A-Max disks?

[Supamax]

About CrossMac:
backup your internal Hard Disk (or Compact Flash) prior to install it, because it overwrites/upgrades some OS commands (diskchange, diskcopy, etc.) in order to support A-Max disks.
So, if/when you uninstall it, you will not be forced to search and copy back the old commands on your HD from the original floppies.

I uninstalled it when I didn't need it any more, and just to free up 100 KB RAM.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Supamax

You can call me SupA-Max
However, it should be nice if Disk Converter was more reliable when writing to real floppy disks...
I tested Emplant v5.0. It includes Disk Converter II (AKA Disk Converter v7.0), but it won't run on A600 or on basic A1200 (it requires more RAM).
I'll prepare a floppy so you can try it on your real machine, but perhaps it will be possible to find an intermediate release on post-v4.2 and pre-v5.0 Emplant disks?

Hi SupA-Max,

There's a Disk Converter is nearly every release of the software, so I'll extract them from the archives to see how many unique versions there are and upload them for testing.

Originally Posted by Supamax

Please do it when you have time! This could lead to a better way of writing back images on real floppies...

Of course! It always makes good sense to have a "Plan B".

Originally Posted by Supamax

Well, they are not perfect though. There are some errors on the "empty" tracks of the disks. Take my recent dumps as "official", but feel free to practise Powercopy on the old dumps

I owe it to Boo Boo to check whether his A1200 AR save will successfully restore your A-Max images.

prowler

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by prowler

There's a Disk Converter is nearly every release of the software, so I'll extract them from the archives to see how many unique versions there are and upload them for testing.

I don't envy you , since you have to install each release on HD in order to decompress the included Disk Converter... did you realize it? Are we some sort of retro-maniacs? Geeee...

Or perhaps you found a faster method to decompress them?

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Supamax

About CrossMac:
backup your internal Hard Disk (or Compact Flash) prior to install it, because it overwrites/upgrades some OS commands (diskchange, diskcopy, etc.) in order to support A-Max disks.
So, if/when you uninstall it, you will not be forced to search and copy back the old commands on your HD from the original floppies.

I uninstalled it when I didn't need it any more, and just to free up 100 KB RAM.

Hi SupA-Max,

Don't worry about my Amiga internal hard disk. I regularly back it up to a spare hard disk connected to the external CD-ROM socket.

Thanks for uploading your CrossMac application to the Zone for me. All the versions I had turned out to be demos. It will help to ensure the consistency of our testing if we're using the same version of that software too.

prowler

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Supamax

I don't envy you , since you have to install each release on HD in order to decompress the included Disk Converter... did you realize it? Are we some sort of retro-maniacs? Geeee...

Or perhaps you found a faster method to decompress them?

Hi SupA-Max,

The version 1.x releases are DMS images that need to be installed before you can see what's there. Versions 4.6 and 5.0 are ADF images and must also be installed. All other versions are LHA archives which don't need to be installed to check the contents. Version 4.2 I have as an ADF image and as an LHA archive.

So only four versions need to be installed, and it will be easier to do that in WinUAE.

prowler

PS. Yes, I think I qualify as a Retro-Maniac!

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by prowler

Hi SupA-Max

I was joking about calling me that way

The version 1.x releases are DMS images that need to be installed before you can see what's there. Versions 4.6 and 5.0 are ADF images and must also be installed. All other versions are LHA archives which don't need to be installed to check the contents. Version 4.2 I have as an ADF image and as an LHA archive.

"My" Disk Converter v6.0 comes from Emplant v4.2, so it will be probably not needed for you to install that version. I also have v4.6 & v5.0, so we probably found them in the same place (Magix FTP).

Massimo

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Supamax

I was joking about calling me that way

I knew you were joking, but I still thought you deserved the accolade - at least for a short while!

Originally Posted by Supamax

"My" Disk Converter v6.0 comes from Emplant v4.2, so it will be probably not needed for you to install that version. I also have v4.6 & v5.0, so we probably found them in the same place (Magix FTP).

I actually had two copies of each of these versions in ADF format. I think one set came from Magix FTP and the other from Ian's FTP (now offline, unfortunately).

[cosmicfrog]

get totall commander and the amiga plugins then you can look in dms,adf`s without haveing to unpack them first also lha lzx, hdf, nice and useful

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by cosmicfrog

get totall commander and the amiga plugins then you can look in dms,adf`s without haveing to unpack them first also lha lzx, hdf, nice and useful

Thanks cosmic , but in this case some more work is required.
The files in the disk/adf are compressed with a proprietary routine, and will be automatically uncompressed when you install Emplant on the hard disk.

