Software recommendation for floppy recovery software

[Bob F]

I have an old floppy disk that I need to recover the files for an old
piece of equipment from. Can anyone recommend any program that would
likely be able to recover the files from this floppy disk. This is, I
suspect, just a problem from age of the disk.

[mike]

try cleaning the drive
or another drive

[Ian Field]

"Bob F" <bobn...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:otkvih$gme$1...@dont-email.me...

Norton Utilities NDD works well for recovering floppies.

You need the old 16 bit NU suite - I'd probably build up an old 16 bit PC to
go with it as well. You can still find DOS online.

Recent issues of the windows OS restrict port access and will probably
heavily impact NU - if you want to use Win; You may have to go as far back
as Win ME.

[Ian Field]

"mike" <ham...@netzero.net> wrote in message
news:otl03u$kr5$1...@dont-email.me...

There is a Cleaner program that vibrates the heads at ultrasonic frequency
that magnifies the effect of felt cleaning disks - but it damages 5.25"
drives.

It won't work on recent M$ OS because they restrict port access.

These sort of jobs are best done on an old machine set up for the purpose.
There's online archives containing DOS and early versions of Windows.

[olds...@tubes.com]

I'd use Win98se, not WinME.
If you have an old computer to use for this, go to a search engine and
search for "Abandonware". I found one site (maybe more) that has the old
versions of Norton Utilities, Win98, and all the Dos versions you will
ever need. All free to download. I have to question the legality of
this, but I am not going to worry about it. Some of the software on
there is truly abandoned. The companies no longer exist. But I do
question the legality of having Win98 on there and maybe even Norton
stuff.

There is another site which is called bootdisk.com. There you can get
everything you need to make a Dos bootdisk.

[whit3rd]

On Saturday, November 4, 2017 at 11:06:11 AM UTC-7, Bob F wrote:
> I have an old floppy disk that I need to recover the files...

Eight inch? 5.25 inch? 3.5 inch? Single or double sided? Density
and format?

Some formats of 3.5 inch can just pop into a USB floppy drive. Others
require finding hardware of ysteryear.

[tabb...@gmail.com]

Putting 98se on an old machine originally licensed for it should be ok.

Putting it on a modern machine will get you in trouble from the get-go, it won't run. 98 can't cope with >512M RAM, nor address >128G HDD, nor does it do NTFS or ext3/4. Nor does it natively handle USB adequately. The good news is there is a long list of patches available to make it all work, some from MS some 3rd party. The bad news is that applying them all will take well north of a day's work. So put it on old hardware if you can find it.

Thank god we have better now.


NT

[Ian Field]

<olds...@tubes.com> wrote in message
news:o6qsvctf88lq58bq4...@4ax.com...

Peter Norton's company was taken over by Symantec who CBA doing viable NU
beyond 16bit. It would've been better if they had abandoned it.

[Ian Field]

<tabb...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:46fee7e4-3070-49d2...@googlegroups.com...

Can't see any reason why DOS wouldn't work, but it'd only be able to see a
tiny fraction of the installed memory - not that its going to be much of a
problem if all you want to do is play with floppies.

Most of the boards I get have changed hands a few times - they've been
arriving with no floppy port for a while now.

[Sjouke Burry]

Still have NU on two of my dos computers

Norton Utilities
Version 8.0.20
Copyright 1994 by Symantec Corporation.

[Ian Field]

"Sjouke Burry" <burrynu...@ppllaanneett.nnll> wrote in message
news:59ff7167$0$1572$e4fe...@textnews.kpn.nl...

NU and Xtree were on the first (pre XT) IBM PC I rescued from the tip - NU
never really made any progress from way back then. The, apparently for
windows offering under the Symantec banner was more or less useless. NDD and
Calibrate were absent, and the few remaining diagnostic and repair tools
were mere ghosts of the old DOS versions.

[olds...@tubes.com]

Yep, I knew that. Symantec ruins everything they touch. They destroyed
Partition Magic, and I dont doubt it;s the same with NU. They will never
get one cent from me......

[Bob F]

On 11/4/2017 11:05 AM, Bob F wrote:

Thanks for the help everyone. I finally managed to copy the disk on a
different 3rd PC

[bruce2...@gmail.com]

olds...@tubes.com> wrote in message
news:o6qsvctf88lq58bq4...@4ax.com...

> On Sat, 4 Nov 2017 18:15:25 -0000, "Ian Field"
> <gangprobi...@virginmedia.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>"Bob F" <bobn...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>news:otkvih$gme$1...@dont-email.me...
>>> I have an old floppy disk that I need to recover the files for an old
>>> piece of equipment from. Can anyone recommend any program that would
>>> likely be able to recover the files from this floppy disk. This is, I
>>> suspect, just a problem from age of the disk.
>>
>>Norton Utilities NDD works well for recovering floppies.
>>
>>You need the old 16 bit NU suite - I'd probably build up an old 16 bit PC
>>to
>>go with it as well. You can still find DOS online.
>>
>>Recent issues of the windows OS restrict port access and will probably
>>heavily impact NU - if you want to use Win; You may have to go as far back
>>as Win ME.
>
> I'd use Win98se, not WinME.
> If you have an old computer to use for this, go to a search engine and
> search for "Abandonware". I found one site (maybe more) that has the old
> versions of Norton Utilities, Win98, and all the Dos versions you will
> ever need. All free to download.

I might check that site out, though I assume most of that pprogramming would be recognized instantly and be upgraded/reworked as allowed and then put into use with today's modern programming.