data recovery from floppy

[Aspren]

ok so a guy that i know backs up his qb to floppy. for some reason when he tries to recover from the floppy is hangs at like 44 percent. I think the floppy might be bad so i was wondering how hard it is to get info off of the bad floppy and what do i have to do to get it? Thanks for any help.

[Tiger Shark]

If a floppy goes bad you can usually just throw it away... because getting anything sensible off it is near impossible without special equipment.

If you are going to back up to floppy I have always recommended backing up to two different floppies that you format without error immediately prior to the backup and then storing them away carefully and away from electro magnetics... I prefer three copies on floppies. When you do run a copy do a verify too after if you can... That will at leats tell you whether things look right...

The moral of the story.... Don't trust floppies for anything... They suck and as they become less needed the quality goes downwards.... Use them only for immediate transactions not long term data integrity.

[westin]

If you search, there are several programs that can recover corrupted/deleted files. Most of them want money though... otherwise you just get a demo copy (i.e. http://www.download.com/Floppy-Zip-D...ml?tag=lst-0-1)

and some are better than others...

[rapier57]

As one who used to recover files from failed-failing hard drives using old DOS tools (Paul Mace and Norton utilities), I have to say that the time and effort involved in attempting to recover files from a corrupted media (such as floppy) is excessive. If this is a straight file-by-file backup to floppy, there are chances for partial recovery. We're talking about QuickBooks?

If the file can't be restored from the floppy, chances are you won't get anything meaningful from the media.

If I'm not mistaken, QuickBooks will make a copy of the backup to some folder on the hard drive when it backs up to the floppy. I'd check the hard drive for a valid copy of the backup -- that is unless you are trying to restore a dead HD.

Like Tiger said, don't trust floppies. There are so many other good, solid, safer media options out there today.

[Aspren]

thanks for all the help. yes i agree i do not trust floppys for anything. I will check into the additional back up copy on the hard drive. Thanks again.

[triangle]

Hello,

The data might be lost or corrupted. There is imho a chance to restore it. For that purpose some data recovery tool might be of some use. The one I prefer and that supports floppies is Undelete. If you wish, you can try it out too.
http://www.active-undelete.com/

[ZT3000]

Originally posted here by rapier57
As one who used to recover files from failed-failing hard drives using old DOS tools (Paul Mace and Norton utilities)

OMG, ... Paul Mace?
I thought I'd never hear his name again. I can't believe it.

Mace utilities anyone?

I knew and spoke with Mark Kolod, Glenview, IL, author of hTest/hFormat WHO had a joint venture with Paul Mace, Ashland, OR, and author of Mace Utilities in the mid80's to early 90's.

Kolod Research Inc (Mark), created the most powerful and flexible hard drive management tools for professionals (of which no competing product exists today in 2006) in assembly, while Paul Mace Software focused on operating system file corrections and user utilities.

Mark's work allowed a technician to examine, copy, manipulate, repair any single sector anywhere on an RLL/ESDI/SCSI drive, plus rebuilding partitions, boot sectors, etc.
I owned and extensively used both products from both companies.

How I understand their relationship was, Mark was the coding and drive genius par excellence, while Paul held the edge with marketing and "influence peddling", though his background was from mainframes.
Both of them knew Peter Norton, Santa Monica, CA, of Norton Utilities fame, especially Paul Mace. Not sure if they liked each other, but I had seen them together at certain social functions.

Paul already had an offering of user utilities about the time that Mark, over 2000 miles away, was marketing his own product. Instead of fight each other, they decided to join forces. Both men eventually had some understandings and agreements which allowed Paul to incorporate Mark's products into Paul's software and share sales income.

I believe Mark wanted to market his hTest/hFormat product more but it seems Paul had other ideas. Paul did incorporate into his offerings at least one product produced by Mark which was, HOPTIMUM, which determined the best interleave for YOUR particular system/configuration/controller/drive combination. Paul may have incorporated more products at this time I don't remember. I would venture a guess that if Paul Mace's product names started with an "H", then Mark wrote it.

There was a falling out when Paul took all he wanted and left Mark holding the empty bag. When I talked with Mark about it, I believe he said some agreeements were "verbal" and his sad tone reflected that fact. He was too trusting and got bit hard.

Mark continued to market his sole product (in 3.5" diskettes and a 135 page technical manual) til around '91 when he abandoned software sales altogether. Paul's offering lasted until '91 whereupon he sold his product to 5th Generation.

Anyways, It brings back deep memories, sad feelings and happy times all into one. The pioneering days felt much different than the computing times of today.

Pioneer spirit has turned into corporate dominacy and I feel in some ways we all suffer because of it.

[foxyloxley]

Originally posted here by triangle
Hello,

The data might be lost or corrupted. There is imho a chance to restore it. For that purpose some data recovery tool might be of some use. The one I prefer and that supports floppies is Undelete. If you wish, you can try it out too.
http://www.active-undelete.com/

three posts
this one extreme green
yet still in the grey

so detective fox goes a'hunting

you [triangle] have posted the same reply three times [at this moment in time that's a 100% hit rate]
it starts to look like spam
it starts to look like you have an 'interest' in your link

if you MUST advertise it
drop it into your sig

if you come across others who might benefit from it, then a quick line to check the sig would do it .......

just try not to keep posting the same thing each and every time

welcome to AO
enjoy it here
just try and stop the record from sticking

and yes I did give them green
s/he MIGHT learn