New Dumping Disk - Page 3

Duke · 14 March 2003, 17:40

It seems i need that legacy parallel port driver, PC2Am keeps saying 'Cannot tranfser packet for a long time'

fiath · 14 March 2003, 17:44

Quote:

Originally posted by andreas
Of course: in compressed form it could indeed work with my A1000 + Golem box. (2 MB RAM)

With that amount of RAM, you would need to dump directly to another computer. PC2Amiga needs OS2, so thats out. Is there something similar that mounts another computers drives as a normal Amiga device?

Quote:

YIKES! 6 MB! Values getting more and more, huh?

The bare minimum is probably maybe 5Mb, but it would depend on what you are dumping. Some disks would never dump with this amount of RAM.

If you are dumping directly to another computer though (for example using PC2Amiga on OS2+) then you only need about 1Mb of RAM for *any* disk, no matter what is on it.

But PC2Amiga can't run on a A500/A1000 unless it sports Kickos 2.

Quote:

I thought so ... with an expansion card it would be possible. But my A500 is unusable right now ... I only have my A1000 atm.

Oh well. Maybe sometime in the future then.

fiath · 14 March 2003, 17:46

Quote:

Originally posted by Duke
It seems i need that legacy parallel port driver, PC2Am keeps saying 'Cannot tranfser packet for a long time'

Did you try setting compatibilty options in windows? (create a shortcut to the pc2am.exe, and set the options) ?

Anyway, I will try to find that port driver again...

fiath · 14 March 2003, 17:52

Hmm, I found this one:

http://www.zeecube.com/IOAccess/index.htm

But you have to pay for it... I know there is a free one somewhere....

UPDATE:

Okay, try this one, it is not the one I used but it seems to do a similar thing:

http://www.thesycon.de/upp/eng/upp.htm

Duke · 14 March 2003, 18:57

Hm, I got PC2Am working using VirtualPC (PC Emulator). The Amiga can now access the virtual PC drives (from which I can copy the data to my normal hd's). Those legacy drivers didn't work.

Now I need the transfer & test programs

§ane · 15 March 2003, 06:26

Quote:

Originally posted by Duke
Hm, I got PC2Am working using VirtualPC (PC Emulator).

Didn't I say pipe it through Virtual PC ?

Quote:

The Amiga can now access the virtual PC drives (from which I can copy the data to my normal hd's).

Setup a shared folder and avoid this extra step. Then again, PC2Amiga might not enumerate network drives.

Duke · 17 March 2003, 14:48

@sane: I didn't read this thread

. Virtual PC is really a nice piece of software (no wonder, one of the main mame devs is one of the developers

).

PS: If anyone tried to contact me on duke@mightygamers.de: this address is not working any longer. Please use fatplumber@gmx.de.

fiath · 18 March 2003, 10:43

Nice one! Another tip to go into the docs, thanks guys.

I am not sure why my PC2Amiga works now.

About the tools, IFW has got other important stuff going on right now, as the next WIP will reflect. But I guess he will start work on it as soon as he can.

Steve · 21 March 2003, 14:44

When I'm dumping games for the Caps project I usually leave the computer making the back-up as it can take a while on my mega-slow serial connection. Nearly every single disk I dump gets a packet time-out error. Probably because of the slow serial connection.

Quote:

Cannot transfer packet for a long time.
Check cable and PC software

Click on HELP when you are not sure what this means.

All I have to do is press on RETRY and it gets going again. This is extremely annoying when I leave my computer for an hour to dump the disk only to come back and find it's only done about 10 of the 83 tracks.

So what I'm requesting is an Auto-Retry feature that will attempt to send the packet with 3 or 4 attempts before it brings up that damn system request box. That would save me a huge amount of precious time which I have very little of at the moment.

fiath · 21 March 2003, 15:20

That is not the dumping tool, that is the PC2Amiga software - and therefore, unfortunately, we have no control over what it does.

However, I have found that happening too. The reason it was happening on my system (after some investigation by IFW) is that Windows sucks.

Seriously!

