How do I use my SCSI ZIP drive on A1200?

[Zapotek]

Hello!

How do I use my scsi zip drive with my A1200? It's been such a long time since I've used it, and I don't rembember how I did it. Google didn't help me this time.

It is an A1200 with Blizzard-IV 1230 50MHz + scsi-controller. IOMEGA 100MB zip drive. SCSI-unit is set to "5" on the drive and termination is "on". (I also use a CF-card as hard drive with ClassicWB)

I have one zip-disk - I don't want to format it, I want to see what it contains (if it still works). I don't rembember what filesystem I used back in '98/99.

I checked in HDToolBox, but it didn't show up there, shouldn't it?

I have read that I don't need to use the mountlist, but that I can put something in my dosdrivers-folder ?

Can this be added to the "mountlist" file (not sure about the filesystem), found this on www, but I've also found examples with different values..:

ZP0: Device = scsi.device
Unit = 5
Flags = 0
Surfaces = 1
BlocksPerTrack = 68
Reserved = 0
Interleave = 0
LowCyl = 0;HighCyl = 2890
FileSystem = L:FastFileSystem
Stacksize = 4000
Priority = 4
GlobVec = -1
Mask = 0x7ffffffe
MaxTransfer = 0x100000
DosType = 0x444F5301
Buffers = 5
BufMemType = 1
Mount = 1


Thanks!

[thomas]

scsi.device is the driver for the internal IDE bus of the A1200 motherboard. You need to use the driver for the SCSI kit. IIRC it's 1230scsi.device.

Can this be added to the "mountlist" file

Yes, it could. But that's the WB 1.3 way to do it. Since WB 2.0 you better remove the ZP0: from the beginning and save the file as devs:dosdrivers/ZP0.

I checked in HDToolBox, but it didn't show up there, shouldn't it?

HDToolbox checks only one driver at a time. Default is scsi.device (which actually is the IDE bus as mentioned above). Open the icon information of HDToolbox and check the tooltypes. Change SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=scsi.device into SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=1230scsi.device and remove the brackets if there are any around it.

[Zapotek]

Originally Posted by thomas

...

Thanks! Will try this later when I get home from work.

[Zapotek]

changed to 1230scsi.device in HDToolBox and it showed up as unknown. Defined a new drive type and I guess it was at this point I screwed up.

After setting up the drive type I clicked on "save changes to drive" (by old habit I guess after messing around with the CF card). HDToolBox had now set up the zip-disk with two partitions. Whatever was on it is lost

Anyway, thanks for you help thomas The zip drive is now working--if you dismiss the fact that I am unable to eject the disk. I have been able to eject it one time, but now it just stuck. Must be the mechanism that´s busted

[thomas]

Originally Posted by Zapotek

After setting up the drive type I clicked on "save changes to drive" (by old habit I guess after messing around with the CF card). HDToolBox had now set up the zip-disk with two partitions. Whatever was on it is lost

Only a few sectors in the beginning of the disk were overwritten. Depending on the file system used before most if not all of the files can be salvaged.

You should have mentioned that the disk already has data on it which you want to read.

[Zapotek]

Hi again!

I received three more of my old zip disks the other day and I would like to try to salvage the contents if possible.

I used the PZ0C mount list from this archive (I just changed to 1230scsi.device):
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/FreDS-Zip250

The immediate result you can see in the attached picture "bilde 1-2.jpg"

I figured I would try another disk, but it wasn´t recognized--the drive didn´t even try to read it. I put in the first disk again, but the same happened to this as well.
They show up in HDToolBox

"bilde 2-2.jpg" is from disksalv and shows the physical device information. It says "size 96M"--is this read from the disk itself? DiskSalv tells me no disk is present when I choose the device.

Does anyone have some idea what I can/should do next to maybe salvage the contents?

Thanks!

[prowler]

Hi Zapotek,

If I wanted to recover the content of those Zip disks (including the original one with the overwritten partition table), I would mount them one by one in a SCSI Zip drive attached to my Windows Pc and dump them to RAW images that I could mount in emulation (after a little manipulation) to verify the contents, but then I do have the means to do it.

You are welcome to send them to me so that I can do just that, and I will return the disks to you and a CD-R containing the disk images free of charge.

PM me if you are interested.

[prowler]

Hi Zapotek,

I can confirm that I received your set of Zip disks today. Thanks for packing them securely.

I'm all set, but they will need a couple of days to reach stability with the temperature and humidity conditions here before I start trying to dump them.

[prowler]

Good news!

I have dumped the disk marked "PROBITY", and from that I have derived a hardfile "Probity.hdf", which mounts in WinUAE with no errors using the geometry Cyl: 2889, Hd 1, Sec 68.
The Volume Name is ".oO>-Probity-<Oo.".

