Cannon Fodder Save Disk Backing Up

[Retro1234]

yeah should be ok with powercopy but you need a hard drive.

you create the image on Amiga that you can then use on Uae or you create the image on uae that you can then write on Amiga.

Powercopy is on the eab file server cracked by stingray, good luck.

[Rissy]

Thanks. I don't have a HDD for my Amiga. What does Powercopy do? Is it a PC software or an Amiga one?

[Retro1234]

it's Amiga software but can create and write images that most other software can't i.e mfm and basic protection so some games etc.

I don't think it will be easy without a hard drive you need a storage device that can hold the image.

[Rissy]

i have an external FD drive here. Could i write the output to another disk first, then move that new image from disk over Amiga Explorer?

[Retro1234]

not easily the image is over 880kb I tried splitting it once over 2 floppys once but didn't work for me.

I don't know amiga explorer but if it mounts as an actual drive it might be possible that way.

yeah just assumed you had a HD.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Rissy

My save disk is a real disk, yes. After imaging it on to my laptop using GW, i have proven that this then even loads up in-game in emulation. But for instance, when i want to play the game and make more progress on an existing save on the Amiga, then I either have to keep a disk in the condition it's in now with the saves on it, or i have to have a way to write to a new disk with the old saves so that i can advance them on the Amiga and then back that one up again to the laptop. I possibly could of course also advance the saves within.
the emulator??? But i still want to have a real world solution which allow for the modern ethics of backing up ones data. You understand?

What do you want to do?

Image your save disk for use on emulator or something else?

Please be clear!

[Retro1234]

he wants to image it for emulation but also be able to write the image back to real floppy.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Retro1234

he wants to image it for emulation but also be able to write the image back to real floppy.

Ok, then powercopy to write back the disk image, but he needs a hard drive on his amiga.

For emulation, an extended ADF. Because the others formats are read only.

[solarmon]

@Rissy

OK, so the original dump SCP image needs to be converted to IPF.

I was able to do that with keirf's disk-analyse tool:

disk-analyse --format=sensible Cannon_Fodder_Save.scp Cannon_Fodder_Save.ipf

The resultant image can then be used to write back to floppy disk. And to be used in emulation (but read only).

I'll PM you a link to download the converted image.

[Rissy]

Originally Posted by solarmon

@Rissy

OK, so the original dump SCP image needs to be converted to IPF.

I was able to do that with keirf's disk-analyse tool:

disk-analyse --format=sensible Cannon_Fodder_Save.scp Cannon_Fodder_Save.ipf

The resultant image can then be used to write back to floppy disk. And to be used in emulation (but read only).

I'll PM you a link to download the converted image.

Thanks Solarmon, much appreciated. I can confirm the .IPF image you sent me back works perfect! BUT. It took tools I don't have access to, to do it. I've not used Linux much, so i'm a complete basic novice.

(I actually just started looking at linux for the first time last week at work! - I'm having trouble mounting a btrfs NAS drive automatically within "fstab" upon boot up of an industrial controller if you know how to get around that little problem! Many people on the internet having the same problem and none of the solutions i've tried from examples on the internet will work!? - anyway i digress away from Amiga stuff)

Weird that "HxCFloppyEmulator" wont do it even though it lets you choose those options. I just does nothing when requested to do it....?!?

Unless I can be assured of not messing up my laptop by trying to get such complicated things working on Windows, then i think i'll just have to stick with the one direction (not the music band) approach. I'm wondering at this point how it will work when (if) i finally receive my Gotek drive from AmigaStore.eu (I ordered it from them on March 28th!)

[solarmon]

If you convert/export the Cannon Fodder save game SCP image to HFE v3 then you can use it in the Gotek.

[Rissy]

I don't know how i did it, but i managed to get "HxCFloppyEmulator" to convert a different save.scp version of my cannon fodder disk image to .IMG and them to .IPF.

I can't reproduce it now though. Not sure why?

I put it on my dropbox if you're interested to see. It's called "Cannon_Fodder_Saves_scp_img.ipf", but GW refuses to write this to disk, so i couldn't test it.

[solarmon]

HxC doesn't support exporting as IPF, even though it gives it as an option. The IPF that was somehow created is only a 17KB file anyway, so it is not a valid IPF file (or valid any file).

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Rissy

I don't know how i did it, but i managed to get "HxCFloppyEmulator" to convert a different save.scp version of my cannon fodder disk image to .IMG and them to .IPF.

I can't reproduce it now though. Not sure why?

I put it on my dropbox if you're interested to see. It's called "Cannon_Fodder_Saves_scp_img.ipf", but GW refuses to write this to disk, so i couldn't test it.

This is normal. *.IMG are file for ST/PC disks. Not amiga disks. This can't work.

[Rissy]

I think i might try and get this Linux solution working on my laptop. But first, i'll back up all my data on to my NAS drive and take a restore point in Windows so that if i mess it up, i at least have something to attempt to go back to....when times were good!

[Rissy]

So update with good news.

Today, after several hours put into this, I am now the owner of a Windows 10 laptop hosting a VirtualBox running virtual machine running Ubuntu (a version of Linux).

I've got a shared folder between Windows and Linux for transferring disk images between the operating systems, and Linux has got Keir Fraser's Disk Utilities software running on it.

I've also managed to prove it works on my installation by taking my Cannon Fodder save disk image (.SCP) and converting this into a .IPF image file.

I've then gone on to prove that this 987kb sized file can be written to a blank floppy disk using my Greaseweazle and accepted by my Amiga!

Very pleased indeed!

I decided to do things this way, using VirtualBox, because it's a bit more of a modern solution to that presented on the webpage, and as such, easier to get going by referring to Youtube etc.

Mission Accomplished!

[solarmon]

Glad you hear you managed to get a setup working!

I personally just use a Ubuntu based WSL environment direct within Windows 10 itself. This setup is good enough to get disk-analyse running.

[Rissy]

So i'm sorry to drag this old chestnut up again, but i took some time out last night to play a bit of cannon fodder before bed. I'm now running from my Gotek drive. I loaded up one of the save games from my imaged save disk, and played a 4 mission phase before being given the option to save my game, which by this time I wanted to do, since it was bed time.

"You can only save to a disk formatted by this game, do you want to format one now?"

What the hell? So my game will read my saves just fine without complaint, but wont allow me to write back to them or create more!? This aspect worked just fine when i was using floppies, but it wont work with the Gotek!? I have my save disk image as a .HFE (Rev 3)

What have i done wrong?

[Rissy]

It's ok. I figured it out. Up and running now.