Rescue old floppydisks

[bolding]

Hi all

I recently found my old Amiga and got around to test some of my old disks containing some of the stuff I’ve made back in the days.
To my surprise many of the disks were working perfectly fine, and I’m now planning on making a backup of each to ADF.
However, I’ve stumbled on to a couple now with read errors - what steps can you recommend to, at least try to, recover these?

Thanks!

[sTe]

If it was me ...

First I would I try and load the ADF in ADF Workshop. If it is a DOS disk, it should show the file system / CRC.
The read errors maybe on unused parts of the disk (if your lucky).
If the CRC is broken, and if you can find a good version of the file -- it is possible with the help of the guys here to inplace replace the broken file with the good one (if the size / CRC match).

Other than that, see if someone has a Kryoflux to try and create a preservation version. No guarantee you will be in a better position than you are now ... I have seen a couple of my bad disks, become fixed.

I wouldnt run any scan / fixing tools on the disk unless you understand there maybe a chance you will be worse off than you are at the moment.

[bolding]

Auch, thanks for taking the time to point these things out to me. I’m pretty rusty when it comes to the Amigas as I haven´t touched one for ages
- This tool you are talking about - ADF Workshop - I assume it’s an Amiga tool that apart from handling ADFs can do some floppy magic? Where would one purchase this tool?
- Kryoflux ....I really need to read up on things here. Never heard of such a thing

I appreciate you help here.... I wont run any scan/fixing tools before I’ve gotten wiser on the process.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by bolding

- This tool you are talking about - ADF Workshop - I assume it’s an Amiga tool that apart from handling ADFs can do some floppy magic? Where would one purchase this tool?

It's a free Windows app developed by members here and can be downloaded from: ADF-Workshop (formerly DMS-Workshop)

Originally Posted by bolding

- Kryoflux ....I really need to read up on things here. Never heard of such a thing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KryoFlux

[bolding]

Originally Posted by DamienD

It's a free Windows app developed by members here and can be downloaded from: ADF-Workshop (formerly DMS-Workshop)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KryoFlux

Thanks Damien!
I´m new here, but already loving the forum. I’m very new to the (new)scene and trying to get started with the old gear, and even then, so many of you folks in here are willing to help out - even with free software. Thanks!!

[peo]

This is from memory of what I did..

Write protect the floppy (if not, all of mine are write protected by default)

Try to create .adf files (which are only track-by-track dumps of floppies) with any of the many tools available.
In case of no error you do not need to do anything more with this floppy other than copy the .adf to a safe place.

In the case of unreadable tracks (and if the floppy is an AmigaDOS one that contain files), you can use 'tar' (GNUtar, it's on Aminet) to create a archive of all the readable files on the floppy, like:
df0:
tar cfv ram:floppylabelwhatever.tar .

This will in case it comes to something unreadable spit out an error, which you then can copy to a text file and save for later (many unreadable files were only AmigaOS files on the floppies I preserved some time ago).
You can also just redirect the output of 'tar' directly to a file with the usual > method.
If no errors are displayed, those read errors were more or less recoverable (still there, but on tracks not used for any file).
Copy the .tar file and the text with unreadable files to a safe place.

You might get other results using another floppy drive on the Amiga, or using KryoFlux with any working PC floppy drive.

Use any of the available tools for checking the md5 checksum of the .adf with the known floppies in TOSEC. There is an online tool that can be used for this:
http://www.amigaclub.be/tosec/

[sTe]

If you want, there are several of us here who own a Kryoflux reader, so if you can get the disk(s) out ... we can try and scan it for you.

From the amiga side
My friend recommends DiskRipper 1.52x for ripping ADF images -- tried and well tested.
You can try the free Kryoflux Amiga program to capture an image (CTRAW) -- but you have to have a (v3.7, 68020+ processor and 2MB of RAM required)
If you can capture an image, it might be worth sharing a link to us ... and we can take a look, see if its in a state that can be salvaged. Just dont throw the disk away

Thanks to everyones comments above too.

[bolding]

Originally Posted by peo

This is from memory of what I did..

