I tried removing my Amiga4000 WB3.9 HD hard drive and booting from WB3.1 floppy with another floppy with the updates)

I also tried creating a hardfile. This wants to make a vhd. I can make a hardfile to the correct size, but I didn't know that size. So, I went up to 1024. I renamed it from vhd to CyberstormPPC.rom and same as above.

Maybe I'm not properly creating an empty file?

When I click the updates icon (PPCUpdate), isn't that now going to try to update the 3.1WB floppy? The doc says to remove HD's and update your HW from a floppy.

Maybe I boot to 3.9 on HD first, then adjust config for with new empty rom file, OK, and update? (I think I tried this)

Thank you very much! Brother Jzon

[JZon]

Oh, thank you. It might come to that. Not sure yet.

[JZon]

OK. I (thought) I created an empty file. I use a raised CommandPrompt and..

fsutil file createnew <filename> <size>

in my case..

fsutil file createnew CyberstormPPC.rom 1024

It puts it in C, Windows folder. I move it to ROM folder of C,ProgramFilex86,WinUAE.

But, when I navigate to my ROM folder, it's only 1 kb. Will that grow if I try to put the update in there (via executing the ppc udate on Aos in WinUAE)?

Why doesn't it already show 1024 kb's?

The readme's seem to indicate it wants one to hold the s key when booting and press both left and right mouse buttons to access Amiga Dos. Where upon which one is supposed to turn off all hard drives, and boot with Workbench to add the updates. (Is that for real Amiga's?) So, I put the updates on a floppy, and reboot with WB3.1 from floppy. When installing I get :

CyberstormPPC 128KB FlashTool V1.6
No Cyberstorm PPC installed

I have the updates, unarchived, on my hard drive (directory). But when I set the config to include the expansion settings, I get the insert disk anim when starting WinUAE. (which is why I tried removing my Amiga4000 WB3.9 HD hard drive and booting from WB3.1 floppy with another floppy with the updates)

I also tried creating a hardfile. This wants to make a vhd. I can make a hardfile to the correct size, but I didn't know that size. So, I went up to 1024. I renamed it from vhd to CyberstormPPC.rom and same as above.

Maybe I'm not properly creating an empty file?

When I click the updates icon (PPCUpdate), isn't that now going to try to update the 3.1WB floppy? The doc says to remove HD's and update your HW from a floppy.

Maybe I boot to 3.9 on HD first, then adjust config for with new empty rom file, OK, and update? (I think I tried this)

Thank you very much! Brother Jzon

[JZon]

Not sure why,

I was able to enter the CyberstormPPC rom in the config this time and it booted with the Amiga4000 WB3.9 hard drive intact! (normally I'd get the insert disk anim upon boot)

Still shows same error though.

[JZon]

Just realized. This is turning into a different post.

How to install cyberstormppc.rom

Is it OK to continue this here?

30 years ago, I could walk two doors down and find my neighbors on a Commodore machine with BBS contact numbers..

How does one go about finding BBS's locally today? (Maybe I find an Amiga user close by)

I've fashioned 4 empty files to work from. I've renamed each one CyberstormPPC.rom, an fsutil's version (1 kb), an open text version (0 kb), an actual adf version (1.71 mb), and a hard file (1 gb).

Each time I try any of these empty files in the ROM folder and run updates (PPCUpdate), I get..

No CyberstormPPC installed

Also tried copying PPCUpdate to the C folder in Amiga and running it from there. Same thing.

Thank you very much! Brother Jzon

[emufan]

Amiga related BBS <- here are some BBSs listed.

in the zone - did you downloaded "expansion_boot_roms.zip" ? this contains the roms for ppc accelerators, unzip it in your "ROMS" folder, right there where you have your kickstart roms. goto "PATHS" in winuae , select "scan subfolders" and rescan.
here are instruction for installing OS 4.0 Classic Install Guide.

next to OS4 for ppc there is WarpUP - but i've zero clue how it works, or what you need to make it running. well, at least some talking points

[JZon]

Choice, that's chock a block of information. Have to spend some time following up on that. Thank you.

Just realized in my own post, I'd used a 1 gb size on the hdf version. I created a fresh one for 1 mb (like I thought I had). It worked! It took the update, said it was done, I rebooted, rescanned, now I have a Cyberstorm ppc 128k field already in the config section of WinUAE!

But now, when I click start, I'm getting the insert disk anim.

So, I take out the Cyberstorm ppc 128k accelerator and it's back to normal.

What could be the hold up now? I've rebooted numerous times. Maybe I tried Aminet when I should've tried the Zone? Good looking. Thank you. Thank you. Going to follow up there next.

Oh, by the way, maybe that's where I found CyberTools CyberPatcher. I'd unarchived it and put it on my Amiga4000 WB3.9 HD hard drive. But I haven't engaged it yet as I haven't sought what conflicts it may have with my setup. But it is available. Maybe I run this now? And try to reboot again with the CyberstormPPC expansion? OK. Going in now. Standby.. .. ..

[JZon]

Yesss. The Zone!!!

Thank you. Thank you.

That's what I thought I was supposed to have run into. Interesting journey however. Some cool tricks of the trade (only if I can get it running). But yes, the Zone! Got the zip. Everything on deck as we speak. Should be smooth sailing from here. (Still trying to get the icons to snapshot into place though)

OK. Thank you very much! Brother Jzon

Standby.. .. ..

[JZon]

OK. It's after midnight, I blink my eyes and 20 minutes rolls by.. LOL Can't stay up..

So, I decided to make a new hard drive for each build I want to benchmark to this HP2000 laptop. First I try copying the original A4000 WB3.9 HD hard drive into the new directory I want specifically for the 68040 processor (A4000 WB3.9 P68040 HD). All is good. Then, I'm thinking, when I initially set up the A4000 WB3.9 HD, I told 3.9 to install to A4000 WB3.9 HD. So if I copy it to the new A4000 WB3.9 P68040 HD directory, then maybe it's going to have conflicts for changing the name of the install directory. It didn't. (I hadn't really started to compute here so I don't know if it would eventually malfunction) So I decided to reinstall from scratch to the new A4000 WB3.9 P68040 HD directory.

The 3.9 install iso is locking up while I'm trying to install. How come?

I thought it would be the other way around.

I managed to initially get the ppc working. But after creating a new clean install, it's going back to the insert disk anim upon booting.

Not sure what I did. (or didn't do)

Anyways, thank you for the suggestions. Going back in..

.. .. ..