Situation:   Disk  with  your only
copy   of  your  latest  (and  best!)
sources/musics/graphics has made that
famous  requester appear:  Volume xxx
has  a  read/write  error!
   OK, once
again the famous Law of Data Security
was proven correct. (For those of you
who  don't  know  it:  "The disk with
the most valuable data on it will die
first!") Now, what to do?  Here's the
complete quide to data recovery:
   Of  course  noone cannot quarantee
100%   recovery,  r/w  error  usually
means  a physical damage on the disk,
so  you  can only salvage the rest of
the disk and only sometimes the whole
content!
   Step #1:  Copy the bastard!
  Never
attempt  a  salvage  on  the disk the
error  occured!  Recovery should only
be  done  on  a  copy a damaged disk!
The  best  copy  for  doing  that  is
Action  Repplay's  Dcopy command.  It
copies  the  disk (with verification)
and  if  it  encounters  an  error it
duplicates  the  damaged  read, so if
the  error  was  only in checksum the
problem is solved!  If you don't have
AR,  then find a copier which doesn't
substitue  a  bad  track  read with a
formatted track like DosCopy in XCopy
(not  DosCopy+).   If  this  doesn't,
there's still more chance.
   Step #2:  DiskCraft!
  This program
is  made  in 1986 and I still find it
the  best  to  recover lost data!  If
you  don't  have  it,  get yourself a
copy immediately!  I use V1.0, if you
have  docs  or  newer version, please
send it to me!!!  Use the "Repair DOS
structure" to recover anything that's
on  the  disk.   You may try "Recover
lost  data"  first.   Just  remember,
DiskCraft  makes  heavy  use  of  the
stack,  so before running you need to
set a larger amount of memory for the
stack  (DOS  command 'stack').  Value
of  40000 bytes should be enough.  If
this fails there's:
   Step  #3:   FixDisk!
  When you run
FixDisk  just insert the damaged disk
(copy of!) and click the coresponding
disk  icon  on the top of the window.
Then   just   follow   the  on-screen
prompts  and that's it.  This way you
can   also   recover  the  files  you
deleted  by accident or you just want
them back.  I currently use V1.0.  If
you  have newer, you know what to do!
If  all of the prevoius fails we draw
our last ace:
   Step #4:  DiskX!
  It has some very
usefull  functions  such  as:  Search
for any ASCII text, Find, and Attepmt
to   recover   file.    Though,  this
program   is  very  nasty  when  it's
dealing   with  r/w  errors.   So  it
should  only  be  used with copies of
bad  disx.  You may use 'Find' option
and  try to find the name of the file
you  want to recover.  If the name is
found,  set 'display block as header'
option  and  if the shown seems sane,
use 'Attempt to recover file' option.
Never  save  the  recovered blocks on
the disk you are recovering from!  If
you don't have two disk drives or HD,
save to ram:  and then to other disk.
DiskX  will  save  any block with the
same  header block as the designated.
So you get, if not the whole file, at
least  some  blocks.  This is usefull
if you are recovering text files, but
not  much  for  gfx,  music or utils.
Search  for any ASCII text is usefull
if  you're looking for several files.
But,  my  version (V2.0) can't search
from key 0 (bootblocks), so I have to
set to block 2 and then searh on...
   If  after  all  of this you didn't
manage  to  save  your  files,  tough
luck!  I've ran out of all my tricks!
If   anyone   else   has   some  more
experience  with  data  recoveyr,  or
would   like   to   recommend   other
programs,  feel  free to write to us,
but  don't  forget  to include a disk
with the program!
   One   last   tip:   When  you  are
finished  with the damaged disk (with
more  or  less  luck),  and you don't
want  to  throw  away  the  disk, use
NoErrors util.  It will create a file
with  all bad blocks in it so can use
the  disk  again.   But,  don't  save
anything important on them, remember:
You  can  never  trust a floppy disk!
Only a hard disk is a good disk!!!