help! how to recover water logged floppies?

From: Jeffrey S. Worley <Technoid_at_30below.com>
Date: Sun Apr 20 13:53:01 2003

I've used the same methods to recover damaged floppies. If a sleeve is
'bent' and won't let a disk spin freely within it, this is the way to
go.

A little tip for 5.25" and 8" disks that fail at spots is to put a 'tab'
of tape at the exposed end of the disk so that is protrudes through the
drive's face. Read the sectors that are giving you trouble over and
over using a very tolerant and configurable copy program, or write your
own little sector getter program. Tug on the tape off and on with
different amounts of force as the machine is reading the sector in
question. Keep this up til' you give up or the sector is read.

What this does is both vary the drive's rotational speed whilst reading
as well as warping the disk a teensy bit thus changing the bearing on
the head(s) a teensy bit.

I've also used this method to produce 'bad' sectors to duplicate simple
copy protection schemes. Write a program that repeatedly writes and
reads the sector in question. When the just-written sector is not
readable without tugging on the disk again, you are in business for a
bad sector. It really works.

Regards,

jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org]
On Behalf Of Erik S. Klein
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2003 2:37 PM
To: cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: RE: help! how to recover water logged floppies?

When I did this all of the disk jackets were still wet. I used a clean,
lint free drying cloth from my collection of car-care products (I don't
remember what they were called, exactly, but they are basically a
synthetic lint-free chamois) and blotted each disk carefully. Once they
were blotted as thoroughly as possible I let them air dry for an hour or
two (as I extracted and removed the other wet media) and then checked
for water spots. I buffed those very gently with the same cloth which
was then slightly damp.

I then slid the media into a fresh jacket and everything was fine to do
a quick disk copy. If I remember correctly I used one of the more error
tolerant aftermarket disk copy programs (CopyIIPC or something like it)
just in case.

Once I was done with the whole pile I'm pretty sure I used a head
cleaner to make sure I didn't damage the drive. Of course, I then put
the naked media in that same drive so how careful was I really? :)

   Erik

-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org]
On Behalf Of Chandra Bajpai
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2003 10:56 AM
To: cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: RE: help! how to recover water logged floppies?

How do you clean the media itself? Will a clean paper towel work or is
some other procedure required?

Thanks,
Chandra


-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org]
On Behalf Of Erik S. Klein
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2003 12:30 PM
To: cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: RE: help! how to recover water logged floppies?

The suggestion to remove the disks from the damaged sleeves, clean the
media carefully and then place them in a "new" sleeve for data recovery
is good.

I did the same with some PC disks a dozen years ago or more and had no
difficulties with any of the media.

When I was done I tried a little experiment and placed the media alone
in the drive without a sleeve. It worked that was as well, although I
wouldn't recommend it for more then entertainment value. I can imagine
the flex on the disk isn't good for it. . .

Good luck!

-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org]
On Behalf Of Chandra Bajpai
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2003 6:07 AM
To: cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: help! how to recover water logged floppies?

I had a small accident in my basement a couple of days ago and in
cleaning everything out I discovered an old box of 5.25 TRS-80/Heathkit
floppies with all my old stuff on them were damp with water. I let them
air dry overnight, but some of them still don't spin freely.
 
What can I do to recover these disks - I hate to lose them. What sort of
damage does water cause to floppies?
 
Thanks,
Chandra
Received on Sun Apr 20 2003 - 13:53:01 BST