Re: Any way to salvage disks that can't write?

[BLuRry <brendan.robert@gmail.com>]

On Wednesday, March 13, 2013 3:27:43 PM UTC-5, Michael J. Mahon wrote:
> BLuRry <brendan.robert@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > I carefully removed the magnetic media from the casing and cleaned it
> 
> > with a glass of water that had two drops of soap in it using a Q-Tip. 
> 
> > Same disk that would not record now has Archon II on it and booted like a
> 
> > champ.  No write errors.  No read errors.  I guess it was a thin layer of
> 
> > oxidation and/or dust to blame.  I'll have to find a way of doing this
> 
> > without slicing open disks but so far so good!  Your mileage may and most likely will vary.
> 
> > 
> 
> > -B
> 
> > 
> 
> > On Tuesday, March 12, 2013 9:32:45 AM UTC-5, BLuRry wrote:
> 
> >> This is a silly question I never would have asked ten years ago, but now
> 
> >> that supply is limited I wonder is there a way to salvage disks (not
> 
> >> their data per se) that are unable to write successfully?  I still have
> 
> >> quite a few disks with no defects so I'm not necessarily stuck on this. 
> 
> >> But I am curious just for posterity's sake if anyone has ever made
> 
> >> unusable disks usable again (even for just temporary purposes)
> 
> >> 
> 
> >> 
> 
> >> 
> 
> >> -B
> 
> 
> 
> More likely it had several small particles of debris adhering to the
> 
> surface that, collectively, interfered with correct formatting. Your
> 
> washing removed enough of them that formatting could succeed. 
> 
> 
> 
> I've found that most such particles can be seen in good lighting through
> 
> the head access slot as the media is slowly rotated inside the sleeve. 
> 
> 
> 
> Try looking closely at one of your "unformattable" disks. 
> 
> 
> 
> -michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon

It looked pretty clean before actually.  But as my resident chemist (aka my spouse) recommended I should have been using distilled water and as a consequence I shouldn't expect the disk to work for too terribly long (and really I don't otherwise I would have been a lot more careful about how I opened it. :-)

-B