Recovering/Saving Bad Amiga Disks

[Cauterize]

Hey all,

Im in the process of dumping some Amiga disks to ADF. Some of these are unique disks and yet to be released into the scene, so it's vital that I recover these.

It's taken me a few years to get round to doing this, but now I have some of the disks are no longer working.
A few of them have become rather squeaky/noisy and refuse to boot.

Ive tried making copies of them in X-Copy, seeing a screen of red 2's (which doesnt look good), but no luck there either.

JI was wondering if there is any software that can potentiall restore these disks before it's too late (fingers crossed).
Or if there is something I can do to the disks themselves so they dont squeak & read correctly.

Thanks!

[prowler]

Hi Cauterize,

Where have those disks been stored?

If floppy disks are stored in cold, damp conditions for very long, they become susceptible to mould growth on the recording surfaces. When those disks are eventually spun up, they will emit a squealling sound, which might be what you are describing.

If you attempt to spin such disks by hand, you will feel more than the usual resistance.

Be very careful with these disks. If you persist in trying these disks in your floppy drive it will eventually fail, and you might not be able to revive it by cleaning the drive heads.

I have heard that it is sometime possible to restore floppy disks damaged in this way by cleaning the recording surfaces with isopropyl alcohol, but this should be considered very much a last resort.

[Cauterize]

Thanks for the reply! Most appreciated!

They have been stored in my loft, which is relatively dry to my knowledge as my house is only 5-6 years old. These disks too we also in individual floppy disk cases to protect them until I had the right equipment to dump them, so it's a bit odd...

One of the games will load up slowly, but once thrown at EasyADF or ADFBlitzer, it creates a small file and only dumps a few blocks...

I won't be putting Alcohol on these discs just yet. Im hoping there is someone around who would be willing to help out. It will be a rewarding task trust me, let's just say it's these disks:

http://www.lemonamiga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1432

Unfortunately the pics I took are long gone, but these are Pre release demos well worth preserving.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Cauterize

One of the games will load up slowly, but once thrown at EasyADF or ADFBlitzer, it creates a small file and only dumps a few blocks...

That is a problem with some disk imagers. I always use TSGui. It has a retry option which will sometimes eliminate checksum errors, but nothing seems to get around missing header errors. However, the best feature of this 'Track Saver' tool is that it will still continue to the end of the disk, even when there are errors, which maximises the potential for data recovery.

Originally Posted by Cauterize

I won't be putting Alcohol on these discs just yet. Im hoping there is someone around who would be willing to help out.

I will help you out. I have some experience of recovering data from troublesome disks, and have previously recovered valid disk images of Amiga disks for bLAZER, hitm4n and Titler.

You are welcome to send any disks you are having trouble with to me, and I will give them my best attention. Of course, I will afterwards return the disks to you if you wish. I use a number of different methods and disk drives to image Amiga disks, and then attempt other methods to recover individual blocks and files if those fail, building a complete disk image in emulation with the recovered data.

I will guarantee not to attempt anything which might destroy the remaining data on the original disks.

Let me know if you would like me to help.

[orange]

@prowler
i have had that exact same problem with mold. after trying to read them for a while, the drive would leave a 'circle' mark on them. but fdd seems to have worked fine with other diskettes later on. how about using a commercial spray that kills mold? or dry them somehow?
the ones i have are not so important, still they are originals

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Cauterize

Ive tried making copies of them in X-Copy, seeing a screen of red 2's (which doesnt look good), but no luck there either.

This can also be a sign the disk is copy protected. Some of those Psygnosis demo disks are copy protected. They cannot be turned directly into ADF images. They have to be Warped and then analysed. Although some people have experience making extended ADF disks of copyprotected disks but I'm not familiar with the techniques.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by orange

@prowler
i have had that exact same problem with mold. after trying to read them for a while, the drive would leave a 'circle' mark on them. but fdd seems to have worked fine with other diskettes later on. how about using a commercial spray that kills mold? or dry them somehow?
the ones i have are not so important, still they are originals

AKAIK there is no official documentation regarding methods of reclaiming floppy disks from an attack of mould growth. Cleaning the recording surface with isopropyl alcohol is one method that has been discussed in these forums with mixed results. It is still not clear whether it was first necessary to extract the disc from its enclosure.

To be successful, the disk needs to be imaged only once and may then be discarded, but any similar method is, of course, not without risk of losing data entirely.

The only method I have found which might lead eventually to the recovery of some bad sectors is spinning the disc by hand inside the enclosure to allow the layers of tissue a chance to remove the deposits from the recording surface. This can take a long time, since it is possible to rotate the disc only slowly, so it is best to attempt it while doing something else. And, of course, for this to be effective the disk must be left to dry out entirely beforehand.

[whitegiant89]

Originally Posted by prowler

Hi Cauterize,

Where have those disks been stored?

If floppy disks are stored in cold, damp conditions for very long, they become susceptible to mould growth on the recording surfaces. When those disks are eventually spun up, they will emit a squealling sound, which might be what you are describing.

If you attempt to spin such disks by hand, you will feel more than the usual resistance.

Be very careful with these disks. If you persist in trying these disks in your floppy drive it will eventually fail, and you might not be able to revive it by cleaning the drive heads.

I have heard that it is sometime possible to restore floppy disks damaged in this way by cleaning the recording surfaces with isopropyl alcohol, but this should be considered very much a last resort.

Hi Prowler, Living in a tropical climate of far north Qld Austraila, my disks were always going mouldy. I would clean them with a cotten bud diped in methylated spirits. You hold the metal door open and gently wipe the surface and then rotate the disk by hand a bit at a time untill you have done the whole disk both side's, and then keep rotating it untill the metho has evaported off, doesn't take long. They have worked for ages and when the went mouldy again i would repeat the process. When the disk's get old the surface will start to mark if you rub it too hard.

Hope this might help.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by whitegiant89

Hi Prowler, Living in a tropical climate of far north Qld Austraila, my disks were always going mouldy. I would clean them with a cotten bud diped in methylated spirits. You hold the metal door open and gently wipe the surface and then rotate the disk by hand a bit at a time untill you have done the whole disk both side's, and then keep rotating it untill the metho has evaported off, doesn't take long. They have worked for ages and when the went mouldy again i would repeat the process. When the disk's get old the surface will start to mark if you rub it too hard.

Thanks for a detailed account of what, ultimately, was tremendously successful for you, whitegiant89!

The only precautionary note I would add to that for anyone else trying this is to be extremely careful not to wet the cotton bud excessively.

If the solvent were to come into contact with the joint between the disc and the stainless steel hub, it could weaken the adhesive and lead to separation. They are held together by a ring of double-sided tape, and if they should separate then it would be almost impossible to join them again so that the disc runs concentrically when rotated.