[vcf-midatlantic] Getting Data off old Atari Floppies

[Jonathan Gevaryahu]

On 12/13/2015 3:36 PM, John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic 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
>

One thing I really don't like about old floppies is that for certain 
brands etc of 5.25" floppies (and possibly 8" floppies) the media turns 
to mush and will get all over the drive heads (and destroy the disk) 
when attempting to read it. This is particularly prevalent for 
wabash-branded floppies. You can tell if the floppy is going to be a 
problem by scratching the ring at the center of the floppy (where 
there's no actual data) with a fingernail a few times and see if the 
media starts to come off onto your fingernail. If it does, do NOT try to 
read the floppy as it will be destroyed!

Supposedly (Based on info from Chuck Guzis/sydex, though I've never 
tried this myself), if you dismantle the floppy by cutting open the 
vinyl case and removing the "cookie" inside, and put it on a baking 
sheet and bake it in the oven at 300F(?) for maybe 8 hours, they can be 
made readable again. You may need to apply some sort of sealant to the 
outside of the disk after baking.

Note: I've yet to see any 3.5" floppies which disintegrate this way, but 
that doesn't mean they don't exist.

Note2: I've seen 5.25" and 3.5" floppies with mold growing on the disk 
surface which can also somewhat gum up the drive head and causes severe 
data errors; this can be very carefully removed with an alcohol-soaked 
q-tip.

-- 
Jonathan Gevaryahu
jgevaryahu at gmail.com
jgevaryahu at hotmail.com