ScuzzBlog: Diaries March 2026
Entry 10th March 2026: Post 1: Amiga Format - AMI-BACK March 94.
Amiga Format - AMI-BACK March 94.
I was watching a guy on YouTube last night blabbing on how he would
never use anything other than a proper hard drive to back up his
system. I listen to such things reflecting on my many years of
backing up my files and just chuckle. Why these guys insist on a
full system backup to a single image. Bewilders me. Taking all of
what you have and trusting to a single file is like bonkers. Also
having individual files in the format that exists on your system
is far more useful given the likely issues are the failure of a
bunch of files rather than the melt down of a whole drive.
And to this end simply copy what you have on a regular basis to
what ever you want, but make two copies. File management is more
about the way you use you computer than how you save it. If you
maintain your kit, don't surf endlessly especially to dubious
sites, maintain a good virus checker, and keep your drives healthy
then you should be OK to save as individual files.
For my part I have only ever had two full system crashes on PCs
and on both counts I just reinstalled the software and loaded up
my data saves. For me that is not a problem. Mostly I just lose
stuff or delete by mistake and I then check my backups for the
lost data.
OK That said lets go back to 1994. Yes lets.
I go all goosepimply thinking of a time when there was no Google
pestering me all the time. There was no internet and no email.
No constant depressing news to deal with or games bloggers with
their constant rants which amount to oneupmanship boasts. A time
when life was much simpler and twas between me and my Amiga and
nothing else.
So what was the pressure that month? Mostly the usual, data storage.
I never had enough hard drive space and never enough floppy disks.
The guys at GAME must have chuckled at me each day as I went
raiding their stocks of HD disks. That was the problem with
animation files. Bloody big files.
I had considered the issue of backing up many times but the whole
process would absorb so many disks it was truly not very feasible.
So again I looked at software such as Ami-Back as an option but
again viewed the whole issue as too complicated and disk intensive.
I do have back-ups from collections I have acquired but they are
useless without knowing how they were created and having the
software and disk structure of the back-up.
The creation of the software disks from Amiga Format cover disk 57
can be a little tricky especially on the emulator. The creation of
a standard floppy is needed for each of the disks. It is important
to boot using the cover disk and then rename the empty disks from
the Workbench to AMIBACK and AMITOOLS. Otherwise the software just
ignores what ever disk you have created using the emulator. On a
normal Amiga it is not a problem cus the empty disk would be in
the floppy drive and by nature you would just rename it.
Anyway I created the disks, and just as I did in March 94 I put
the things away and punched Arcade Pool for some fun. Be aware that
this is a cut down demo of the game to give you a taste. Still fun.
One little tip I always give with the Amiga is to keep your Workbench
clean, lean and avoid loading with software and games. It should be
quite small and on a two partition system lets you make a simple copy
of the Workbench by dragging it to your Work partition. That way if
your Workbench fails you can format the drive and simply copy over
the copy of your Workbench without even switching the machine off.
Remember to only format the Workbench. Formatting the Work would be
bad. Very bad.
Anyhoo I finished backing up my computer drives on the PCs. I have
numerous drives laying about so I'm not troubled by the recent reports
of drive shortages. Not sure how this is going play out in the future.
My guess is that a new breed of data storage will evolve specifically
for the AI servers. The moral is you can never have enough storage.
It has been an underlying theme that has dogged my whole time on the
computer. I just keep filling the drives up. Maybe I should give this
computing lark a rest and take up another hobby... NAH !
One last comment and that relates to clouds. There is no such ethereal
heaven for data, that is sacred only to you. The data is stored as files
on a computer server, no different to any offsite facility. In using
the service you entrust your data to another. You just have to be very
comfortable doing that. After all tech is just tech and prone to the
same failures as everything else. For me I prefer lookin after my own
stuff. My data and my risk. Who do you trust ?
As I always say never do what I do. You have to make your own mind up
what is best for you. I really haven't got the first clue.
Going now ...
Amiga Format - AMI-BACK March 94.
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