Re: Vista Support Software

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

Steven Hirsch <snhirsch@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 04/22/2012 03:14 PM, Michael J. Mahon wrote:
>> Steven Hirsch<snhirsch@gmail.com>  wrote:
>>> On 04/22/2012 11:39 AM, Steven Hirsch wrote:
>>>> To my great dismay, all the DOS 3.3 and Pascal driver support diskettes for my
>>>> Vista A800 8" drive controller are blown and unreadable.
>>>> 
>>>> Does anyone have good copies of these that they wouldn't mind imaging?
>>> 
>>> Quick update:  I was able to recover everything but the Pascal driver by
>>> trying a couple of different Disk ][ units.  Unfortunately, nothing was
>>> unable to read anything useful from the Pascal Attach diskette.  Only the
>>> first track is intact.  It may have always been that way for all I know (never used it).
>>> 
>>> So, if anyone can find the A800 Pascal 1.1 support - much appreciated!
>> 
>> Steven, try taking a look at the disk using Copy II Plus's hi-res disk
>> scan, under the bit copy option. That will quickly reveal which tracks are
>> formatted, and the extent of damage to formatting.
>> 
>> I'd not expect any protection on a driver disk, but there may be some
>> damage.
>> 
>> Also try a simple bit copy. It could recover a usable copy.  (I presume
>> you've already tried a sector copy--it can also yield a working disk.)
> 
> It seems to be extensively damaged.  Would probably take a miracle to
> read anything off this cookie...

If this is a "published" diskette, it may simply have been written on a
drive out of alignment or off-speed. That's why visualizing the data with a
high-res scan and .25 track stepping can be quite helpful. 

If there really isn't any data on the disk, that will be obvious, but if
it's there but "off" by a half track, that will also be clear. 

Reading the data from a non-standard diskette is the next step (some would
say the most fun step ;-).

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