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

[Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com>]

BLuRry <brendan.robert@gmail.com> wrote:
> 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

I wouldn't expect any problems from using non-distilled water. 

I've used a q-tip with Windex to good effect. 

To see tiny particles, hold the diskette so that light is reflected from
the media surface. Even small irregularities become quite visible. 

-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon