On Sat, 2002-11-16 at 17:34, a well meaning user wrote: > I often find with older floppy disks all that is required is a desktop > rebuild on insert (hold down Command-Option as you put the floppy in).
No, no, no! If you have an old floppy that you *need* to recover, *never, ever* do this! I shall say it again, don't ever attempt to fix a broken floppy disk before you've made either an identical duplicate - which sometimes you can, or have attempted to extract data from it! (This is also true for recovering data from any other media, including crashed computers, zip drives, etc.) 1. Write Protect the disk. 2. Insert the disk and attempt to read its content. 3. If that fails, attempt a *recover* using Norton/Disk Warrior, don't attempt to repair it! The purpose of a desktop rebuild is to make the Finder know which application to launch when you double-click on a document, and while it figures that out, it also keeps track of which icon to display for the document. When you rebuild the desktop, you are actually writing data to the disk. This is not a good thing, because for all you know the directory structure is corrupt and the rebuild happily overwrites one of your files. > This doesn't always work with USB drives. > The simple solution might be to find a Mac with an internal Floppy drive > - insert the disk. If it isn't read (you are told to format the floppy - > DON'T) then eject it and reinsert with the command and option keys held > down. No, no, again, no. > If the disk is damaged then Disk First Aid (8.6 or later) will often be > able to fix it. No, no, more no. > If not resort to Nortons Disk Doctor or better. If you at first cannot read the disk, this is the preferred first alternative. Make sure you recover stuff off the disk, *not* attempt to repair the disk. > my 20c worth ... -- ()/)/)() ..ASCII for Onno.. |>>? ..EBCDIC for Onno.. --- -. -. --- ..Morse for Onno.. ITmaze - ABN: 56 178 057 063 - ph: 04 1219 8888 - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
