Hi, new to the Amiga, need some advice/info

Hello,

I was directed here from my friends over at AtariAge after a recent post.
I recently acquired 2 Amigas after the passing of a friend, a 3000 and a 4000.

First, I would like suggestions on the best method of archiving/backing up the hard drives before I mess with the machines any further, obviously the age of them is just a matter of time before failure.

Also, there are 2 cards in the 3000, and I have no idea what they are. I assume one is a sound board and the other a video card, judging by the ports.

Rather than parrot the entire post, here's my original thread with pictures: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/275...ple-questions/

(If the link is against the rules, I apologize, I thought it would save more time than re-uploading everything)

My retro-computing hobbies have always geared toward Tandy Color Computers (but I started with them when they weren't retro.) However I've always had interest in the Amiga, just never took the plunge.

Thanks very much!

[grelbfarlk]

For the A4000, it just has IDE so I'd suggest just getting an IDE drive and copying things to that. Another option is a CompactFlash to IDE or an SD to IDE adapter.

If it has a coin cell then you're in luck, it was either well cared for or it has the last revision which didn't have the leaky battery like the A3000. Count the SIMM slots if there are only 4 instead of 5 then it's the last Rev, which is good.

For the A3000, you'd probably want to look into a cheap SCSI adapter of some kind. SCSI2SD version 5 is reasonably priced.

If you can open a CLI (or Shell or Command Prompt) hold down the right mouse button and go to the top of the screen and the leftmost menu should have execute command, type cli in the prompt that comes up.

Then type info (enter)
That should list your available drives so you know how big they are. Amigas are a little weird so instead of C: D: E: drives or partitions you might have something like DH0: DH1: DH2: and so on. Keep in mind what these device names are for later.

I guess if you don't mind reupload the pictures to something like imgur, as you have to register to see those pictures on Atariage. Which I did but I guess I need super special ultra secret club membership to see pictures on a forum.

Basically setting up drives isn't too difficult, I'd suggest setting up the new drive as secondary drive (not boot drive), then carefully set that drive up to mirror the boot drive, then copy over the contents of the boot drive to the new drive. When that is complete, you can remove the original boot drive and boot up off of your new drive, and copy over the secondary drive to the new one.

Copying the whole drive isn't too difficult, usually after everything is working it's as simple as:
Copy DH0:#? to HDH0: ALL
Copy DH1:#? to HDH1: ALL

This is assuming you set up the new drive as HDH0:
Formatting and partitioning the new drive is done in HDToolbox, usually located in Workbench:Tools/

Post when you get your new drives and we can walk you through setting them up.
There is a good article that should explain some of this to you here:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=32256

Thanks for the info! My intention was to invest in the flash drive adapters, so maybe that will be the solution for the 4000.

Sorry about the pictures/registration requirement, I didn't know AtariAge did that. I can upload them elsewhere sometime tomorrow!

[grelbfarlk]

Oh never mind, it just took the admin to approve my registration.
The A3000 looks to have an AD1012 sound card:
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/ad1012
Nice card, the little brother to the excellent ad516.

The video card I'm not sure about.
*EDIT* It's a GVP ImpactVision
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/impactvision24
Sort of a capture card, your friend must have used this with the AD1012 to record/play animations or videos. I hope you got the breakout device with it to connect the incoming video.

Very neat system.

What you can also do that would make this easier to identify is open Workbench:Tools/Showconfig at the bottom will say Boards:
Post that information where it says like:Prod=2011/96 that's sort of like a PCI Id where it is a mostly unique identifier to the manufacturer/make of the boards.

[chip]

Welcome to the forum Thanatos

Here's an imgur link for the 3000 pics. Though I guess now they aren't really necessary. https://imgur.com/a/RAs1j

Sadly, no breakout box for that capture card. Thanks for the identification!

As for imaging the drives, is there a way to do it with a PC instead of adding another drive to the Amiga, like with a USB adapter? Or can a PC not read an Amiga file system? Or maybe on a Linux machine using DD?

The other issue is that no keyboard came with the 3000. Will the 4000 KB work with some kind of adapter? Otherwise in addition the SCSI to SD I will be needing to purchase a keyboard.

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by Thanatos

Here's an imgur link for the 3000 pics. Though I guess now they aren't really necessary. https://imgur.com/a/RAs1j

Sadly, no breakout box for that capture card. Thanks for the identification!

As for imaging the drives, is there a way to do it with a PC instead of adding another drive to the Amiga, like with a USB adapter? Or can a PC not read an Amiga file system? Or maybe on a Linux machine using DD?

The other issue is that no keyboard came with the 3000. Will the 4000 KB work with some kind of adapter? Otherwise in addition the SCSI to SD I will be needing to purchase a keyboard.

Yes you can image the drives with WinUAE if you have some means of connecting the SCSI drives, like with an Adaptec SCSI card for instance.
In WinUAE you just add the Hard Drive and "Create Hard Disk Image File".

I haven't tried Linux DD for imaging, that's something you'd have to lycos, I know some people have used Linux for imaging drives, but I couldn't tell you what method or apps are used.

You can use a normal DIN to PS/2 keyboard adapter to use the A4000 keyboard on the A3000.
Like this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Keyboard-Ad...C/302622333559

Assuming the gender is correct.

If you want to set up both machines and not share a keyboard look for an Amiga to PS/2 or USB adapter on Ebay, there are a few options available.

[idrougge]

The video card is a GVP IV24. Combines genlock, digitiser, 24-bit framebuffer (in TV resolutions only) and flickerfixer. The VGA port of the IV24 is a normal VGA port and will work on most modern screens.