(Sorry for the duplicate message to you, Jim, didn't realize you had replied in private.)
----- Original Message ----- From: "C.E. Forman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Jim Leonard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 2:28 PM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Repairing floppies (long) > Yes, that completely answers my question, thanks Jim. > > I think the problem my German friend had was the fact that, if you did > rewrite it, the disk would NOT have been written at the factory. Even if > the buyer couldn't tell, the seller who repaired it would know. As I > recall, we were having a discussion on how people could "replace" missing > game parts with substitutes that couldn't be distinguished -- HHGG fluff, > reprint of the Suspended folio parser bug letter, I've seen palm-tree > swizzle sticks very similar to the one in Hijinx, etc. (This preceded all > the counterfeiting crap in the last couple of years, BTW.) His attitude was > that rewriting the disk was the equivalent of that: The user would assume he > was buying an original factory-written disk, when in fact, though the disk > was an original, the software on it had been rewritten. > > For the record, I don't agree, I just think it's an interesting dilemma. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jim Leonard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "C.E. Forman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 1:09 AM > Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Repairing floppies (long) > > > > C.E. Forman wrote: > > > > > Fascinating stuff, Jim, and well explained for us less technical > collectors. > > > Your paragraph on disk rewrites made me think of something I've brought > up > > > briefly in one or more of my columns but never really discussed, which > is: > > > Is it okay to rewrite a collectible disk? I personally would say yes, > but > > > the last time I was in Europe one of my German collector friends > insisted > > > no, that would devalue it in his mind. He even went so far as to say > he'd > > > prefer a non-functional but unrewritten disk to a rewrite that worked > > > perfectly. Anybody else have feelings on this? (For the record, I > would > > > write in my description that the media was rewritten, just in case it > > > mattered that much to anyone else.) > > > > To give my thoughts on the issue, you have to define what you mean by > "okay". > > For example, is it okay from a collecting standpoint, technical > standpoint, > > etc.? > > > > From a technical standpoint, I would have to say that it would be OK if > the > > disk is NOT working, meaning you wrote to it in an effort to repair it (or > > restore it to it's factory condition, like erasing somebody's old high > scores > > and saved games). > > > > Case in point: Due to a slipup on my part, I accidentally damaged my > original > > PC booter 1986 "Tass Times in Tonetown" disk about four years ago. (In > case > > you're wondering how that happened, I fat-fingered the wrong drive unit > number > > during some sector editing and had forgot to put a write-protect tab on my > > original.) I spent a few days repairing it looking through older disks to > > find my backup and then copied the first sector back onto the original > disk > > (it was the first sector that I had erased by accident). By writing to > the > > disk, I restored it to perfect condition -- a bytewise comparison would > have > > been identical to the diskette before I had messed it up. So in that > case, I > > wholeheartedly say that writing to disks to fix them is not only > acceptable > > but encouraged *if the end result is identical to when the diskette was > first > > written at the factory*. > > > > I have to say I am completely puzzled by your collector friend who claims > he > > would rather have a non-functional disk that was not written to. If it > > doesn't work, how can he ever know if it hasn't been written to? :-) > > > > Now, from a collecting standpoint, I would have to say that writing to the > > disk is probably not a good idea if there is nothing wrong with it. If > you > > had an opened box and wanted to test the game before, say, selling it, and > you > > played the game and got a high score that was written to disk before you > could > > turn off the computer, then I would definitely say that you degraded the > disk > > from a "purity" standpoint. You couldn't ever call that disk Near Mint... > > Well... Playing devil's advocate, if you could replace the affected > sector(s) > > to become original again from a backup copy, you could effectively turn > the > > disk back into NM status because nobody could ever know that the disk had > been > > written to :-). But I still think that it's not adviseable, because > drives > > can have their alignment slip over time, and a disk that has been written > to > > in one drive has the slight possibility of not being read in a different > one. > > In other words, don't tempt fate. > > > > Does that answer your question? > > -- > > Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > http://www.oldskool.org/ > > Want to help an ambitious games project? > http://www.mobygames.com/ > > Or check out some trippy MindCandy at > http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
