archaic floppy disc format

[tg]

I have a floppy disc that was formatted in a Brother WP-70 old word
processor machine. There are files on the disc that were created with
the WP-70. If I put the disc into a windows XP PC it just doesn't want
to know and asks me if I want to format the disc. I also tried the
floppy in a linux machine but that couldn't read the disc either.
1) Is there any special windows software around that will overcome
windows inability to read the disc format?
or
2) is there any kind of floppy drive around with extended abilities that
might be able to read discs formatted on other machines?
I've tried a couple of recovery programs but they can't do anything with
this floppy disc. Brother don't even list the machine on their website
it's that old so I don't expect any support from them.
thanks for any advice.

 

[PS]

I have a floppy disc that was formatted in a Brother WP-70 old word
processor machine. There are files on the disc that were created with
the WP-70. If I put the disc into a windows XP PC it just doesn't want
to know and asks me if I want to format the disc. I also tried the
floppy in a linux machine but that couldn't read the disc either.
1) Is there any special windows software around that will overcome
windows inability to read the disc format?
or
2) is there any kind of floppy drive around with extended abilities that
might be able to read discs formatted on other machines?
I've tried a couple of recovery programs but they can't do anything with
this floppy disc. Brother don't even list the machine on their website
it's that old so I don't expect any support from them.
thanks for any advice.

This url has some useful info on your problem;
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=50632
Unfortunately it seems you have 240KB disks which no one seems to be
able to deal with.

 

[Sjouke Burry]

I have a floppy disc that was formatted in a Brother WP-70 old word
processor machine. There are files on the disc that were created with
the WP-70. If I put the disc into a windows XP PC it just doesn't want
to know and asks me if I want to format the disc. I also tried the
floppy in a linux machine but that couldn't read the disc either.
1) Is there any special windows software around that will overcome
windows inability to read the disc format?
or
2) is there any kind of floppy drive around with extended abilities that
might be able to read discs formatted on other machines?
I've tried a couple of recovery programs but they can't do anything with
this floppy disc. Brother don't even list the machine on their website
it's that old so I don't expect any support from them.
thanks for any advice.

I would try to read them with the very old norton utilitys(DOS 5/6xx era)
With those you could read sectors/tracks in a binary mode, and you
might be able to recover something from them.

 

[Arno]

I have a floppy disc that was formatted in a Brother WP-70 old word
processor machine. There are files on the disc that were created with
the WP-70. If I put the disc into a windows XP PC it just doesn't want
to know and asks me if I want to format the disc. I also tried the
floppy in a linux machine but that couldn't read the disc either.
1) Is there any special windows software around that will overcome
windows inability to read the disc format?
or
2) is there any kind of floppy drive around with extended abilities that
might be able to read discs formatted on other machines?
I've tried a couple of recovery programs but they can't do anything with
this floppy disc. Brother don't even list the machine on their website
it's that old so I don't expect any support from them.
thanks for any advice.

You can ask professional data recovery companies. Some may still
have the required equipment. Will cost money though.

Arno

 

[CBFalconer]

.... snip ...

I would try to read them with the very old norton utilitys(DOS
5/6xx era) With those you could read sectors/tracks in a binary
mode, and you might be able to recover something from them.

The old DOS debug will do it too, provided the sectors are 512
bytes. 8" SSSD floppies probably have 128 byte sectors.

 

[Franc Zabkar]

This url has some useful info on your problem;
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=50632
Unfortunately it seems you have 240KB disks which no one seems to be
able to deal with.

Some photos:
http://matux.kilu.de/Brother/

The machine appears to date from around 1984 and uses 3.5" lo-den
diskettes. Does it make sense for Brother to have formatted a 720KB
diskette with only 240KB capacity ???

- Franc Zabkar

 

[Franc Zabkar]

I have a floppy disc that was formatted in a Brother WP-70 old word
processor machine. There are files on the disc that were created with
the WP-70. If I put the disc into a windows XP PC it just doesn't want
to know and asks me if I want to format the disc. I also tried the
floppy in a linux machine but that couldn't read the disc either.
1) Is there any special windows software around that will overcome
windows inability to read the disc format?
or
2) is there any kind of floppy drive around with extended abilities that
might be able to read discs formatted on other machines?
I've tried a couple of recovery programs but they can't do anything with
this floppy disc. Brother don't even list the machine on their website
it's that old so I don't expect any support from them.
thanks for any advice.

At a DOS prompt, try viewing the first sector using Debug.exe as
follows (I'm assuming the floppy drive is A

C:\>debug
-L 100 0 0 1
-D 100 2FF
100 EB 3C 90 2A 56 2B 7C 4C-49 48 43 00 02 01 01 00 .<.*V+|LIHC.....
110 02 E0 00 40 0B F0 09 00-12 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 ...@............
120 00 00 00 00 00 00 29 74-23 EC 18 42 4F 4F 54 39 ......)t#..BOOT9
130 38 53 43 20 20 20 46 41-54 31 32 20 20 20 33 C9 8SC FAT12 3.
....
280 18 01 27 0D 0A 49 6E 76-61 6C 69 64 20 73 79 73 ..'..Invalid sys
290 74 65 6D 20 64 69 73 6B-FF 0D 0A 44 69 73 6B 20 tem disk...Disk
2A0 49 2F 4F 20 65 72 72 6F-72 FF 0D 0A 52 65 70 6C I/O error...Repl
2B0 61 63 65 20 74 68 65 20-64 69 73 6B 2C 20 61 6E ace the disk, an
2C0 64 20 74 68 65 6E 20 70-72 65 73 73 20 61 6E 79 d then press any
2D0 20 6B 65 79 0D 0A 00 00-49 4F 20 20 20 20 20 20 key....IO
2E0 53 59 53 4D 53 44 4F 53-20 20 20 53 59 53 7F 01 SYSMSDOS SYS..
2F0 00 41 BB 00 07 60 66 6A-00 E9 3B FF 00 00 55 AA .A...`fj..;...U.
-Q

The above example is for a 3.5" DOS diskette.

