Trashed directory on 100Mb ZIP disk

[GeoffB17]

I thought my ZIP disks were still fine, but I just discovered one is not.

The disk in question is the one that came with the drive WAY back (prob just after the Zip 100 was first released. Had the ZIP 'tools' etc on, but I think I've put some other 'system' files on it.

When I try the disk now, I get a dir listing all the names are two random chars (many are graphics chars), massive file sizes, clearly wrong dates. CHKDSK said the disk was messed up, but seemingly not THAT bad. I had the 'tools' on a HD, and when I read the UTIL prog, this pretty much said the disk was OK, the format was OK, and the filespace used/remaining seemed sensible (although the dir said there was 200Mb or more on the disk).

Same result with both the parallel port drive, and a built-in IDE version.

All the other disks I have seem to be fine.

Anyone seen anything similar? What might have caused this? Is it significant that the problem disk will be the oldest one I have? The supplied one may have come (so says a doc file with the Tools stuff) with the formats on it, DOS and MAC, and when you select one to install the other is wiped.

May well be nothing too important on this disk, but the tools stuff is only a few Mb and there should be 60Mb or so on the disk. Most immediate thing would be WHAT was on the disk?

Geoff

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Zip disks are magnetic media. The technology they used pushed the limits of what could be stored on floppy disk type magnetic media.

As such, the longevity of data on a disk, let alone the disk itself, is questionable after 20-30 years. Especially if storage was less than ideal for maintaining data and disk integrity.

It is normal for floppy disks to fail after even a few years of use. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Zip disks aren’t also in this statistic.

I don’t personally have any ideas as to how to get your data back or repair what’s damaged the disk. I can tell you that of the Zip drives and media I’ve purchased over the past several years, generally only the brand new never used disks continue to work.

I use Zip disks and drives to this day for my vintage computing purposes. They are reliable enough but I wouldn’t trust anything vital to them.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Use an imaging tool such as Linux dd and look through the image--it could be that the Disk Parameter Block is goofed up and all your data is still there.

 

[twolazy]

Have you tried running scandisk on it?