[Supamax]

I uploaded a newer version of the Disk Converter:
Disk Converter II v7.0
It doesn't run on A600 or A1200 basic configurations ; it claims more memory.
I could run it by giving a total of 3MB RAM to the emulated machine in WinUAE.

Those of you who have an Amiga with more than 2MB RAM will be able to run it. Let me know if the writing routines have been improved.
I will also try it on my 2.3MB A500, when it will be reassembled and ready

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Supamax

I uploaded a newer version of the Disk Converter:
Disk Converter II v7.0
It doesn't run on A600 or A1200 basic configurations ; it claims more memory.
I could run it by giving a total of 3MB RAM to the emulated machine in WinUAE.

Those of you who have an Amiga with more than 2MB RAM will be able to run it. Let me know if the writing routines have been improved.
I will also try it on my 2.3MB A500, when it will be reassembled and ready

Hi Supamax,

Thanks, mate!

I've uploaded each of the unique versions of the Emplant Disk Converter and ConverterII that I have found and extracted from my Emplant software archives. Two of them appear to be versions you already have, but I thought I'd upload them all anyway. They don't look to be a complete set, but I recently searched the internet for versions of the Emplant software that I hadn't got and found nothing, so I don't think we're likely to get any more unless other users can provide them.

Also, I've uploaded DuskDup+ 2.5, which not only runs in Macintosh Plus emulation, but also has very flexible memory requirements achieved by copying the disk in parts, the size of which is determined by the available memory. The utility is in an 800kB HFS disk image, complete with readme file which explains what a useful tool it is.

The contemparary versions of neither ShrinkWrap nor Disk Charmer can match the performance of DiskDup under the conditions we require; indeed Disk Charmer appears to be a disk erasing/formatting program only at this early stage of development.

Have fun with these files.

prowler

PS. Now, with any luck, it's time to stop searching and start testing!

[Supamax]

@ prowler

thanks for DiskDup+ 2.5, mate! It looks very promising! I'll try it ASAP.

In the meantime, I have another HINT:
Disk Converter's dumps are 819.216 bytes long, while most Mac images from the net are 819.200 bytes long.
The only difference between a "normal" Mac image and a Disk Converter image resides in the first 16 bytes.
They are in HEX:
44 52 45 57 20 28 43 29 31 39 39 33 81 00 00 00
(In ASCII: DREW (C)1993....)

If you strip these 16 bytes from the beginning of the image you can then use it on your real Mac.

Also, I downloaded from the net an image of Arkanoid (819.200 bytes) and tried to write it on a real A-Max disk, but Disk Converter didn't recognize it as a supported image... Then I added to the beginning of it the 16 bytes taken from one of my dumps and... voilà, the image was accepted.

However, this is strange, since Disk Converter should export images in a Mac standard format (ADC=Apple Disk Copy or DiskDup).
I tried different export formats, but the produced images were identical.

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by prowler

I've uploaded each of the unique versions of the Emplant Disk Converter and ConverterII that I have found and extracted from my Emplant software archives.

WOW, great work!
I'll try them all!

EDIT: I saw that they are the executables only (+ .info). You should have included the jam, emplant and sybil libraries, too, since they are needed and different on almost every release...
For example, Disk Converter v7.0 will not run with libraries from Disk Converter v6.0.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Supamax

@ prowler

thanks for DiskDup+ 2.5, mate! It looks very promising! I'll try it ASAP.

In the meantime, I have another HINT:
Disk Converter's dumps are 819.216 bytes long, while most Mac images from the net are 819.000 bytes long.
The only difference between a "normal" Mac image and a Disk Converter image resides in the first 16 bytes.
They are in HEX:
44 52 45 57 20 28 43 29 31 39 39 33 81 00 00 00
(In ASCII: DREW (C)1993....)

If you strip these 16 bytes from the beginning of the image you can then use it on your real Mac.

Also, I downloaded from the net an image of Arkanoid (819.200 bytes) and tried to write it on a real A-Max disk, but Disk Converter didn't recognize it as a supported image... Then I added to the beginning of it the 16 bytes taken from one of my dumps and... voilà, the image was accepted.

However, this is strange, since Disk Converter should export images in a Mac standard format (ADC=Apple Disk Copy or DiskDup).
I tried different export formats, but the produced images were identical.