Basically, you need to keep the PC2Amiga window on the PC-side focused, otherwise Windows thinks the process is inactive, and gradually gives it less and less CPU time. As PC2Amiga needs real-time monitoring of the parallel port, it is not surprising that it times out occasionally.

Hopefully keeping the PC2Amiga DOS window focused will fix your problem, if not, then the only way you can get it working is to install Windows 95/98/ME.

Update:

Apparently you can disable packet timeouts on the amiga side completely. The needed paramter is in the mountlist. Check the pc2amiga documentation...

The drawback however is that you'll only notice pc2amiga "freezing" for minutes by watching the track counter stay frozen forever, and more importantly it will look exactly like the dumping tool freezing (but of course, it isn't)...

§ane · 21 March 2003, 16:47

Quote:

Originally posted by Steve
Nearly every single disk I dump gets a packet time-out error. Probably because of the slow serial connection.

All I have to do is press on RETRY and it gets going again.

I hate to break this to you Steve, but it is highly probable all of your CAPS dumps thus far are corrupt(!) due to these time-outs. I found this to be the case on account of some simple tests.

Quote:

So what I'm requesting is an Auto-Retry feature that will attempt to send the packet with 3 or 4 attempts before it brings up that damn system request box. That would save me a huge amount of precious time which I have very little of at the moment.

This is almost funny, no sorry, uhm this can be done through editing the mount entry, details might be in the readme. Don't bother though. The requester should be taken as indicator to start again!

Quote:

Originally posted by fiath
Basically, you need to keep the PC2Amiga window on the PC-side focused, otherwise Windows thinks the process is inactive, and gradually gives it less and less CPU time.

I do NOT recommend task switching while PC2Amiga is working, however.. If you create a shortcut for PC2Amiga and alter it's Properties, untick Background "Always suspend" on the Misc tab, then it's not absolutely imperative that you keep PC2Amiga as the foreground window.

Quote:

Hopefully keeping the PC2Amiga DOS window focused will fix your problem, if not, then the only way you can get it working is to install Windows 95/98/ME.

It's the same deal with 9x/ME, methinks.

Anyway, ensure the baud isn't any higher than 19200 bps (over serial) if you have an unexpanded machine.

IFW · 21 March 2003, 16:53

Just upload some dumps to the ftp and we'll see whether they are corrupt or not.
Using parallel mode data corruption (almost) never occured to me, but I have never ever tried a serial link, so can't tell how well pc2amiga works with that.

Steve · 21 March 2003, 17:26

Quote:

Originally posted by §ane
I hate to break this to you Steve, but it is highly probable all of your CAPS dumps thus far are corrupt(!) due to these time-outs. I found this to be the case on account of some simple tests.

OH SHIT. You must be joking!!

My Dumps folder is over 82MB!!

I'll upload and hopefully some of them will be ok.

fiath · 21 March 2003, 17:43

Has it happened for all the disks you dumped? Or is it just recently happened?

BTW, the author of PC2Amiga is willing to let people have the source if they want to improve it. However, he suspects it would be a complete re-write anyway. It is also mostly assembler. But I just thought I would mention it if anybody is nutty enough.

Steve · 21 March 2003, 18:28

Quote:

Originally posted by fiath
Has it happened for all the disks you dumped? Or is it just recently happened?

I think it's probably happened on about half of the disks I've dumped.

IFW · 21 March 2003, 19:07

I really think it is a good idea to test the dumps...
Just my 2ec

IFW · 22 March 2003, 10:20

Steve:

I guess it's your folder that is called Steve on the ftp

I've downloaded and tested all the dumps and none of them have any sort of transfer errors.

In fact even the game marked as bad was readable by the analyser, so it is not bad by my definition.

There is only one problem disk, but the problem has nothing to do with the transfer, it is a problem with the disk itself, but a few "redump techniques" may improve on the result.
Fiath is going to contact you with the details.

FYI: an average dumped image has 4*84*2 crc32 checksums to pass and to filter out transfer and other integrity problems.

Steve · 22 March 2003, 10:33

Quote:

Originally posted by IFW
I've downloaded and tested all the dumps and none of them have any sort of transfer errors.
In fact even the game marked as bad was readable by the analyser, so it is not bad by my definition.