Write protect the floppy (if not, all of mine are write protected by default)

Try to create .adf files (which are only track-by-track dumps of floppies) with any of the many tools available.
In case of no error you do not need to do anything more with this floppy other than copy the .adf to a safe place.

In the case of unreadable tracks (and if the floppy is an AmigaDOS one that contain files), you can use 'tar' (GNUtar, it's on Aminet) to create a archive of all the readable files on the floppy, like:
df0:
tar cfv ram:floppylabelwhatever.tar .

This will in case it comes to something unreadable spit out an error, which you then can copy to a text file and save for later (many unreadable files were only AmigaOS files on the floppies I preserved some time ago).
You can also just redirect the output of 'tar' directly to a file with the usual > method.
If no errors are displayed, those read errors were more or less recoverable (still there, but on tracks not used for any file).
Copy the .tar file and the text with unreadable files to a safe place.

You might get other results using another floppy drive on the Amiga, or using KryoFlux with any working PC floppy drive.

Use any of the available tools for checking the md5 checksum of the .adf with the known floppies in TOSEC. There is an online tool that can be used for this:
http://www.amigaclub.be/tosec/

Great process description! So generally there are two paths here:
1) ADF from Floppy - if no errors you're all good! However, if there's a read error it can be either:

- a) A bad thing; a required track is unreadable for some reason and Kryoflux may be needed.
- b) Doesn't really matter. The damaged isn't used by any files at all!

2) In case of option 1.B - the trouble here is that there's really no way for you to know if an unreadable track is necessary or not - before this step:
- "tar cfv ram:floppylabelwhatever.tar" if a tar of the floppy work great it means that the before mentioned unreadable tracks aren't used for any files and the ADF (with errors) is OK?

[bolding]

Originally Posted by sTe

If you want, there are several of us here who own a Kryoflux reader, so if you can get the disk(s) out ... we can try and scan it for you.

From the amiga side
My friend recommends DiskRipper 1.52x for ripping ADF images -- tried and well tested.
You can try the free Kryoflux Amiga program to capture an image (CTRAW) -- but you have to have a (v3.7, 68020+ processor and 2MB of RAM required)
If you can capture an image, it might be worth sharing a link to us ... and we can take a look, see if its in a state that can be salvaged. Just dont throw the disk away

Thanks to everyones comments above too.

Diskripper is new to me! Frankly I thought that most of the ADF-tools were identical in the results, but differed in the GUI and ease of use? I need to try Diskripper

I'd like to try and capture a disk image, but I doubt my 'standard' A1200 with 8mb Fast ram is enough? If your v3.7 refers to Workbench I surely must be out of luck

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by bolding

I'd like to try and capture a disk image, but I doubt my 'standard' A1200 with 8mb Fast ram is enough?

You'll definitely be cool running DiskRipper 1.52 on an Amiga with your specs

Originally Posted by bolding

If your v3.7 refers to Workbench I surely must be out of luck

There's no such thing as Workbench v3.7

It will run on "KS 2.0 (v36)" and upwards... you have an Amiga 1200 so it's either "KS 3.0 (V39)" or "KS 3.1 (V40)".

[sTe]

Diskripper is the way to go ... TMB from here used this tool for ripping a lot of floppy disk images.

Only one way to proceed ... try and rip some disks

[bolding]

Originally Posted by DamienD

You'll definitely be cool running DiskRipper 1.52 on an Amiga with your specs


There's no such thing as Workbench v3.7

It will run on "KS 2.0 (v36)" and upwards... you have an Amiga 1200 so it's either "KS 3.0 (V39)" or "KS 3.1 (V40)".

Yeah, figured I didn't understand what v3.7 was related to... I'll try it on my A1200! Aminet really has a cool catalogue of stuff - is it considered abandonware or?

[bolding]

Originally Posted by sTe

Diskripper is the way to go ... TMB from here used this tool for ripping a lot of floppy disk images.

Only one way to proceed ... try and rip some disks

Almost ready now. I have occupied the desk in the livingroom with old Amiga setup, a desk lamp and a large tower of floppies. This setup brings back memories