wanted: amiga workbench install disk

[steve_uktv]

hi everyone !
I am an amiga user from many moons ago and have recently aquired 2 x 1200 with hard drives and 1 a500 and 1 a600...yehhhh
My fondness for these computers cannot be expressed adequately .
However i have recently purchased from ebay the workbench 3.0 disks but i cannot install to my hard drive because the install 3.0 disk is missing!
Has anyone got a copy they can send me and of course i will reinburse any expense .
I am really looking forward to getting the 1200 up and running and getting back to some nostalgic times.
I have searched ebay for the disk but nobody seems to have it.
THanx for reading and look forward to joining any discussions

[fc.studio]

You could try this similar tool:

http://aminet.net/disk/misc/hdinst.lha

[amigakit.com]

Welcome!

We stock the official Amiga HD Install disk here on our Amiga webstore:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=179

This is also compatible with OS 3.0

[steve_uktv]

yehh great thx amigakit.com thats what i need and at a reasonable price too!!
thx again will be purchasing it asap

[chiark]

Glad you're sorted. I'll release the HDPrep disk I assembled for First Computer Centre back in the day which should still work... It uses the free RDPrep from Microbotics, an installer script that I wrote and a licensed Commodore Installer executable (which I think was 100 quid IIRC)!

[Rebel-CD32]

Nice one, chiark. I'm sure a lot of people would be happy to get their hands on an install disk that won't get them busted for copying for fellow Amiga users.

Didn't every Amiga (except CD32/CDTV maybe) come with Workbench? And aren't the disks only readable on an Amiga, and only installable on an Amiga with the appropriate Kickstart ROM? So really, a floppy (not an ADF image) would be useless to anyone without an Amiga, and every Amiga owner should already legally own Workbench if they own an Amiga, so I don't see what's wrong about sending people fresh copies of the Workbench install disks to replace the ones they either lost or still own but are buggered with mould or errors. I don't see any companies losing profit by Amiga users swapping copies of the system disks we should all rightfully own already.

Of course, you'd think worrying about copyright on such old disks these days is silly, but we know there are people scouring forums like this looking for people to dob in to Cloanto or Amiga Inc for giving away something they want to make you pay for.

I guess it just pisses me off when I see these new/returning users trying to get their old Amiga working, but of course their ancient Workbench floppies are no good, and so they are either forced to get "pirated" copies or pay for something they already own. I'm not saying if someone has legal copies of the software they shouldn't sell it, but I also don't see anything wrong with offering someone a free copy of the disk if they lost their original.

[amigakit.com]

@Rebel-CD32

I don't think anyone here would begrudge recopying over disk for any Amiga user where it had become corrupt. Commodore always advised backing up your AmigaOS disks in case of such a problem.

Yes every A1200 was originally supplied with AmigaOS disks. Usually five disks were included with the computer: Workbench, Extras, Storage, Locale and Fonts.

Only A1200HD models were supplied with one further disk, the HD Install disk, so users with just A1200 will not have originally had this disk with their system and they have no right to use this disk without purchasing it first.

A user can tell if they have a HD model as their badge on the left hand side above the Escape key will be labelled either Commodore A1200HD or Amiga A1200HD.

[steve_uktv]

Thx again guys ...i was sorry to say that i purchased the set of workbench disks from ebay at a reasonable price but was not supplied with the install disk but instead a copy of rdprep with which i am not familiar and freezes at "make sure disk is write enabled" stage.
Thx to you guys i can now get the install 3.0 /3.1 disk and take steps to install workbench once again .
thx guys!

[amigakit.com]

Thanks.

Please be aware that there are some pirated Workbench disks being sold on Ebay at lower prices than the usual price. Tell tale signs are when they are supplied on white disks and not blue disks. Also when the Workbench label has been printed with an inkjet printer.

[steve_uktv]

well i have just this minute purchased the one from your store so lets hope not hey!! lol
thx again ...i love this forum its like revisiting my past !!

[Magno Boots]

I have a couple of 'non official' workbench3 install disks in my collection.

One supplied with new HDs by Analogic and another called Install3.0 by Epic.

They are not direct copies of the original Amiga install disk either, so does anyone think these would be subject to Amiga copyright?

[steve_uktv]

dont care i would have a copy ...i agree with the earlier post in that they should be able to be copied since the system is not recognised any longer ...they should be copied even if to keep the nostalgia alive ....some people prob will not agree

[chiark]

That's why we went to the trouble to license everything...
Just gone through the install script, and it's a little bit simple . It merely asks for wb,extras,fonts,locale and storage, and copies the lot to your hard disk

It also looks exclusively for 3.0 disks so won't work with 3.1

If there's any interest, I'll update it to be able to install 3.1, too.

it's a 3 stage process: prep using RDPrep. Format using a format script I wrote. Install using an install script I wrote.

edit: @magno_boots - to distribute any workbench files commercially you need to have a license. To distribute installer, you need a separate license.

[Predseda]

The greatest computer ever is the J.C. Clarke's Space VAC, which contains the whole universe

[Arnie]

Can you format the HD in Workbench then copy the files over.? I mean if you dont want a Work partition that is.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Arnie

Can you format the HD in Workbench then copy the files over.? I mean if you dont want a Work partition that is.

Yes, then you would have to copy the other disks over aswell.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by Arnie

Can you format the HD in Workbench then copy the files over.? I mean if you dont want a Work partition that is.

No, you can't. You need to create a partition first. At least the boot partition needs to be in place, even if it covers the entire HDD, otherwise there is nothing you can format.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by thomas

No, you can't. You need to create a partition first. At least the boot partition needs to be in place, even if it covers the entire HDD, otherwise there is nothing you can format.

Right you are, missed the work partition bit, .

I'm hoping to find someone who can help me to. I've just got my old A500+ out because I have now managed to convert my loft for an old computer room (loads of old machinery in there, such as a Spectrum, Dragon 32, Oric and Tatung Einstien) but I cannot find my old workbench disks (version 2.0 I think) - where can I get hold of them from?

[Allen1]

To install a hard drive on your Amiga 600 or 1200, you need to download "hdInst.lha" from aminet and extract the files to an Amiga floppy, that is the hard part! Now all you need to do is boot up the Amiga using your workbench disk, when finished insert the disk with the "HDInstTools" files and copy HDInstTools to the Ram disk (don't bother with the Docs), once copied replace the disk with the Workbench one. Now open the ram disk and double click on the HDInstTools icon and you can then go on to making your partitions (remember to make the workbench partition bootable) and then formatting the drive (you will probably need a reboot and reload of HDInstTools to Ram), once the partions are formatted you will be given an option to copy disks to the drive, this is where you copy your Workbench disks over to make your operating system work. This is the same for either a CF card drive or a real hard drive and to get things working a lot easier you should think about a PCMCIA adaptor and a CF card for transfering the files you download from the internet etc.

you will find hdInst.lha (it is free) from :-
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/hdinst#contents


For the PCMCIA card transfer setup take a look at this (start at the top of the page) there are better explanations if you look around though :-
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=628574

HDInstTools could also be put onto a copy of your bootable workbench disk with some files removed to make space for it to fit, this basically IS an install disk and it costs nothing to make. I appreciate that items like install disks can be bought but why would anybody need to part with money for something as simple to make as this when the files required are free to use?