+Allan Posted July 19, 2022 Share Posted July 19, 2022 I copied a rare disk (both sides) today with a bunch of CRC errors and bad sectors with Disk Wizard II. It was from a magazine disk-serves from back in the day. They have small ads in the back of Antic. Most of the files are from magazines like Antic, Analog, Compute, etc., but there are some unique files on them. I was wondering if any one of you disk image wizards could try to recover any of them. Active_Computer_Enterprises_Leisureware_Jan_1985_Side_A.atr Active_Computer_Enterprises_Leisureware_Jan_1985_Side_B.atr 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1050 Posted July 20, 2022 Share Posted July 20, 2022 First look at them and both are a roy-al mess with the extra cheese. Somehow what looks like to be Atari ROM character set data has overwritten the file links and while also becoming a part of the file where the file links are still intact remarkably. Boggles the mind wondering just what did happen and when/how. Especially on these two, if you have ONE or TWO needful things off these - speak up and give them a name because this will be severe work to recover anything of any part of them. Those files will have holes in them and no way to recover what was in the hole before the shotgun went off. Unless... Is there any chance you can make other ATRs using a different method or program/hardware line up? It would be interesting to compare those results with these results. But I hold little hope at the moment. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted July 20, 2022 Share Posted July 20, 2022 I found 5-6 good files so far. I'll see about repairing the sector links and see how many parts are recoverable... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrshoujo Posted July 21, 2022 Share Posted July 21, 2022 When it comes to flaky sectors which should be good, I find using a sector editor to repeatedly read a bad sector and watching it display on screen shows me which parts of the data read consistently and which doesn't. It would behoove us all to have a sector editor with a buffer capable of storing multiple reads so we can see which bytes from various reads are likely the correct bytes and allow reconstructing the best sector to write to backup media. Of course it helps to start with a clean read head and properly spinning drive.✔ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 Active_Computer_Enterprises_Leisureware_Jan_1985_Side_A.atr Files that are ok now on this disk are: (these just had 1 or 2 bad bytes/nibbles in the sector links) DOS.SYS AUTORUN.SYS TEXT.FNT ED.FNT SOON.ACE CLASS.ACE The other Basic programs have 1 to xx bad bytes in the code, so those need fixing. DOUBLE.BIN has bad sectors links from sector 369 and on. Most "Next Sector Links" are 1 to 2 sectors off. Next update will be Side B... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted July 26, 2022 Share Posted July 26, 2022 Active_Computer_Enterprises_Leisureware_Jan_1985_Side_B.atr Repaired all bad sector links. POPCORN.BAS had 3 sectors of junk that affected some DATA Statements of hex data. I repaired those, but lines that contain "X" in the data needs re-entry of data. Files that now appear to be ok are: OVERLAY1.BAS DRUM.BAS "SYNDRUM.BAS" BASS.BAS "BASYNTH.BAS" AUTORUN.SYS PULSE.ACT PALLET.BAS TAG.BAS EXCHANGE.BAS "CURRCAPE.BAS" BEEP.BAS "QUIET.BAS" SAM.BAS "SAMHANDL.BAS" SAM.ASM HITLER.BAS Files still with bad token data: ROBOT.BAS "ROBRAID.BAS" on line 10000 OVERLAY2.BAS from 230 to 260 KOOKY'S "QUEST.BAS" MENU.BAS NOTES.BAS "MUSFLASH.BAS" DOS.SYS 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
invisible kid Posted July 26, 2022 Share Posted July 26, 2022 This might not apply here, but when I was reading in many of my old disks, I would sometimes need to clean the drive head with rubbing alcohol in-between disks. Might be worth giving the head a fresh clean and trying again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted July 27, 2022 Author Share Posted July 27, 2022 13 hours ago, invisible kid said: This might not apply here, but when I was reading in many of my old disks, I would sometimes need to clean the drive head with rubbing alcohol in-between disks. Might be worth giving the head a fresh clean and trying again. Yes. It's why I keep my drive cover off and plenty of q-tips and alcohol nearby. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted February 4, 2023 Share Posted February 4, 2023 who knows what a kryo flux expert could recover, once it's imaged and the stream inspected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted February 5, 2023 Share Posted February 5, 2023 Or the Applesauce imager.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rra Posted February 5, 2023 Share Posted February 5, 2023 (edited) Maybe call the phone number on the disk label and see if they can send a replacement 😉 This disk intrigues me because it has Kooky's Quest on it (co-authored by me). KQ was published in the Feb. 1985 issue of Antic, but the date on this disk label is Jan. 1985. Still waiting on the royalty check! Edited February 5, 2023 by rra 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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