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[News] individual Computers: Research project ArjunaANN.lu
Posted on 02-Sep-2003 22:22 GMT by Jens Schönfeld17 comments
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Individual Computers has started a research project with a German university to restore data from disks that were unreadable previously.

Individual Computers is funding a 4-month research project with the university of applied sciences of Cologne under the supervision of Prof. Dr. H. Koch and Prof. Dr. E. Ehses. New algorithms for interpretation of magnetically recorded data that compensate for physical effects of media ageing are being developed.

The goal of the development is a software for the Catweasel Controller, which allows accessing disks at the lowest level.

The open-source software, which is developed on Windows, allows combining low-level codecs with filesystems on a graphical basis. This makes the software easy to use for beginners, and gives a wide variety of combinations and data manipulation possibilities for the experienced user. The fully documented plugin-system can be extended dynamically.

Plugins can be inserted at any stage of the signalling pathway. On the lowest level, errors of the media can be detected and corrected. On the highest level, files of operating systems and programs that are no longer supported can be converted to standard formats that allow easy import into popular office solutions.

Areas of application include forensic data recovery (securing evidence), archiving and restoring data to new, durable media, but also reading and writing disks of home computers, even if they have non-standard characteristics.

The software will be free. The first version will presumably be available for download in october 2003. The first screenshots can be seen here.

individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 1 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by smp266 on 03-Sep-2003 01:54 GMT
That will actually be useful to me. I have this Mac disk with a Database I did that got corrupted. I still hold onto it hoping I can one day retrieve it.
Mac don't seem to have any recovery programs.
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 2 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by tony on 03-Sep-2003 06:43 GMT
In reply to Comment 1 (smp266):
will an amiga software version be available soon ? after the windows version released .
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 3 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by Jupp3 on 03-Sep-2003 07:36 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (tony):
>will an amiga software version be available soon ? after the windows version released

As was said, it's open source project... So, after it's finished, everyone is free to port it, if Individual Computers doesn't do that for some reason...
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 4 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by Duke on 03-Sep-2003 08:45 GMT
Would be nice if Individual Computers could join forces with the CAPS-Team, as they have already very advanced data reading software on the Amiga (it's possible to read almost all protected disk formats for example). I would buy a Catweasle if it would be able to contribute to the CAPS-Project.

More info: http://www.caps-project.org/
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 5 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by Don Cox on 03-Sep-2003 08:55 GMT
In reply to Comment 3 (Jupp3):
"As was said, it's open source project... So, after it's finished, everyone is free to port it, if Individual Computers doesn't do that for some reason..."

The reason is likely to be that it would take a few days, or even a week or two, to convert the GUI to MUI (or Reaction).

I hope a volunteer will port it. I have already had success with the Amiga Catweasel in rescuing data from a 1986 vintage floppy that could not be read correctly in an Amiga drive.
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 6 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by treqie on 03-Sep-2003 10:54 GMT
Uhm, I don't fully understand what this software is for. I have a harddrive that broke - could I use that program so retrieve the software? It sounds like a longshot, the harddrive won't start at all.. it's totally broken. Just gives some weird sounds when you plug it in. :P
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 7 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by Jope on 03-Sep-2003 11:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 6 (treqie):
No,

- You can't plug the hard drive into the catweasel
- if it doesn't start, you can't get the data out via the hd controller anyway

If it's really important, I'd suggest you visit www.ibas.no ..
If it was only a load of porno jpgs and some old warez, hit the disk with a sledgehammer.. It's really satisfying.
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 8 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by treqie on 03-Sep-2003 11:10 GMT
In reply to Comment 7 (Jope):
Hell no. :P It would be like going back to 1999! all my unfinished mods... it will be missed. *sigh*
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 9 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by smp266 on 03-Sep-2003 12:54 GMT
In reply to Comment 6 (treqie):
If the heads are jammed it may start again.
I had a mac drive that was on the way out. To get it started again I would plug it into an A2000 power connector. The 200watt power supply seemed to have enough grunt to get it started again. (The Mac PSU was pretty low powered).

Maybe they will do a DIY recovery unit in Popular Mechanics/Silicon Chip someday.
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 10 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by PaulT on 03-Sep-2003 14:51 GMT
In reply to Comment 6 (treqie):
Treqie,
Sometimes hard drives fail by "stiction" where the head gets kind of stuck in the thin film of lubricant. I know that there was a long line of Seagate drives that had this problem.
If you take the drive out and give it a good hard twist around its axis of normal rotation, it may free it up enough to start. This is less dangerous than rapping on it. Imagine holding your drive in your hand facing outwards from your body, and rotating your wrist as quickly as you can. If this moves the platters, then the drive will probably start up when you reinstall it. Also, install it, then give the machine several startup on/off cycles, waiting a few seconds with it on. You may hear it spin up. If you do, have your backup program handy and get your data NOW. Since you'll need a new drive anyway, you can probably plug it into the data bus (not with the power on!) and copy files over, but do the backup first.
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Cheesy ASCII art showing axis of rotation - copy it and use a fixed font to see it if it doesn't show well.
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 11 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by treqie on 03-Sep-2003 15:43 GMT
In reply to Comment 10 (PaulT):
Hrm. :P

