This is topic Recovering Data from Damaged Floppy (OT) in forum Old Archives at The Letterville BullBoard.


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Posted by Tony Broussard (Member # 935) on :
 
Well, here's the deal, my family buried a time capsule in 96 and my mother had put something on a floppy in the capsule. Well, she passed away in 99 and we decided to open it up today and water had gotten into the box and waterlogged everything. I took a heat gun and carefully managed to recover the envelopess she left for everyone, I found the floppy and it too was wet. I tried to dry it by tapping the floppy with the heat, but decided to let it dry on its own.

I took the disk home and removed the actual floppy and rinsed it with soapy water and then rinsed the soap off. I then put it into a new floppy case, tried it, but as I imagined, it tells me to format the disk.


I'm sure when I put the heat on it that that could have done it, but do you think that being waterlogged for so long did it in? Are there any places or utilities that I could try to recover this data?

Thanks,
Tony B

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Tony Broussard

Best advise received: Don't take any wooden nickels......if you do...burn'em!

 

Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
 
Unfortunately I think the disk is trashed.

It has nothing to do with it bein waterlogged or anything, floppies just do not last long at all even if they arent used.

I have a case full of floppies here, about 100 of 'em, never been used... only a couple years old and stored in a clean dry cool place free from dust.. so far not a single one has worked, not even after formatting it.

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Mike Pipes
Digital Illusion Custom Graphics
Lake Havasu City, AZ
http://www.stickerpimp.com


 

Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
 
On second thought...

You could try running SCANDISK on the floppy.

It can detect errors on the disk and might even fix 'em, but I think it's beyond help.

You can find ScanDisk by going to Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools> ScanDisk

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Mike Pipes
Digital Illusion Custom Graphics
Lake Havasu City, AZ
http://www.stickerpimp.com


 

Posted by Talisman (Member # 1869) on :
 
If you have an IBM compatible PC it may be a MAC disc. Or vise versa... Just a thought.

Good luck

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Joe Abner
dba Talisman Signs
Middleboro, MA
 

Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
 
or it might be an old 720kb disk..some newer os's wont read a 720.....you need 3.11

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joe pribish-A SIGN MINT
2811 longleaf Dr.
pensacola, fl 32526
850-944-5060
BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND


 

Posted by VICTORGEORGIOU (Member # 474) on :
 
There are companies that will try to retrieve data off your disk for a price. I think McAfee does it, but not sure. It will not be cheap and there is no guarantee of success.

What Mike says about the old floppies is true, they just lose their data over time.

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Victor Georgiou
AnchorBlanks.com
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=1520990
Clipart CD's & FONTS
Designer Sign Blanks
 

Posted by Amy Brown (Member # 1963) on :
 
I had a floppy a while back that I couldn't get stuff off of. I ran scan disk over and over and over and was able to retrieve what I needed. Worth a shot isn't it!

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Amy Brown
AMBO Design
Lake Helen, FL
jabrown@cfl.rr.com

"If only my toddler was better with paint & computers!"
 

Posted by Robb Lowe (Member # 2121) on :
 
A couple of things you might want to try:

1 - are you 100% sure you put the floppy media in the new case right side up, and it turns freely? Does the door mechanism work freely as well?

2 - on the old casing, was there a stylized "HD" near the sliding door? If so, this is a 1.4mb disc - 98% common in 1996. If it does not have the HD it is more than likely a 720kb disc. Even though the density is different, it should read fine. There is also a notch under the sliding door that tells the drive its a 1.44 or 720, this could possibly be a problem if you used the wrong case, but I doubt it.

3 - Go to Kinko's and ask them to see if their mac can read it. They shouldnt charge you for this. If it can - have them copy the data to a PC floppy and give them three bucks. (or take one with you )

4 - since this is sort of important stuff, if you do want to recover the data and cannot on your own - there are hundreds of data recovery places on the web and in the back of the bigger computer magazines. There are also programs you can utilize yourself, like Tiramisu and DriveSaver (out of production, but still out there in places). Dont expect miracles from the software, however.

5 - floppies are notoriously junk. They fail often, especially over time. I'm sorry to say this could be an example of the media losing its magnetism and your data has turned to ether.

Hope some of that helped in some way.

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Robb Lowe
Hub City Graphics
Spartanburg, SC


 
Posted by Tony Broussard (Member # 935) on :
 
Thanks for the responses. I looked at the old case and it does have the HD, it's a DOS preformatted disk from Radio Shack. I ran scan disk on it but it doesn't help.

Thanks,
Tony B

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Tony Broussard

Best advise received: Don't take any wooden nickels......if you do...burn'em!

 



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