[SOLVED] Catweasel MK3 CD-R

[prowler]

Hi All,

I recently decided to create a backup image of the CD-R which was supplied with my Catweasel MK3 PCI/Flipper card, but it failed because of read errors.

The Volume Name is "Catweasel_Emulator_CD" and it contains PC and Amiga driver software, plus a comprehensive selection of Computer and Console emulators for running on Amiga (some observers might call this a bunch of stale emulators ).

The disc contains 4376 files in 1419 directories, amounting to about 100MB of data.

I have tried to recover the disc using Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier. However, I have only been able to salvage 4105 files. The others may not be totally unrecoverable, but selecting more retries increases the estimated time to complete the task far beyond acceptable limits.

Does anyone have a Catweasel MK3 CD-R which is more readable than my own and could upload a backup image of it for me, please? Even discs which are readable to a lesser degree may still prove useful - see below:

These discs will all be old by now, so it's possible that nobody will have a disc which is completely readable. Even so, other partially-readable discs would be useful if they could be salvaged by the same method I have tried. If the required total of 4376 files can be salvaged overall, then I can compile a composite disc image and distribute it (on CD-R if required) to everyone who has contributed to the effort.

Thanks in advance to any contributors to this effort.

Edit: I attach a zip archive of the full directory listing of the original CD-R and one of the Windows hard drive directory containing the successfully salvaged files. The files as yet unrecovered are highlighted in red.

[ptyerman]

Daft as it sounds, I have successfully recovered both CD's and DVD's in the past by using metal polish on them. It was good enough to get a read off them to back them up.
I had a DVD disc that was particularly bad and had been scratched and scuffed to the point it wouldn't read at all. I used some fine grade automotive valve grinding paste on the surface until the scratches wasn't visible any more, after that I used some chrome polish to bring it to a mirror finish. Worked a treat long enough to get all the files off it!

[prowler]

I know that GameStation used to provide a CD-ROM and DVD polishing service to remove scratches and restore them to as good as new.

But this is a CD-R and I suspect that exposure to sunlight may have erased some of the recorded data, or at least made it more difficult to read, thus I suspect that method may not be applicable in this case.

Edit: There aren't any visible scratches on the disc surface anyway.

However, the previous owner of the Catweasel card said that he had bought it from a second-hand (charity) shop, and I'm thinking they had displayed it in the window, and that's what caused the deterioration. And I used drivers I had downloaded to test the card after I received it, so I had no cause to use the CD-R at that time.

Now, I am just trying to recover the files purely for preservation purposes.

[ptyerman]

Too much sunlight will degrade the dye and make it unreadable that's for sure. A couple of the CD's I rescued was effected by this and taking off the top layer with polish allowed a good enough read to back them up. These CD's contained photo's that wasn't backed up anywhere else so I had nothing to lose really, they wouldn't read anyway so nothing more lost by trying.
It was a fun experiment at the time, and luckily served its purpose to retrieve the pictures.
The badly scratched DVD was just to see if it would work really, there was nothing on it important or not backed up elsewhere.
I was surprised it worked considering how much polishing and elbow grease it took.

[Locutus]

Have you considered just asking Individual Computers? They might just still have it and post it online if you ask, other installation disks are on their wiki nowadays :-)

[prowler]

Originally Posted by ptyerman

Too much sunlight will degrade the dye and make it unreadable that's for sure. A couple of the CD's I rescued was effected by this and taking off the top layer with polish allowed a good enough read to back them up. These CD's contained photo's that wasn't backed up anywhere else so I had nothing to lose really, they wouldn't read anyway so nothing more lost by trying.
It was a fun experiment at the time, and luckily served its purpose to retrieve the pictures.
The badly scratched DVD was just to see if it would work really, there was nothing on it important or not backed up elsewhere.
I was surprised it worked considering how much polishing and elbow grease it took.

Thanks for adding those details to explain more fully the comments you made in your original post. If you have tried successfully to revive a couple of CD-Rs by polishing them using the same technique which worked with glass-mastered CDs, then I am bound to give it a try, but only as a last resort, since I suspect that I will have lost any chance I might have had of salvaging any further files from the disc at all if it doesn't work in this instance. I'll let you know if it comes to that.

Originally Posted by Locutus

Have you considered just asking Individual Computers? They might just still have it and post it online if you ask, other installation disks are on their wiki nowadays :-)

It might be worth a try. However, I never received a reply the only time I tried previously to contact Jens Schönfeld by mail about providing Catweasel support for additional disk formats - even when I enclosed examples of the relevant floppy disks and a CD-R to which I had written satisfactory images of each disk dumped by other means, which he had specifically requested!

Furthermore, if Individual Computers still had a master image of that disc, and could distribute it, then I would expect it to be made available on their Wiki also.

