*************************************************************** AIRMANN`S AMIGA TO PC TRANSFER DISK V2.1 (C) 2000-2013 FREEWARE *************************************************************** --------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION --------------------------------------------------------------- This disk contains a comprehensive collection of tools which can help you to transfer any kind of data from an Amiga to PC and vice versa. Of course, any other destination computer with serial port and Z-modem support is possible, too. I've developed this disk in order to transfer/rescue my old Amiga 500 disk collection to pc. It was very "refreshing" to see all those old stuff after years of abstinence ;-). FEATURES: * sending whole disks track by track as an image to pc. Attention: the image is split into two parts (see also FURTHER HINTS). * receiving whole disks track by track from pc * sending files using wildcard arguments to pc (e.g. send df1:*.txt) * receiving files from pc * sending/receiving files to/from pc using x-modem/z-modem protocol and the terminal programm azcomm * salvation of old disks using disksalv and transfer them after salvation to the pc * format, initialize, install, and relabel any disks * Unix-like shell which supports cp,mv,ls,etc. commands + integrated shell scripting language + history function * zip,unzip,lharc (pc compatible) commands for compression/decompression * windows oriented text editor az (type in ed) REQUIREMENTS: * Amiga DOS > 1.2 * 1024 KB memory is recommended, but it should work even with 512 KB memory (maybe with some modifications. Have, eg., a look at startup-sequence. There are some tools copied to ram disk. You can remove these lines in order to save ram disk space). * Two disk drives are recommended. * null modem cable is necessary. * destination computer with serial port and Z-modem terminal program. E.g. Windows XP / 7 etc. and e.g. Hypterterminal (Private Edition) --------------------------------------------------------------- INSTALLATION HINTS --------------------------------------------------------------- The first problem is to write the image/archive of the transfer disk to a physical Amiga disk. You can`t read or write Amiga disks with your PC, because the pc`s floppy disk controller is not able to do that. Your only chance is to transfer the disk via null modem cable, network card, modem, internet, etc. to an Amiga and write it there on a floppy disk. This is the next problem. How can you write the image/archive of the transfer disk to a floppy disk ? 1) use the program "dms masher" to write the whole disk image. 2) Alternatively use the program "lharc" or "lha" to decompress the archive to an empty formatted 880 KB disk with installed bootblock (use "install"). Type, e.g. "lha x ram:transfer.lha df0:". For transmission to pc you need a null modem cable, which has to be connected to the serial ports of Amiga and PC. For all transmissions the Z-modem protocol is used. Therefore, you need a terminal programm on pc, which has support for the Z-modem protocol. I recommend the program Hyperterminal, which comes along with win95/98/2000/xp. If your Windows edition does not include Hyperterminal search for it on the web. There's a private edition of Hyperterminal. Finally, you have to configure the linespeed and the serial port parameters in your terminal program to the correct values. Set your linespeed to 19200 BPS (or Baud). After this you should be able to send files to pc. Therefore, you can define a default download path in Hyperterminal. Just send your files, Hyperterminal stores them automatically into the default download path with the correct names. HINT: It is not possible to transmit any directories recursively etc.. Now, you also can send files from pc (e.g. with Hyperterminal) to your Amiga. --------------------------------------------------------------- FURTHER HINTS --------------------------------------------------------------- If you want to transfer damaged files, you can use the sendsave command instead of the send command. The send command causes a hang up, if a file is damaged. I recommend to salvage a damaged disk with the command "rescue" to a new disk. Afterwards, the new disk can be transferred. Work with the ram disk as much as possible. E.g., you want to receive a zip file from pc. Therefore, you type in "cd ram:" and "receive". Afterwards, you send the zip file with Hyperterminal. Now, the zip file is stored into ram disk. You can unzip it with "unzip -d file.zip". The file is unzipped into ram disk with its directory structure. HINT: zip and unzip are pkzip compatible. Especially, if you have only one drive, then you have to work very much with the ram disk. Be creative. Transferring disks track by track could be difficult in this case. Also the "rescue" command doesn`t work (must. be modified) Transferring disks track by track to pc is done in two steps. First, the cylinders 0..39 are copied to ram disk as an image. Second, this image is transferred to pc. Third, the image in ram disk is deleted. Fourth, the cylinders 40..79 are copied to ram disk, transmitted, etc.. The