The Pepsi Syndrome and data recovery (Re: OS for Apple //)

[shoppa@altair.krl.caltech.edu (Tim Shoppa)]

In article <434sii$gp@nightfly.pip.net>, Fred Fraley <ffraley@pip.net> wrote:
>	I have an old Apple // with memory card laying around, diskettes are
>all bad, I presume, since a potpourri pot got spilled on them a few
>years back (don't ask).

	Don't be so sure that they've gone bad.  I've recovered 5.25" and 8"
floppies with everything from coffee to orange juice to Pepsi (I can't
be the only person who remembers "The Pepsi Syndrome", can I?) spilled
on them.  Here's the procedure:

1.  Soak the floppy in water and/or isopropyl alcohol to dissolve whatever
is probably still sticking the floppy disk to its jacket.  (Here, when
I say "disk", I mean the part of the floppy that actually rotates, and
when I say "jacket", I mean the usually black vinyl thing that is what
you're supposed to hold as you put the floppy in the drive.)

2.  After this has been done a while, take some scissors and carefully
cut the very edges of the vinyl jacket off.  The goal here is not to
touch the rotating part of the disk at all while cutting away the edges.

3.  Carefully peel the water-soaked jacket and its liner from the
round disk.  I mean carefully - you don't want to crease the media at
all.

4.  Now continue soaking the round disk in water or isopropyl and gently
rub off whatever residue might remain.  For most single-sided floppies,
remember that the information is actually recorded on the *bottom* side
of the disk.

5.  Let the disk dry.  Repeat step four if necessary until the disk is
nice and clean.

6.  Carefully take the remaining (round) disk and put it in the floppy drive.
You'll have to be careful that the hub which causes it to rotate
seats properly.  Go ahead and copy the disk to one that you promise
you'll keep a little better care of in the future.

Using this method, I've had nearly 100% success recovering data from
5.25" and 8" floppies.

Tim. (shoppa@altair.krl.caltech.edu)