Backing up my original A1200 Hard Drive

Blitter · 19 December 2019, 00:06

I boxed my A1200 up 5 or 6 years ago, but have just got it out of storage and to my delight it still boots, everything's as it was.

I want to back up the Hard Drive, which is in 2 partitions, DH0 (Workbench) and DH1 (storage volume). I can't remember how to see how big in filesize each volume is, and full each is - any pointers?

I have an AmigaTrax PCMCIA CF reader from when I backed up some floppies years back, although I've now lost the floppy that came with it with the software on. :-/ The Amiga seems to auto-mount the CF card anyway.

Can I literally just copy the contents of DF0 and DF1 to the CF card (in DOpus or something) or are there hidden files/boot files that won't get copied?

If I copied DF0 like this, could I make it bootable from the CF card, or even have an emulator boot it?

DamienD · 19 December 2019, 00:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blitter

I want to back up the Hard Drive, which is in 2 partitions, DH0 (Workbench) and DH1 (storage volume). I can't remember how to see how big in filesize each volume is, and full each is - any pointers?

Quickest way, boot with Directory Opus v4.12CU (1994-10-31)(GP Software)[CU Amiga version] then look at "DH0:" and "DH1:"

...or I believe, use HDToolBox.

Blitter · 19 December 2019, 00:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by DamienD

Quickest way, boot with Directory Opus v4.12CU (1994-10-31)(GP Software)[CU Amiga version] then look at "DH0:" and "DH1:"

Got Dopus already installed - struggling to remember how to use it though!
When I click DH0 it says at the top of the screen Dirs : 000/021 Files : 000/015 Bytes : 0000000/0028633
Below, in the DH0 window it says Workbench 19.1M

So is that 19.1mb used, or total volume size?
What are the Bytes referring to, the total count for that top level directory?

Edit: I just ran the 'Info' command in a Shell window. It reports Workbench DH0: Size: 30M / Used: 22636 / Free 39072 / Full 37%
What do these numbers mean?!

DamienD · 19 December 2019, 00:52

Sorry, it was a quick post on my part...

So I have a 500MB .HDF set up in "ClassicWB 3.1 Lite" via WinUAE. If I click on "DH0:" it shows me the remaining space:

"HDToolBox" should show you the size of your partitions.

Blitter · 19 December 2019, 01:40

Ah right. So from Shell it's saying the size is 30Mb, with 37% used (ie 11.1Mb) which would tally up with Dopus saying there's 19.1Mb left.

OK, so what's the best way to make a back up or clone of this bootable volume using the CF card, so that I'm fully prepared for if/when the original HDD fails?

pipper · 19 December 2019, 01:57

I strongly recommend taking a hard drive image via WinUAE. It’ll require an ide controller, but nowadays you can get really cheap ide-usb adapters.
This way you preserve the HD contents and will be able to boot Your Amiga in WinUAE

Blitter · 26 December 2019, 13:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by pipper

I strongly recommend taking a hard drive image via WinUAE. It’ll require an ide controller, but nowadays you can get really cheap ide-usb adapters.
This way you preserve the HD contents and will be able to boot Your Amiga in WinUAE

Is there as IDE USB adapter that is known to definitely work? Just googling around and it seems people have a bit of trouble with Windows recognising the Amiga drive?

daxb · 26 December 2019, 17:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blitter

Edit: I just ran the 'Info' command in a Shell window. It reports Workbench DH0: Size: 30M / Used: 22636 / Free 39072 / Full 37%
What do these numbers mean?!

The numbers for used and free are amount of blocks. Usually a block is 512 bytes but it depends with which size (512 to 32768) a partition is formated.

MBry0 · 06 January 2020, 10:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blitter

Is there as IDE USB adapter that is known to definitely work? Just googling around and it seems people have a bit of trouble with Windows recognising the Amiga drive?

Never had problems with usb adapters, and I played with dozens of them.
Remember to run WinUAE as an administrator or your hd will be inaccesible.

Toni Wilen · 06 January 2020, 11:55

AFAIK there is no USB IDE adapter that properly supports CHS-only IDE access mode, they all assume LBA support. All(?) original A600/A1200 drives are old and small enough to only have CHS support.

Some adapters have vendor specific commands that can be used to bypass the limit. WinUAE supports some of them.

At least in Windows drive appears as zero size capacity drive if adapter assumes LBA support but drive is CHS-only.

alcomatt · 23 January 2021, 00:02

I have in the past used linux to make a disk image using dd of my old amiga 1200 850MB HD. Worked perfectly. I was even able to cut such images into individual partition pieces and use those as HDF files in WinUAE/FS-UAE. Full image was 7zipped and stored on regular PC backups

19 December 2019, 00:06	#1
Blitter Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: UK Posts: 41	Backing up my original A1200 Hard Drive I boxed my A1200 up 5 or 6 years ago, but have just got it out of storage and to my delight it still boots, everything's as it was. I want to back up the Hard Drive, which is in 2 partitions, DH0 (Workbench) and DH1 (storage volume). I can't remember how to see how big in filesize each volume is, and full each is - any pointers? I have an AmigaTrax PCMCIA CF reader from when I backed up some floppies years back, although I've now lost the floppy that came with it with the software on. :-/ The Amiga seems to auto-mount the CF card anyway. Can I literally just copy the contents of DF0 and DF1 to the CF card (in DOpus or something) or are there hidden files/boot files that won't get copied? If I copied DF0 like this, could I make it bootable from the CF card, or even have an emulator boot it?

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19 December 2019, 00:52	#4
DamienD Banned Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: London / Sydney Age: 47 Posts: 20,420	Sorry, it was a quick post on my part... So I have a 500MB .HDF set up in "ClassicWB 3.1 Lite" via WinUAE. If I click on "DH0:" it shows me the remaining space: "HDToolBox" should show you the size of your partitions.

19 December 2019, 01:40	#5
Blitter Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: UK Posts: 41	Ah right. So from Shell it's saying the size is 30Mb, with 37% used (ie 11.1Mb) which would tally up with Dopus saying there's 19.1Mb left. OK, so what's the best way to make a back up or clone of this bootable volume using the CF card, so that I'm fully prepared for if/when the original HDD fails?

19 December 2019, 01:57	#6
pipper Registered User Join Date: Jul 2017 Location: San Jose Posts: 652	I strongly recommend taking a hard drive image via WinUAE. It’ll require an ide controller, but nowadays you can get really cheap ide-usb adapters. This way you preserve the HD contents and will be able to boot Your Amiga in WinUAE

06 January 2020, 11:55	#10
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 49 Posts: 26,505	AFAIK there is no USB IDE adapter that properly supports CHS-only IDE access mode, they all assume LBA support. All(?) original A600/A1200 drives are old and small enough to only have CHS support. Some adapters have vendor specific commands that can be used to bypass the limit. WinUAE supports some of them. At least in Windows drive appears as zero size capacity drive if adapter assumes LBA support but drive is CHS-only.

23 January 2021, 00:02	#11
alcomatt Registered User Join Date: Jan 2021 Location: South Croydon Posts: 33	I have in the past used linux to make a disk image using dd of my old amiga 1200 850MB HD. Worked perfectly. I was even able to cut such images into individual partition pieces and use those as HDF files in WinUAE/FS-UAE. Full image was 7zipped and stored on regular PC backups

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