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From: nakata@lindy.Stanford.EDU (Lance Nakata)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: how do you recover from a bad floppy disk?
Message-ID: <4323@lindy.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 13 Aug 89 07:15:28 GMT
References:  <2271@taux01.UUCP>
Sender: nakata@lindy.Stanford.EDU (Lance Nakata)
Reply-To: nakata@lindy.Stanford.EDU (Lance Nakata)
Organization: Academic Information Resources, Stanford University
Lines: 33

I'm way behind on comp.sys.mac, so this answer is a bit late.
However, some of this info might be useful in the future.  Here at
AIR, we use Copy II Mac 7.2 (from Central Point Software) to makes
sector-copy duplicates of {damaged, unreadable, not-a-Mac-disk}
floppies.  THIS IS A CRITICAL STEP.  You should NEVER work on the
original disk when it's possible to work on a copy.  Otherwise, you're
begging for trouble as the chance of making an error can be high.
Besides, Copy II Mac sometimes manages to massage the data back into a
readable format.  If not, run Disk First Aid 1.4.2 (from Apple) *on
the copy*.  Experience has shown us that DFA may not repair the
original disk but sometimes is perfectly happy to work on a sector
copy.  If DFA fails, try Symantec Utilities for Macintosh 1.1
(SUM--obviously from Symantec Corp).  Alternatives to SUM include 1st
Aid Kit (from 1st Aid Software) and PC Tools Mac (Central Point
Software again), though we don't use them as often as SUM.

This is a fairly brief description of what to do, and there's a LOT
more that could be said.  But without resorting to a 30K message, it's
probably safe to say the aforementioned programs will handle the
majority of Mac disk and file recovery cases.  A long time ago, Steve
Costa of BMUG (Hey, Steve, you still out there?) wrote a document
describing what to do and which software to use.  However, I don't
know when the doc was last updated (any BMUG member care to clue us
in?).  My consulting group does a fair number of floppy and hard disk
recoveries each week, but I'd bet that BMUG does even more.

Good luck, and yes, backups are still your best protection (recovery
software notwithstanding).

Lance Nakata
Academic Information Resources
Stanford University
nakata@jessica.stanford.edu