ScuzzBlog: Diaries October 2021
Entry 22nd October 2021: Post 1: HiSoft - SCSI Surf Squirrel PC ADF transfer.
HiSoft - SCSI Surf Squirrel PC ADF transfer.
For all that have little understanding of what I do here I thought
I would just spend a few moments explaining. I have spent a very
long time putting together my retro computer collection. My main
interest whilst being the Amiga does stretch into most of the home
computers models of the 1980-2000 era. A few years back I chose
to give up work and spend all my time enjoying and recording the
many computers I have, together with the support software, books,
manuals, disks, peripheral, expansions and games etc. The process
takes up most of my daily free time and therefore each scuzzblog
diary is a literal record of my retro activities. It follows that
the content is what I do, no matter how trivial or pointless it
may seem. I only make record of the time spent with the computer
collection.
When deciding what to do I generally work around a loose regime of
checking various computers depending how important they are to me
and also the likelihood of failure should they be left unattended.
I also do have specific serious interests that I like to maintain
in addition to requests I have to provide help. All in all the
schedule for the week tends to write itself and there isn't a day
that I haven't got a project to work on. Tomorrows challenge is
already waiting on the bench for me to play... er work on tomorrow.
The day generally starts with me gathering all that I need from
the collection. This can be as significant as a computer to the
many disks or book/magazine articles that I need. I then photograph
and record the event and then upload to the PC. Next I edit
photographs and undertake what research I feel necessary. Onward
to the blog and the words plus the webpage, before uploading to
the site. I then reflect on what I did and maybe post in various
places before setting my challenge for the next day. And so it
goes on and on.
My day is broken up with intermittent bouts of Warcraft or League
of Legends or maybe fun on the console. I do not play retro games
as I think for the most part they are truly BORING. I live in the
past but play in the now. For other entertainment I watch Big Bang
whilst having tea and of late I have enjoyed the Marvel films
though I do struggle watching for more than an hour at a time. I
have a very short attention span and generally do not like films.
I never watch television... not even connected. Waste of time.
Anyhoo today I was creating ADF images of the 3.1 development disks
I featured the other day. Seemed pretty apt that I was using a
HiSoft SurfSquirrel to undertake the exercise as they were the
company most responsible for development tools for the Amiga, or
so it seemed. To be honest had it not been for HiSoft in 1995 I
think I would have lost interest in the Amiga.... or not.
I use ADFBlitzer to create the images and transfer these to the
Amiga repository on the Amiga Technologies A1200. This machine sits
next to me here and has a hard drive hanging off a ribbon out the
back. Useful for swapping out IDE 3.5" drives. I then copy the
files to the ZIP drive that is formatted as a PC disc. Whilst at
it I copy over the residue of the recent ADF work together with
the latest tools which is called CLARA.
Onward to the PC and I can use any of 4 which have networked ZIP
drives built in and then it is just a case of copying the files to
a USB stick and back up here. The files stay on the PCs that I have
for future reference which can be accessed by my Amiga 1200 in the
workshop using SAMBA and Ethernet card.
The ZIP drive has been a saviour and for me still offers the most
speedy way of transferring and moving files around. Discs can be
either Amiga or PC formatted depending on their use and for an
Amiga 100MB is perfectly adequate for most short term transfers.
I have taken the opportunity today to add some HiSoft stuff as
I gave them a mention. What was interesting was that the magazine
I chose for the advert for the ZIP in 1995 has an article about
yet again a new buyer for the Amiga. Shame none of them didn't give
the company to HiSoft. Maybe then we would have had some new
hardware and not so much hot air.
And so the 3.1 development disks are safely stored on this Win7
machine in ADF format and my work today is now done. 9.35 evening.
Time for a Big Bang and some tea.
HiSoft - SCSI Surf Squirrel PC ADF transfer.
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