two transmitted pieces have the names "diska" and "diskb". You can use the following MSDOS batch file on pc, to link them together on pc side: ---------------------------------------------- copy /B diska + diskb disk.adf del diska del diskb -------------------------------------------------------- As you can see, the final image has the name "disk.adf". Adf is an abbreviation for "Amiga disk file". It should have the size of 880 KB. You can use these images, like real Amiga disks with Amiga emulator programs, like WinUAE, etc. HINT: I once tried to send disks via pipe, but I had only problems with bsh tasks and pipelineing. Maybe you should use the "eztrans disk", if you want to transfer disks in one piece or at low memory (attention: eztrans uses only the x-modem protocol and is not able to resume downloads). Moreover, pipelineing is not applicable if a disk is damaged and read errors occur (not seldom on Amiga ;-). Transferring files is easy. Just type in "send ". E.g.: - "send ram:*" send all files in ram disk - "send df1:*.s" send all files with ending .s in df1: You can use *,? as wildcards. For details have a look at the bsh documentation. You can use the up/down arrow in the shell for browsing through the command history. Write your own shell scripts, store them in subdirectory "scripts", and type in "publish myscript". This is necessary, because "publish" sets the script bit of your script file. If you don`t know how to write a bsh-shell script, then have a look at FISH #811 (available on e.g. ftp.funet.fi/pub/amiga/fish). This disk contains the bsh package with the complete documentaion of the shell`s scripting language. Modify the files in startup directory s to fit your needs. --------------------------------------------------------------- Credits and Copyrights --------------------------------------------------------------- THIS DISK IS FREEWARE. USE IT AND MODIFY IT FOR YOUR NEEDS. LIKE ANYTHING ELSE THAT'S FREE, THIS DISK AND ITS ASSOCIATED UTILITIES ARE PROVIDED AS IS AND COME WITH NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. IN NO EVENT WILL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE. This statement concerns not bsh, because it`s shareware ! See also at the end of this document. 1. All compilation, scripts and adapting stuff by Matthias Ehrmann. My work is freeware. All rights reserved. 2. bsh-shell by Gary Brant SHAREWARE ! (FISH #811) 3. Zmodem xpr-library by John Tillema 4. eXternal PRotocol Driver by Oliver Wagner 5. Azcomm by DJ James (FISH #171) 6. Lharc by Paolo Zibetti 7. Zip/Unzip by Mark Adler, Richard B. Wales, Jean-loup Gailly, John Bush and Paul Kienitz 8. Az-Text-Editor by Jean-Michel-Forgeas (FISH #346) 9. transdisk by unknown -> sorry ! 10. waitanykey by Roger Fischlin in 1990 11. some words to bsh: bsh is not fully contained and provided on this disk. This means, if you want the complete version get FISH disk #811. 12. have fun... --------------------------------------------------------------- Credits and Copyrights for bsh by Gary Brant --------------------------------------------------------------- bsh V0.98 1992 by Gary Brant, All Rights Reserved. Bsh is an enhanced shell and interpretive programming language. It contains many advanced features not previously seen in shells on the Amiga(TM) computer. Bsh has been tested on an Amiga 3000 running AmigaDOS1.3, AmigaDOS2.04 and AmigaDOS2.1, on an Amiga 1000 running AmigaDOS1.2 and AmigaDOS1.3, and on an Amiga 500 running AmigaDOS2.04. This is version 0.98 of a shareware program. The shareware fee is $30.00; if you are poor and cannot afford $30, send what you can afford. Users who send the full fee will automatically receive an upgrade to version 1.0 when it is available. Also to be included with the 1.0 upgrade will be several utilities and filters, including chmod, df, du, ls, ps, touch, tree, detab, entab, fgrep, grep, hd, head, sort, tail, tee, tr, trunc, uniq, and wc). Bsh is freely distributable as long as all of the files included herein remain intact, and it is not included in any commercial product without prior written permission, and it is not uploaded to any bulletin-board or other service which claims copyright or ownership of uploaded material. Explicit permission is given for inclusion in the Fred Fish library and for distribution via comp.binaries. The test and ls programs included here are yours to keep, at no extra charge :-); documents are also included for them. The user functions, and command-grouping features mentioned in the document are not included in version 0.98, however, in no way is this release cripple-ware or other than a full featured shell. There is an install script provided which should work on any system as long as you have a hard drive and a floppy drive or two floppy drives. Just make sure the drive you want it installed on is ASSIGNed to SYS:, this would normally be your boot-disk. If you only have one drive, try copying all the files to ram: first, then cd ram:, insert your system disk in df0: and Execute install. Please send bug reports, cash, job offers to: Gary Brant 1355 Eustis St. #1 St. Paul, MN 55108 USA