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Re: Disk rot?

Ralph Hyre wrote:

I'm backing up some 5.25 disk (mostly from the 1980s), and having a
few problems with I/O errors on about 10% of my disks.

One of the disks is my Apple SCSI Card Utilities.  My Apple II system
utilities can read the directory track on DOS 3.3 and ProDOS tracks,
but
has issues actually copying the files.

Is it more likely the disk media has given up after 18 years (for the
Apple card), or is it more likely my MicroSci disk drive is starting
to fail?  The original Disk ][ from 1981 couldn't read much of
anything.  I have 26-year old floppies that are reading just fine, and
there's no rhyme or reason to it.


The standard way to diagnose the cause in such situations is to
try reading other floppies on the same drive and try reading
the failing disk on other drives.

The pattern of failing cases should reveal the source of the
problem.

-michael

AppleCrate: An Apple II "blade server"!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."