Fantastic news.

I knew they would be fine really.

Are you able to check the quality of the original disk also? What are mine like? I'm quite suprised about that DM (bad) disk being ok. So there's a chance that will actually load perfectly?

Quote:

Originally posted by IFW
There is only one problem disk, but the problem has nothing to do with the transfer, it is a problem with the disk itself, but a few "redump techniques" may improve on the result.
Fiath is going to contact you with the details.

Is that the Chaos Strikes Back disk with the unformatted track?

IFW · 22 March 2003, 11:00

They are generally in pretty good condition, everything not mentioned below is fine.

Comments:

There is no unformatted track on Chaos Strikes Back, I guess you meant the protection track, and that is not unformatted for sure

Crystal Kingdom Dizzy: poor condition, but good enough for the analyser.

Eye of the Beholder: disk #2 is modified ( the only modified disk in the uploaded dumps)

Jurassic Park AGA: #1 and #2 in rather poor condition, but good enough for the analyser

SWOS 96-7: #1 somewhat bad, but good for analysation (ok I'm not going to repeat this)

DM loading perfectly: there are disks that are unreadable by either the kickstart or a game loader, but are readable through the analyser from raw dumps. The reason for this is completely different processing, that is normally able to put together broken data from smaller valid segments of reads.
I know for fact there are games that are no longer readable by any means, but the dumps are perfect. Since the analyser reconstructs selected good data parts using the original geometry of the track the resulting ipx image does not have any defects that may appear on the broken disk that was originally used for dumping.
You may try to load the game just in case you get lucky, but don't expect too much.

The only really bad read is Darkmere #3, and that must be redumped. Fiath or Ville9 can tell about how such disks can usually be dumped successfully, if there is a slightest chance.

fiath · 22 March 2003, 11:43

That was me who mentioned the unformatted track, it is on Crystal Kindom Dizzy, Disk 2 not Chaos Strikes Back.

As for everything else, I am unavailable for the rest of the day, but I will try to sort the rest of the stuff out tonight.

Update: I was pretty exhaused this weekend (I am only able to use the computer after 11pm), but I will catch up with this asap.

21 March 2003, 15:20	#50
fiath Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: South East / UK Age: 46 Posts: 1,930	That is not the dumping tool, that is the PC2Amiga software - and therefore, unfortunately, we have no control over what it does. However, I have found that happening too. The reason it was happening on my system (after some investigation by IFW) is that Windows sucks. Seriously! Basically, you need to keep the PC2Amiga window on the PC-side focused, otherwise Windows thinks the process is inactive, and gradually gives it less and less CPU time. As PC2Amiga needs real-time monitoring of the parallel port, it is not surprising that it times out occasionally. Hopefully keeping the PC2Amiga DOS window focused will fix your problem, if not, then the only way you can get it working is to install Windows 95/98/ME. Update: Apparently you can disable packet timeouts on the amiga side completely. The needed paramter is in the mountlist. Check the pc2amiga documentation... The drawback however is that you'll only notice pc2amiga "freezing" for minutes by watching the track counter stay frozen forever, and more importantly it will look exactly like the dumping tool freezing (but of course, it isn't)... Last edited by fiath; 21 March 2003 at 16:13.

22 March 2003, 11:00	#59
IFW Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: ... Age: 52 Posts: 1,838	They are generally in pretty good condition, everything not mentioned below is fine. Comments: There is no unformatted track on Chaos Strikes Back, I guess you meant the protection track, and that is not unformatted for sure Crystal Kingdom Dizzy: poor condition, but good enough for the analyser. Eye of the Beholder: disk #2 is modified ( the only modified disk in the uploaded dumps) Jurassic Park AGA: #1 and #2 in rather poor condition, but good enough for the analyser SWOS 96-7: #1 somewhat bad, but good for analysation (ok I'm not going to repeat this) DM loading perfectly: there are disks that are unreadable by either the kickstart or a game loader, but are readable through the analyser from raw dumps. The reason for this is completely different processing, that is normally able to put together broken data from smaller valid segments of reads. I know for fact there are games that are no longer readable by any means, but the dumps are perfect. Since the analyser reconstructs selected good data parts using the original geometry of the track the resulting ipx image does not have any defects that may appear on the broken disk that was originally used for dumping. You may try to load the game just in case you get lucky, but don't expect too much. The only really bad read is Darkmere #3, and that must be redumped. Fiath or Ville9 can tell about how such disks can usually be dumped successfully, if there is a slightest chance. Last edited by IFW; 22 March 2003 at 11:10.

