"ungvichian" said in
OK, short and simple: how does one low-level format a floppy disk
(1.44MB, 3.5") in WinXP? I'm asking this because my father wants me to
do this to an error-ridden disk. I've run it in Norton Disk Doctor (on
my Win98 machine) and it tells me that a low-level format is necessary
to solve the problems the disk has.
I suspect that I might need a third-party utility to do this... any
freeware ones you might recommend?
Besides the mention of reformatting the floppy disk, it may just simply
need to be refreshed. The magnetic dipoles are under stress when their
alignment differs and bits will go "soft" after awhile. That's why all
data on magnetic media will eventually incur errors over time. Doesn't
matter if it is rust on hard platters (for hard disks), rust on soft
platters (floppies), plated substrate (used in hardened hard drives to
survive head crashes), tape, or whatever. If you can successfully copy
the file off the floppy (onto a hard disk), then copy it back to freshen
the bits. Spinrite is an old utility that would do the freshen within
requiring other media (but does temporarily hold the sector in memory).
Hmm, I wonder if a floppy to floppy copy (using the same drive and
diskette) would work. That would seem to be a refresh of the diskette's
contents. Of course, it doesn't run through all the Spinrite tests but
it should force a realignment of the dipoles for the recorded data put
onto the diskette - assuming the diskette could be read in the first
place. The drive will attempt several rereads if there was an error.
So does Windows. I think together the drive and OS result in about 15
retries. If just one of them succeeds then you get the data. It takes
longer and it is iffy that you'll retrieve it correctly later. If I had
a hard drive or floppy that was going "soft", Spinrite was the utility I
used to recover any critical data I could off the disk[ette]. Don't
know if there are other equivalent recovery tools that are as effective
at scrubbing off the data from a defective or soft disk. I remember
even cutting a diagonal slit in couple floppies and Spinrite was still
able to recover the data. Maybe I just lucky on that test.
It's been a couple years since I've used Spinrite; lost it in a move and
never bothered to buy another copy. If I built computers or had to
service them (from customers rather than me maintaining my own hosts),
I'd probably dole out the $89 for Spinrite 5. Obviously I wouldn't need
it unless the data on the disk had to be recovered from that disk.
However, I do data backups and drive images so I'm covered for data
restore and disaster recovery. If someone knows of a cheaper and
equally good or better data recovery product, I'm all ears. I don't
care about data recovery tools that simply undelete deleted files, look
for orphaned clusters to chain them back together, provides me with a
disk editor, and other logical repair tools. I'd like to find out what
else besides Spinrite, and preferrably cheaper, can do the deep physical
scrubbing to extract the bits off the media that Spinrite can. If
possible, I'd like to see independent test labs results of various drive
recovery tools.
Typically if a floppy starts exhibiting bit errors, it's time to copy
off whatever recoverable data you can and just toss it. Floppies are
pretty cheap. They also incur wear because the heads are pressed
against the media along with all the filth that gets pushed around on
the floppy (there is the cleaning pads inside but dirty pads just keep
the media filthy). Because of the contact, you should occasionally use
a cleaning diskette depending on how often you use the floppy drive.
Some argue to use the cleaning diskette when dry and some argue about
using a solvent (typically 95%, or higher, isopropyl alcohol) but I've
opened enough floppy drives that are years old to see the scratches and
filth that remains when using it dry versus the less scratched heads and
less filth when using the solvent. Just be sure to let the heads dry
after using solvent before sliding in a real data diskette.
