Alternative way to check or fix disks?

[J.T.Kirk]

Hello, I was wondering if there's an alternative, better way, to check 3" disks with Amstrad. I mean, I'm currently using DISCKIT3 for checking if my disks are 100% error-free. Is this reliable enough?

On the other hand, is there any tool for fixing some tracks on a disk, or be able to copy some files on corrupted disk to another working disk?

Thanks in advance.

[TFM]

Hello, I was wondering if there's an alternative, better way, to check 3" disks with Amstrad. I mean, I'm currently using DISCKIT3 for checking if my disks are 100% error-free. Is this reliable enough?

On the other hand, is there any tool for fixing some tracks on a disk, or be able to copy some files on corrupted disk to another working disk?

Thanks in advance.

Well, I would suggest to you to use BD04.COM (an CP/M application) which does really well in error checking. Here a zipped DSK...

But do yourself a favor and use it with CP/M Plus (not 2.2 because it always wants to load the ccp).

Of course bad sectors get locked out, but the remaining disc can still be used. 

[Kris]

You can use Multi mark, it is very reliable and will allow you to format and mark "bad sector" as used with a file; so that you can use your disk.

[ivarf]

On my opinion, you only use this to salvage important files. Then bin all bad discs

[TFM]

On my opinion, you only use this to salvage important files. Then bin all bad discs

For me: The ultimate way to salvage files is to set the number of read / write attempts to 30 or 100 in FutureOS and the copy the disc to a blank one. This usually works. (See file #D.E for RAM address of variable or ask here for a protocol).

[qbert]

I'm absolutely disaproving this.
Nowadays, error free disks are extremely rare. Does this mean we have to bin 80% of the remaining 3" disks in the world ?
Nope. Just use MULTI MARK for tagging the bad sectors (very similarly to the way your modern OS is tagging dead clusters of your SSD drive !)

Then you may "install" on your tagged disks cracked games or serious software. Just use a fast "file copy" software like Crime. No disk to disk copying here, but file copying works very well and you'll never lose a file.

I have an hundred of tagged 3" floppy disks here containing my huge collection of Amstrad Software. Each of them is missing a dozen clusters.

On my opinion, you only use this to salvage important files. Then bin all bad discs

[CraigsBar]

I'm absolutely disaproving this.
Nowadays, error free disks are extremely rare. Does this mean we have to bin 80% of the remaining 3" disks in the world ?
Nope. Just use MULTI MARK for tagging the bad sectors (very similarly to the way your modern OS is tagging dead clusters of your SSD drive !)

Then you may "install" on your tagged disks cracked games or serious software. Just use a fast "file copy" software like Crime. No disk to disk copying here, but file copying works very well and you'll never lose a file.

I have an hundred of tagged 3" floppy disks here containing my huge collection of Amstrad Software. Each of them is missing a dozen clusters.

I have only had disc failures on a very low number of my discs. I think I have binned only 5 or 6 total. And they were later cheepo discs not amsoft or maxell. You have an 80 % failure rate.... Wow are you keeping them next to a magnet?

[TFM]

You got a well point there. IMHO it's a good idea to format a disc, wait some days, then scan it with BD04.COM. Sometimes 30 years old GAPs on a Disc are not that good any longer. And as we know the header doesn't get written new when the FDC fills in data into a sector ;-) Only GAPs after data get written again. 

[Audronic]

If you have bad Disks, this is worth a try
Grab a magnet (From an old dead hard drive) and erase the disk by waving the magnet over the front and the back in a circular motion.
and then do a low level format and see what happens.
I have recovered a lot of potentially faulty disks this way.


Good Luck     Ray

[J.T.Kirk]

Thanks for the multiple answers guyz. The only problem right now is the lack of an external 3.5" drive, thus I cannot transfer any Amstrad files from my Amiga to Amstrad, so I have to stick with DISCKIT3 I guess. But will keep all that info in mind.

[CraigsBar]

Thanks for the multiple answers guyz. The only problem right now is the lack of an external 3.5" drive, thus I cannot transfer any Amstrad files from my Amiga to Amstrad, so I have to stick with DISCKIT3 I guess. But will keep all that info in mind.

What do you want. I can write and post whatever you want on to a 3 inch disk. Just tell me what you want, and provide the discs.