[th4t1guy]

Originally Posted by prowler

If you have tried successfully to revive a couple of CD-Rs by polishing them using the same technique which worked with glass-mastered CDs, then I am bound to give it a try

I've done it with both factory CDs and CD-R, CD-RW, etc. and it works great. The side of the CD that the laser shines into is just a layer of clear plastic. For a CD-R, you should be more careful with the top layer, as a heavy scratch on that side could rip through the reflective foil.

[prowler]

Thanks for adding here your experience of similar situations .

Before opening this thread, I was convinced that polishing the playing surface could only worsen the problem. I was not aware that the dye layer was protected by a clear plastic surface.

[prowler]

I have begun my final attempt to salvage more files from this CD-R before resorting to cleaning and polishing it.

I'm not convinced that polishing will necessarily enable all files to be recovered from this disc. There is a small 'nick' on the recorded portion of the disc which looks to the naked eye like a small screwdriver, bradawl or other pointed instrument has been dropped onto it. On closer examination using a loupe, it looks more like a crater with the bottom hidden by deposits of dust, which have settled there and become compacted. I am not sure whether the damage goes right through the clear plastic surface or not, so I will attempt to clear the residue with great caution lest the dye layer is thus exposed.

I have earlier this evening recovered three more files from the disc, again using Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier, but this time one file at a time. This enables the program's 'Best Recovery' setting to be used without a persistent reminder that completion of the task is expected to require several days. However, in this session another four files have proved to be unrecoverable by this method.

[prowler]

4110 files salvaged of 4376. Attachment to first post updated.

As I make progress, I will bump the thread by removing this post and replacing it with another at the end and updating the attachment.

In the meantime, if anyone can supply the files highlighted in red in the Wordpad document in the first post attachment, that would be a great help.

[ShK]

I also have only a corrupt CD-ROM. Here is the image file of it. Hopefully you can find a few missing files - intact.

http://apollo-accelerators.com/files/shk/C64_DRIVERS.7z

A quick Catweasel MK3 test on Windows 10:

[ Show youtube player ]

e. oops, I think this was not the CD-ROM what you was looking for
e2. it was this one? this is in 100% working order : http://apollo-accelerators.com/files...Emulator_CD.7z

[prowler]

Originally Posted by ShK

It was this one? this is in 100% working order : http://apollo-accelerators.com/files...Emulator_CD.7z

If that's not the very same one, then it will certainly be very similar. I won't know until I've done some comparisons, but either way it will be a vast contribution to the recovery of the files on my disk. Thankyou so much for uploading it!

Originally Posted by ShK

A quick Catweasel MK3 test on Windows 10:

[ Show youtube player ]

Nice work! That doesn't sound bad at all for the 8580! I can't wait for the 6851 test. Oh wait, that is the 6851 test!

Originally Posted by ShK

I also have a corrupt CD-ROM. Here is the image file of it. Hopefully you can find a few missing files - intact.

http://apollo-accelerators.com/files/shk/C64_DRIVERS.7z

Oops, I think this was not the CD-ROM what you was looking for.

Well, as a Catweasel MK3 owner, I'm keen to collect all relevant files and media, so that will also be a very interesting upload, and once again my sincere thanks!

Edit: Is that CD the one in this picture?

[prowler]

Originally Posted by ShK

This is in 100% working order : http://apollo-accelerators.com/files...Emulator_CD.7z

That disk image is an exact match for my Catweasel Emulator CD-R before it became damaged! That's saved me and my DVD-RAM drive a heck of a lot of work!

I'll see what the C64 driver CD image looks like tomorrow.

That's what I like best about EAB: If you post a request, there will almost always be someone out there who can provide what you need eventually if you are prepared to wait for it.

[DamienD]

Well done all involved

[ShK]

Originally Posted by prowler

Is that CD the one in this picture?

Yes, this is the same CD-ROM disk.

This disk contains original CW3 drivers and I find that it works better with ACID64Player than latest one. For some reason latest driver sometimes detects CW3 as CW4 and does not find SID, and if it finds, music playback sounds bad.

Catweasel MK3 Quick Installation Guide advises to use 6581 jumper if the real 6581 is installed. On my case I needed to left it open with 6581R3 SID. With 12V setting sound was a very loud and all channels didn't work.

WinUAE 3.6.0 works OK on Win10 (32bit) with Catweasel MK3, but you need to install TVicPort. It allows you to access and control hardware directly without using the Windows DDK. Also WinUAE is needed to start from command line with directcatweasel parameter: "-directcatweasel 0xyzzzz" y = CW model (3 or 4, 3 is default), zzzz is io address in hexadecimal. On my case it's "WinUAE.exe -directcatweasel 0x3D000".

cw_config.exe shows io address:

[prowler]

Even if it was a mistake, I certainly appreciate you uploading the C64 driver CD image as well, and thanks for those additional hints above, my friend.

[storhemulen]

Does anyone have the CD-R file for the Catweasel mk3 or know where it could be found? The link posted ( http://apollo-accelerators.com/files...Emulator_CD.7z ) is not working anymore.

EDIT: Please, anyone?