I searched for it today... but I fear I've already thrown it :P Damnit!
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 12 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by Jens Schönfeld on 03-Sep-2003 20:30 GMT
In reply to Comment 4 (Duke):
I have already contacted the CAPS team a few months ago. They do not want to unveil their file format, and they even have the guts to say that the Catweasel is not precise enough to read the data (which is not true, the resolution is four times as good as a stock Amiga, with added benefits of in-track variable bitrate!). If someone here can convince them to freely document their file format, I'm happy to provide a CAPS plugin in Arjuna.

Jens Schönfeld
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 13 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by Dan Andersson on 03-Sep-2003 20:48 GMT
lol
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 14 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by Jens Schönfeld on 03-Sep-2003 20:50 GMT
In reply to Comment 5 (Don Cox):
An Amiga version is very likely. The sales statistics still show that nearly 70% of all Catweasels ever sold are installed in Amigas. Recent downloads of the Amiga update files show that most of them are still in use.

Jens Schönfeld
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 15 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by The CAPS Team on 03-Sep-2003 22:41 GMT
In reply to Comment 12 (Jens Schönfeld):
Jens,

We totally respect your work, and so we had not made a big deal of this. We even frowed on making any comments on the hardware or software in order not to hurt the Catweasel market in any way. Its great hardware, just not exactly what is needed for our purposes, but perfect for home backups as it is.

We explained why the Catweasel was not *reliable* enough to read the data on a huge number of Amiga original games. How should we explain to people buying the Catweasel for the sole purpose of dumping for CAPS that certain disks can't be properly dumped? This may lead to various negative claims about our technology, when it is really nothing to do with us. We also cannot support technical questions about the Catweasel. Supporting our own software takes enough time, and remember, we do it for free not for a living.

BTW, the Amiga can read in-track variable bitrates (+/- 15%). Otherwise protection systems (like Copylock) wouldn't be able to use that feature.

The RAW files can only be used by us, so there is not much point documenting them, however the IPF file format will be documented eventually, just not right now for several reasons which I believe we told you about and are explained on the site, but they will be clarified in due course.

There is more to what we do than just dumping the disk. We need data authenticity.

The RAW files are just a collection of signals, i.e. a "raw" read of a floppy disk as dumped by our software. IPF files are the disk data and track geometry (layout) information derived from the signals found on the disk and matched against known (reverse-engineered) disk formats. If the contents do not match something known, the format needs to be reverse-engineered (sometimes easy, sometimes very hard, like "Unreal") and the format description added to the analyser so the next time it encounters the same thing it will recognise it.

Analysation and understanding the format is madatory, because otherwise it is impossible to know whether the disk is good or not.

Of course someone could play the game to death, but can you honestly play all games with all the possibilities just to know it is a good dump? Certainly not. While for some games it is easy to see that the dump is bad if it crashes at the beginning, but what happens if will only be discovered on the last level of the game?

o Would the original contributor still be around to redump the disk?
o Will he still have the disk?
o Would the disk still be readable?
o Will there be any guarantee, that the redump is error free?

These are the reasons we took the hard road and created the analyser. We could have done it far quicker with little effort, but that would have been useless and would have hurt preservation more than anything before.

Ultimatly, we are about preservation, not using disks in the home. Both our projects have their place since they are for very different purposes. The Catweasel is perfect for people who want to archive their home collection of disks, and our technology is purely aimed at getting authentic versions of the original games for preservation, for if a disk has been modified by a virus/user or has developed errors from bitrot or corruption - what is the point in preserving it?

This new project of yours sounds very promising, and we look forward to hearing more about it. If you want us to support the Catweasel, we can negotiate something when/if another version comes along. In fact, we would be happy to leave the hardware part to you - but a few alterations are mandatory to make it suitable for CAPS dumping. Perhaps simple modifications in a firmware change might provide the things needed for dumping, but it is possible hardware alterations would be needed as well.

The CAPS Team
http://www.caps-project.org
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 16 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by Opi-Poi on 04-Sep-2003 09:49 GMT
In reply to Comment 1 (smp266):
@smp266
What!Are you sure yor're a mac user?

Try Norton SystemWorks 2003, AlSoft DiskWarrior, etc.
individual Computers: Research project Arjuna : Comment 17 of 17ANN.lu
Posted by smp266 on 04-Sep-2003 10:07 GMT
In reply to Comment 16 (Opi-Poi):
Well, you know Macs they spit the dummy(er disk.) I wasn't sure if it was worth it. Thanks for the tip however I will check it out.
<Bout time I checked out all the Mac sites for programming related apps>
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