On Dec 13, 2015 3:36 PM, "John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic" < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Dear Hobbyists,
I went to VCF East 2014 and I remember a really good presentation on the best practices for getting data off of old floppies.. things like assuming your first read may be your only successful read, etc..
Can someone point me to a web link or send me the tips for restoring data off of old floppies?
I have a # of old floppies including (I believe) snapshots of an Atari
8bit
BBS I used to run with my father. Some floppies are in OK condition, others not.. and I need to know the order of operations for preventing damage to 'future floppies', etc.. Should I be cleaning the drive after every single disk? what's the best way to clean the drive?, etc...
I plan to use a USB or RS232 to SIO type adapter and probably the Atarimax APE software (windows or DOS, tbd) as the 'destination',
Thanks much :)
P.S. Bonus points if someone can tell me if a 1050 is suitable for doing all of this work.. My old floppies are a mixture of 810 format (single density) and 1050 (dual density). I also think some 810 disks were written in happy drive format, but I believe a 1050 will still read them, just not as fast as a happy 810 drive would..
John H
Never hurts to be conservative, clean the heads after each read, but most important I'd start with a known working disk copy to be sure you have a process that works before you attempt delicate - looking media. You may need more than one OS version for a range of drive types. Set up a text disk for each version of OS. Me, I have used a Catweasel to read Atari disks regardless of how written. I also have an Atari SIO unit to emulate the drive. This should not be tough if, and that is a big if, you have a Catweasel or compatible driver controller or the SIO USB dongle.