22 March 2003, 11:43	#60
fiath Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: South East / UK Age: 46 Posts: 1,930	That was me who mentioned the unformatted track, it is on Crystal Kindom Dizzy, Disk 2 not Chaos Strikes Back. As for everything else, I am unavailable for the rest of the day, but I will try to sort the rest of the stuff out tonight. Update: I was pretty exhaused this weekend (I am only able to use the computer after 11pm), but I will catch up with this asap. Last edited by fiath; 24 March 2003 at 10:54.

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14 March 2003, 17:40	#41
Duke HOL-Team Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Germany Age: 43 Posts: 520	It seems i need that legacy parallel port driver, PC2Am keeps saying 'Cannot tranfser packet for a long time'

14 March 2003, 17:52	#44
fiath Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: South East / UK Age: 46 Posts: 1,930	Hmm, I found this one: http://www.zeecube.com/IOAccess/index.htm But you have to pay for it... I know there is a free one somewhere.... UPDATE: Okay, try this one, it is not the one I used but it seems to do a similar thing: http://www.thesycon.de/upp/eng/upp.htm

14 March 2003, 18:57	#45
Duke HOL-Team Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Germany Age: 43 Posts: 520	Hm, I got PC2Am working using VirtualPC (PC Emulator). The Amiga can now access the virtual PC drives (from which I can copy the data to my normal hd's). Those legacy drivers didn't work. Now I need the transfer & test programs

17 March 2003, 14:48	#47
Duke HOL-Team Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Germany Age: 43 Posts: 520	@sane: I didn't read this thread . Virtual PC is really a nice piece of software (no wonder, one of the main mame devs is one of the developers ). PS: If anyone tried to contact me on duke@mightygamers.de: this address is not working any longer. Please use fatplumber@gmx.de.

18 March 2003, 10:43	#48
fiath Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: South East / UK Age: 46 Posts: 1,930	Nice one! Another tip to go into the docs, thanks guys. I am not sure why my PC2Amiga works now. About the tools, IFW has got other important stuff going on right now, as the next WIP will reflect. But I guess he will start work on it as soon as he can.

21 March 2003, 16:53	#52
IFW Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: ... Age: 52 Posts: 1,838	Just upload some dumps to the ftp and we'll see whether they are corrupt or not. Using parallel mode data corruption (almost) never occured to me, but I have never ever tried a serial link, so can't tell how well pc2amiga works with that.

21 March 2003, 17:43	#54
fiath Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: South East / UK Age: 46 Posts: 1,930	Has it happened for all the disks you dumped? Or is it just recently happened? BTW, the author of PC2Amiga is willing to let people have the source if they want to improve it. However, he suspects it would be a complete re-write anyway. It is also mostly assembler. But I just thought I would mention it if anybody is nutty enough.

21 March 2003, 19:07	#56
IFW Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: ... Age: 52 Posts: 1,838	I really think it is a good idea to test the dumps... Just my 2ec

22 March 2003, 10:20	#57
IFW Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: ... Age: 52 Posts: 1,838	Steve: I guess it's your folder that is called Steve on the ftp I've downloaded and tested all the dumps and none of them have any sort of transfer errors. In fact even the game marked as bad was readable by the analyser, so it is not bad by my definition. There is only one problem disk, but the problem has nothing to do with the transfer, it is a problem with the disk itself, but a few "redump techniques" may improve on the result. Fiath is going to contact you with the details. FYI: an average dumped image has 4842 crc32 checksums to pass and to filter out transfer and other integrity problems.

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