Graahhh software error mangled a disk

[IIfx]

Well, I have been in the process of making disk images of all my floppies. System 7 decided to destroy my disk 1 of Mathematica 1.0 D:

So, I tried using Disk First Aid, it said the disk is permanently damaged

Then I tried Norton Utilities, and that also failed

The Mac thinks the disk is uninitialized (unreadable error)

Please help me....

 

[IIfx]

Ok it just did it AGAIN, this time with Disk 1 of Deneba Canvas 3.0. Only this time I made a backup before it got lost forever.

I can no longer trust the IIfx to make disk images...this is pathetic. What could cause this? I was using the Radius Rocket too.

 

[IIfx]

I think the superdrive is just going bad...its mangling any disk I put in it :/

 

[IIfx]

So...I have lost two disks to floppy drive malfunction...this sucks.

Can anyone advise me on how to recover the data? It still has to be there...

 

[Scott Baret]

Just a few thoughts...

1. Try another floppy drive. Given the age of these mechanisms, it's always worth a shot. Use one known to be in good working order. (If you need another SuperDrive, get one that's been serviced lately or at least look for something pulled from a late 1992 or newer Mac with auto-inject, assuming you're using a Mac with this type of drive; the later ones seemed far more reliable and are distinguished by a more powerful eject noise).

2. Try another data recovery program. My personal favorite is MacTools. It won't guarantee a 100% success rate with data recovery, as no software can, but it's helped me out before. If you don't have it, be aware it's commercial software so you'll have to track down a disk on eBay or from one of the retailers such as B&R or Wayne's.

 

[Concorde1993]

It could also be that certain floppies were damaged to begin with, so I wouldn't take it out on the SuperDrive just yet.

I would recommend following Scott's advise before reading anymore disks from that drive.

 

[Dog Cow]

Is it a 1.4 MB HD disk?

If so, you could put it in a USB disk drive on a Unix system and try to make a copy of the disk without mounting it. Use dd.

The advantage here is that you can make a copy of any data that's on the disk without the OS telling you stupid things like "Your disk is unreadable."

 

[IIfx]

Unfortunately its an 800k disk from the ancient days. D:

 

[classic]

Have you tried to repair the disk with DiskWarrior?

 

[techknight]

Ok, let me start off by mentioning this:

If your simply READING the disk and it becomes damaged, the heads of the drive are magnetized and they need demagnetized. Same thing happens with Cassette decks we all used to know and love, some still do.

If your trying to write the disk and it ruins it, its probably because its mis-aligned.

 

[Dennis Nedry]

You should contact the folks at Wolfram, they're very helpful people and they'll probably help you with this if there's anything they can do, but beware they'll try to sell you the latest version too. Make sure you know why you want 1.0 working first, be it nostalgia or some other purpose, and just tell them that and see what happens. You have your bad floppy that you can send them if they need some verification. They may have a stash of old floppies somewhere that they'll access for you. Who knows.