I have attached a file list of the disk's content.

Some of the extended filename characters have not survived redirection to a file on the Windows hard drive, but they are intact in the disk image.

I will dump the remaining three disks tomorrow.

[Zapotek]

Excellent. I have to wait until I am back from vacation before I can check the file list.
Thanks mate!

[prowler]

I have now dumped the disk marked "NESTOR3" and the other two unmarked disks.

The NESTOR3 disk has, as you had suspected, been reformatted, so the resulting dump is an empty Rigid Disk Block image "Nestor3.rdf". In addition, I have extracted an AmigaDOS FFS formatted hardfile "Nestor3.hdf", which also mounts in WinUAE with no errors, using the geometry Cyl: 2889, Hd 1, Sec 68. The Volume Name is "zippy".

It was not possible to dump the "PROBITY" disk to an RDB image, because the partition table had been overwritten.

The third disk also yielded an RDB image "Nestor1.rdf", and again I have extracted an AmigaDOS-formatted hardfile "Nestor1.hdf", which again mounts in WinUAE with no errors, using the geometry Cyl: 2889, Hd 1, Sec 68. The Volume Name is "nestor1".

The final disk dump yielded an AmigaDOS FFS-formatted hardfile with a capacity of exactly 96MB, which mounts in WinUAE with no errors, using the geometry Cyl: 3072, Hd 1, Sec 64. The Volume Name is "ZIP0".

The "ZIP0.log" file showed that there are 180 bad sectors in the range 185472 to 196560 (offset range $5A90000 to $5FFA000) but, in fact, the file is zeroed out from offset $5A90000 to the end of the disk image. I'm not sure yet if any of the files on the disk are damaged.

Once more I have attached file lists of the disks' content.

[Zapotek]

I just looked through the file lists. Is the data from the "probity" disk accessible now? If so, it would be amazing. I see some of the pictures and animations I made (nestor) and also my friends modules and pictures. Happy to see "Kill Gates" there as well. It is something we entered in the wild demo category at The Gathering in 1997.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Zapotek

I just looked through the file lists. Is the data from the "probity" disk accessible now?

From your ZIP disks, I have dumped all the disk images mentioned above, so all the files they contain are accessible from those images by mounting them in emulation.

The only way I can tell whether all files contained within the "ZIP0.hdf" image (with the bad sectors) are intact is to copy them out and check them for large blocks of zeroes (because they won't give checksum errors), and I shall need to do that before making the disk images available.

If you want them sooner than I can get a CD-R to you, I can upload them to the EAB File Server, with password protection if you don't wish others to access them.

[Zapotek]

Sounds wonderful

I think I will wait for the CD-R - for old times sake. We used to send things to each other by mail back then. Why change things now

It has been 14-15 years since I last saw the contents on these disk. Prowler, I cannot thank you enough

What a year, these disks and Liverpool is gonna win the league!

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Zapotek

I think I will wait for the CD-R - for old times sake. We used to send things to each other by mail back then. Why change things now

Fine. I have your address, so I'll aim to get it ready to send to you on Tuesday.

Originally Posted by Zapotek

It has been 14-15 years since I last saw the contents on these disk. Prowler, I cannot thank you enough

You're welcome. Disk recovery is a special interest of mine, and I learn something new with every challenge I accept. My only disappointment on this occasion is that the "NESTOR3" disk turned out to have been reformatted.

PS. Was there a ever a NESTOR2 disk in the set?

[Zapotek]

I have only had these four disks so NESTOR2 was one of them, only renamed.

I am quite astonished when I think about the contents. The animations where made using Lightwave and everything was self taught. No access to tutorials on the internet. One of them are made using bones as well. How on earth I managed to accomplice this I have no idea. My idea, at the time, of the Amiga being a creative tool, not a games machine like the pc, might have helped though.

I just hope I can manage to get "Kill Gates" running again and put it up on youtube. You´re in for a treat I can see I was smart enough to include instructions. It is all put together using Scala - another wonderful piece of software.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Zapotek

I just hope I can manage to get "Kill Gates" running again and put it up on youtube. You´re in for a treat I can see I was smart enough to include instructions. It is all put together using Scala - another wonderful piece of software.

I look forward to seeing the video. I'm sure that the files on the "PROBITY" disk are intact, so you should have a very good chance of achieving that.

[prowler]

The bad sectors in the "ZIP0.hdf" disk image are in an unused area of the disk, so the filesystem is not damaged.

All files on the three populated Zip Disks were recovered intact.

[prowler]

Hi Zapotek,

Your CD-R is on its way over!

[Zapotek]

I received the CD-R in the mail today.
Will have to take a closer look during the weekend.