Can I recover a floppy disk?

Question

Can I recover a floppy disk?

I bought an old software package (Finale v3.2). It came on 5 floppy disks. 2 are 1.44MB format and the other 3 are 800K flavor. My after-market fUSB floppy reader can only handle the 1.44 MB kind.

When I tried to install the software, floppy 1 worked fine. But when the instaler asked me to insert floppy 2, the step never completed.

I quir rhe installer and just inserted the floppy in the drive directly.

I got a message saying:

This floppy is not readable. Do you want to initialize it?

I didn't so I ejected the floppy.

I looked in my collection of drive utilities for a repair tool but came up with only hard drive things.

How can I fix the floppy or capture the original contents (without sending it out to a service)?

Gary

G4, Mac OS 9.2.x

Posted on Oct 18, 2011 9:00 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 18, 2011 9:12 AM in response to Gary - former developer

If you have an older version of DiskWarrior (OS 9 version, like 1.1 or maybe 2.x) available, it may be able to acess what's on that disk via its scavange mode.

As I recall, to do that you run DiskWarrior, select the disk, hold down the Option key and click the Rebuild button (which should have become the Scavange button).

Otherwise, look around for an old copy of Drive Rescue or maybe Virtual Lab, one which will run in OS 9. Those apps were designed to recover files from drives that were mechanically sound but would not mount for some reason. One or the other may be able to work on a reluctant floppy.

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Answer 2

Limnos

Level 10

428,339 points

Oct 18, 2011 9:39 AM in response to Don Archibald

Dare I mention that barring a copy of Diskwarrior that an OS9 version of Norton Utilities (which always worked fine under OS 9 for me) might also do the trick. Just don't let it loose on an OSX disk.

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Answer 3

Oct 18, 2011 12:08 PM in response to Don Archibald

I'm not sure I can get Diskwarrior or Notron to work. When I insert the diskette into the drive, a modal dialog window pops up with 2 choices:

1) Initialize

2) eject

All other apps are in the background and inaccessible.

Gary

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Answer 4

Oct 18, 2011 12:15 PM in response to Gary - former developer

With DiskWarrior (don't remember how Norton works in this regard), have DiskWarrior running before inserting the floppy.

I don't know if this will help, but years ago I had an issue with a firewire drive not mounting in OS 9 on a G4. Diskwarrior could not 'see' it. So I ran a formatting utility which could 'see' the drive, and just left that utility running with the drive selected in it. I then started up DiskWarrior, and it was then able to 'see' the drive - apparently the disk utility was able to hold the door open for DW to goo through. After DW made repairs, the drive then mounted normally.

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Answer 5

Jeff

Level 6

12,328 points

Oct 18, 2011 1:29 PM in response to Gary - former developer

I'm not sure I can get Diskwarrior or Norton to work. When I insert the diskette into the drive, a model dialog window pops up with 2 choices:

1) Initialize

2) eject

If this occurs when inserting one of the 800K disks, it's because Apple's 800K format was created for use on an Apple "SuperDrive" FDD. This drive had a variable-speed motor, which enabled it to write 800K of data on the same floppy disk that a PC can only write 720K. USB floppy disk drives can't read an 800K disk, although they could likely reformat it as a 720K disk. Your problem won't be solved by software utility workarounds, because its the hardware limitation of the drive that's at fault. I'd suggest that you find an old beige G3 (although some older Macs would also work), because it can easily run OS 9.2.2 (as your G4) and will have the versatility of the SuperDrive FDD for reading older 800K disks.

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Answer 6

Oct 19, 2011 5:46 AM in response to Jeff

Jeff -

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear about the floppys. The vendor (Coda Msic Systems) packaged 2 sets of diskettes with the product:

1) a set of 1.44 MB floppies (2 discs)

2) a set of 800 KB flppies (3 discs)

Each is a stand-alone collection. So I don't actually need the special floppy disk drive if I can get the 1.44 MB diskettes to work.

I have an old Mac SE on the shelf that I haven't turned on for several years. It MAY still work. But getting the files from that machine to my G4 will be quite a trick.

I'm not sure its worth the trouble given I paid $11 total for the copy of Finale.

Gary

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