Macintosh disk copying and imaging is full of surprises like this! For example, Disk Copy 4.2 produces larger images (data fork) than all later versions, due to the addition of a (much larger) header, but at least these do seem to be interchangeable.

Originally Posted by Supamax

I saw that they are the executables only (+ .info). You should have included the jam, emplant and sybil libraries, too, since they are needed and different on almost every release...
For example, Disk Converter v7.0 will not run with libraries from Disk Converter v6.0.

Thanks for that, mate. That oversight could be because I've spent too much time searching and not enough time testing. I'll correct that ASAP.

prowler

PS. It would be quicker for me to upload each of the relevant Emplant archives, because then I wouldn't have to install some of them to extract the relevant files. On the other hand, it will mean you will have to do it instead. If I don't hear from you, I'll take the hard work out of it for you and provide new uploads with thew relevant files included.

[Edit] Logging off now to go and prepare the new uploads.

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by prowler

It would be quicker for me to upload each of the relevant Emplant archives, because then I wouldn't have to install some of them to extract the relevant files. On the other hand, it will mean you will have to do it instead. If I don't hear from you, I'll take the hard work out of it for you and provide new uploads with thew relevant files included.

[Edit] Logging off now to go and prepare the new uploads.

If you have the time to do that (starting from the newer versions) I'll thank you . Otherwise let me know.
I'll try DiskDup+ 2.5 on my A600HD, in the meantime.

EDIT: you also have to add some files (a SCIV file and a SCIV drawer, if I remember well) from the Fonts drawer (see post #93). Use my latest Disk Converter .adf as an example.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Supamax

EDIT: you also have to add some files (a SCIV file and a SCIV drawer, if I remember well) from the Fonts drawer (see post #93). Use my latest Disk Converter .adf as an example.

So, this means I've now come back here with a whole new set of files to upload, just to find that they still won't be any good.

Well, I've uploaded them anyway so you can take a look. Is there anything else missing before I go away and do it all again?

BTW, sybil.library dependency has been removed from version 5.2 of the Emplant software and the jam.library has been expanded accordingly.

prowler

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by prowler

So, this means I've now come back here with a whole new set of files to upload, just to find that they still won't be any good.

Well, I've uploaded them anyway so you can take a look. Is there anything else missing before I go away and do it all again?

Hey, that's not my fault, I didn't program those utilities!

However, probably SCIV font files didn't change from one release to the other, so you/I/everybody (Adrianaaaaaaaaaah!) can cut&paste them from v4.2.

BTW, sybil.library dependency has been removed from version 5.2 of the Emplant software and the jam.library has been expanded accordingly.

Good to know .
Overall, great work, prowler!
I'm downloading them and I'll try them tomorrow .

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Supamax

Hey, that's not my fault, I didn't program those utilities!

Hey, no-one's blaming you, mate! But this had better be worth it after all the hard graft we're putting in.

Originally Posted by Supamax

I'm downloading them and I'll try them tomorrow .

It really won't be any trouble to get it right next time. I've found a way of extracting the files from the archive without actually installing them to the hard drive. I just start the installer and let the files decompress to the RAM drive. Then when the requester pops up asking where to install the files, I open the RAM disk window and copy all the extracted files to a folder on my PC's hard drive which is mounted as a hard drive in WinUAE. Then I abort the installation. Next time I'm going to save ALL the extracted files, archive them and copy them to this machine, which will make it easy to upload anything else you should need.

Also, I'll have a look at your Disk Converter ADFs on the Amiga. It's about time!

prowler

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by prowler

Hey, no-one's blaming you, mate! But this had better be worth it after all the hard graft we're putting in.

He he! I know... I wonder if "il gioco vale la candela", remember?

It really won't be any trouble to get it right next time. I've found a way of extracting the files from the archive without actually installing them to the hard drive. I just start the installer and let the files decompress to the RAM drive. Then when the requester pops up asking where to install the files, I open the RAM disk window and copy all the extracted files to a folder on my PC's hard drive which is mounted as a hard drive in WinUAE. Then I abort the installation.

Very SMART!

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Supamax

He he! I know... I wonder if "il gioco vale la candela", remember?

Of course I remember that one! How could I forget? My interest in languages is noted in my profile.

Originally Posted by Supamax

Very SMART!

Well, that's the result of all the experience I've had lately with this software.

prowler