Read\Write Errors.....

[THX1138]

I seem to be getting quite a few read\write errors from my disks,and i was
just wondering if there is any software out there to check these disks ?

Any other suggestions much appreciated !

[Duke]

DiskSalv (available on Aminet)

[Shoonay]

Well, it all depends if those disks are NDOS/DOS - as much as i know the NDOS disk are not recoverable.
The DOS disk can be easly fixed with my favorite tool - FixDisk (...i think...) 1.3, which can recover almost 100% of any lost/overwritten data.

[THX1138]

For example.....i have 2 original copies of the game "Beneath a steel sky" and both lots of disks seem to have read\write errors on them !

[tin]

What's saying there is read write errors? Some copying program or the soft itself? If copying soft is saying there is R/W errors then maybe those R/W errors are supposed to be there?!

[fiath]

Try this, might fix them:
http://www.caps-project.org/articles.php?id=spinandblow

[mark_k]

For checking disks at the trackdisk level, I recommend SuperDuper 3.13. You can get it from Aminet. It multitasks really well.

SuperDuper is also useful for something similar to the "spin and blow" technique which fiath mentioned. On several of my (original) disks, trying to read them initially gave errors, or at least required retries. After getting SuperDuper to check all tracks a few times, they all seemed to read reliably every time. Of course SuperDuper only understands the Amiga's trackdisk format, not any custom/protected formats used by some games. But you can still get it to check each track. (I guess the disk spinning and head moving causes any dust etc. to be caught in the disk lining.)

To hopefully slow down the rate of deterioration, make sure you store your disks properly. Storing them in a loft/attic or garage is *not* a good idea. They will get very hot in summer, with large daily temperature variations. Damp may be a problem if stored in a garage or cellar (mould is not good for disks). Keep them at room temperature. Fingers crossed, all my originals seem to still be okay.

-- M

[andreas]

Originally Posted by Shoonay

The DOS disk can be easly fixed with my favorite tool - FixDisk (...i think...) 1.3, which can recover almost 100% of any lost/overwritten data.

Sorry, but this statement is simple unrealistic. I've been into this "AmigaDOS disk fixing" business since Amiga emulation has been launched, and I know what I'm speaking of!
FixDisk can merely fix incorrect checksums, bad sequence numbers, bad header numbers etc. But if there's, say, a Lamer Exterminator on the disk that wrote that (in)famous "LAMER!LAMER! ..." stuff on one of the data blocks, how do you want to get the data back then? By using magical powers?
(OK, WindowsKiller once had mentioned one special case some time ago where this could be successful, i. e. graphics data. But you cannot *recover* the graphics data; you can merely repair the structure to show the graphics again at all, but it will still be partly corrupted. To get the graphics back to its original state, you will have to fix it by repainting the "corrupt" places )

So the part "recovering of overwritten data" completely escapes me. (Logically, that is.)

Here's the ReadME from this old tool. (v1.2 from Aminet, v1.3 is not available)
As you can read, it doesn't claim of being able to recover overwritten data.
Recovering lost data may (*may*!) be possible though. In general terms, "lost" data represents data on blocks marked as FREE (instead of USED) in the BAM. The data on the FREE blocks must not yet be overwritten meanwhile, otherwise recovery is not possible! (obviously )

[derSammler]

I couldn't say it any better. In short: You can fix the filesystem structure so that all files are readable again. But lost data is lost and cannot be recovered.

[fiath]

Actually, sometimes it is possible to recover overwritten data.
However, it is rather unlikely that any of us will have access to the required resources. See here for more info:

http://www.caps-project.org/articles.php?id=a_recover

[Galaxy]

It's good to see that no one has recommended disk doctor - I've seen more than enough lazarus disks in my time ...

By the way, how do the forensics people recover overwritten data (hence the need for these programs to wipe harddisks using multiple write/delete operations often writing random data) or is this something that really only relates to hard disks?