How to read recalcitrant floppies?

From: John Foust <jfoust_at_threedee.com>
Date: Mon Apr 19 08:57:24 1999

At 11:52 AM 4/17/99 -0700, Ethan Dicks wrote:
>I am attempting to back up some floppies from a project I did a few years
ago.
>The sets of 3.5" 1.44Mb IBM floppies have been stored in a box, in a cool and
>dry room. Out of one set of 12 and one set of 15 disks, I have four disks
>that have read errors that DOS won't get past, bad sectors and the like.
>
>Are there any tools to go divining on DOS floppies that work better than
>an endless succession of "R"etries?

Try several different drives on different machines. Drives can be
out of alignment with respect to each other, and this includes the
machine that wrote the disk as well as the machines that read them today.
Try reading them on other types of machines, like Macs or Amigas with
proper DOS-reading abilities. Another good trick is to hold the disk
between your thumb and first finger, then whack each edge on the table-top.

Also, get out the can of compressed air to clean out each drive before you
try this, and open the shutter on each disk and blow them out, too.

- John
Received on Mon Apr 19 1999 - 08:57:24 BST