If Debug can read the diskette, then the hardware is compatible. You
would then only require file translation software.

- Franc Zabkar

 

[David W. Hodgins]

The machine appears to date from around 1984 and uses 3.5" lo-den
diskettes. Does it make sense for Brother to have formatted a 720KB
diskette with only 240KB capacity ???

According to http://www.luxsoft.demon.co.uk/lux/bconv.html
the WP70 did use 240KB disks.

You may have to find someone who actually still has a working
floppy drive, from that (or similar) model).

Regards, Dave Hodgins

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> "tg"

I have a floppy disc that was formatted in a Brother WP-70 old word
processor machine. There are files on the disc that were created with
the WP-70. If I put the disc into a windows XP PC it just doesn't want
to know and asks me if I want to format the disc. I also tried the
floppy in a linux machine but that couldn't read the disc either.
1) Is there any special windows software around that will overcome
windows inability to read the disc format?
or
2) is there any kind of floppy drive around with extended abilities that
might be able to read discs formatted on other machines?
I've tried a couple of recovery programs but they can't do anything with
this floppy disc. Brother don't even list the machine on their website
it's that old so I don't expect any support from them.
thanks for any advice.

Unfortunately it looks like that unit used a special 240k floppy format
that isn't readable by modern hardware.

 

[Andrew Hamilton]

O

The old DOS debug will do it too, provided the sectors are 512
bytes. 8" SSSD floppies probably have 128 byte sectors.

Very "interesting" but it is very doubtful that the OP has an 8"
floppy drive on his PC. Also, by 1984, 8" floppies were no longer
being built into desktop systems or pretty much any systems.

Sony introduced the 3.5" floppy format around 1981, and by 1984, it
was the most popular format on new systems.

 

[JW]

I have a floppy disc that was formatted in a Brother WP-70 old word
processor machine. There are files on the disc that were created with
the WP-70. If I put the disc into a windows XP PC it just doesn't want
to know and asks me if I want to format the disc. I also tried the
floppy in a linux machine but that couldn't read the disc either.
1) Is there any special windows software around that will overcome
windows inability to read the disc format?
or
2) is there any kind of floppy drive around with extended abilities that
might be able to read discs formatted on other machines?
I've tried a couple of recovery programs but they can't do anything with
this floppy disc. Brother don't even list the machine on their website
it's that old so I don't expect any support from them.
thanks for any advice.

Have a look at http://www.shlock.co.uk/Utils/OmniFlop/OmniFlop.htm
I've used it successfully for many different formats, including HP LIF
format used in their test equipment. The only disk I was unable to
duplicate was the boot disk for a HP 4145B semiconductor analyzer.

 

[mscotgrove]

It was a single sided 3.5" disk format .

The ST computers used a single sided drive at first at 360K then went DS/DD
720K later on and the went DS/HD 1.44 at the end.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

There were several 3.5" Brother disks that are completely non
standard. You will not read them at all with standard disk
controllers

One had 1296 byte sectors and another had 12 x 256 byte GCR sectors

The only way to read them is either on the original Brother system or
a mult-media disk converter, such as InterMedia/Lynx Converter, or
Shaffstel

Michael

 

[mscotgrove]

Have a look athttp://www.shlock.co.uk/Utils/OmniFlop/OmniFlop.htm
I've used it successfully for many different formats, including HP LIF
format used in their test equipment. The only disk I was unable to
duplicate was the boot disk for a HP 4145B semiconductor analyzer.

The Omniflop does not appear to support GCR and non IBM sectored
disks. It uses standard hardware and this will not work for Brother
disks
Michael

 

[Arno]

There were several 3.5" Brother disks that are completely non
standard. You will not read them at all with standard disk
controllers

One had 1296 byte sectors and another had 12 x 256 byte GCR sectors

The only way to read them is either on the original Brother system or
a mult-media disk converter, such as InterMedia/Lynx Converter, or
Shaffstel

There is actually a second way: Use a disk-scanner (I build one
way back, that read floppies at a 4MHz digitizing rate) and then
a software decoder. A lot of effort, as I do not think you can
buy this. Just mentioned for completeness.

Arno

 

[mscotgrove]

There is actually a second way: Use a disk-scanner (I build one
way back, that read floppies at a 4MHz digitizing rate) and then
a software decoder. A lot of effort, as I do not think you can
buy this. Just mentioned for completeness.

Arno- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

As far as I can see, the clock rate was 'standard' so a normal disk
drive is OK.

Rather easier, you could contact http://www.onetouchcomputers.co.uk/page009.html
I am fairly certain they still have an InterMedia system which
supports at least two, 3.5" Brother disks

Michael