Screeching 5 1/4 FDD

From: Don Maslin <donm_at_cts.com>
Date: Thu Oct 5 15:40:29 2000

On Thu, 5 Oct 2000, Lawrence Walker wrote:

> I have a hard to replace dsdd floppy disk that produced a
> screeching noise while attempting to read it on a win98 box under
> Dos using a Dos program. I quickly removed it and tried to read it
> on another Dos box also with a HDFDD. No screech but only the
> directory was readable, not the contents. I checked the original
> FDD again using a scrap dsdd floppy and had no trouble with it.
> Anyone have any thoughts as to what would have caused this ?

Whenever I have heard that horrid squeal, it has been followed with the
disappearance of the magnetic media on a track or cylinder. :{

> And whether the disk is salvageable ? I'm reluctant to run the disk
> again on any box till I explore the options, lest I damage it further.
> It was an old DRI PC-install master disk for GEM.

The first thing that you want to do as make several image copies of the
disk on a drive with known clean heads and using a utility such as
AnaDisk that will make a track-by-track copy of it. Then work on a
copy!
                                                 - don
 
> ciao larry
>
> Reply to:
> lgwalker_at_look.ca
>
Received on Thu Oct 05 2000 - 15:40:29 BST