4225_5132@uwovax.uwo.ca (Andrew Semple) (04/11/90)
I, with a short gap between exams, was looking through some of my old disks looking for some neato acc's to add to some of my most used disks (not owning a laser printer leaves me some room). I came across one called Format 11. Blithley clicking on it, and discovering that it modified the disk in some way, I tried ^C (too many days on the VAX) to get out and soon found out that this was a valid response to [Y or N]. In fact it meant yes. That is alright, I thought, I have the disk physically write protected. But to my dismay, upon leaving the program, I was met with the infamous "0 bytes used in 0 items". DiskDoctor and a few other cheapie disk utilities all barf on any commands to "open" or read the disk. I conclude that my boot sector is fried, and I am up a creek without a pointer. Any comments or help would be very much appreciated. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Andrew Semple Andrew.Semple@hydra.uwo.ca 2nd Year Applied Math/Computer Science ads@hydra.uwo.ca The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario Canada "Perfection is the result of extensive correction" -Emery
woodside@ttidca.TTI.COM (George Woodside) (04/12/90)
In article <5671.262220af@uwovax.uwo.ca> 4225_5132@uwovax.uwo.ca (Andrew Semple) writes: > > I, with a short gap between exams, was looking through some of my old >disks looking for some neato acc's to add to some of my most used disks (not >owning a laser printer leaves me some room). I came across one called >Format 11. Blithley clicking on it, and discovering that it modified the >disk in some way, I tried ^C (too many days on the VAX) to get out and soon >found out that this was a valid response to [Y or N]. In fact it meant >yes. That is alright, I thought, I have the disk physically write protected. >But to my dismay, upon leaving the program, I was met with the infamous "0 >bytes used in 0 items". DiskDoctor and a few other cheapie disk utilities all >barf on any commands to "open" or read the disk. I conclude that my boot >sector is fried, and I am up a creek without a pointer. > > Any comments or help would be very much appreciated. Format 11 is a disk formatter, which arranges the disk in an eleven sector per track format. Personal Opinon: This is too far beyond specs to be reliable. Don't store anything you really need on such a disk. If your disk was write protected, the formatter should have been unable to modify it. However, your note indicates that it is now unreadable. If you have access to any of the disk copiers, make a backup copy of the disk first. Make a couple, in fact. If only the boot sector is destroyed, you have hope. If the FAT and Directory have been destroyed, you now have a scratch disk, suitable for formatting. The easiest way I know to rebuild the boot sector (pardon my humility) is to use the REPAIR function of VKILLER (version 3.00 or higher, posted here a few months ago, and available in the May, 1990 issue of STart Magazine). If you know how the disk used to be formatted, just enter the old parameters in the dialog you get from clicking on REPAIR. If you don't know, let it go figure out what it can read, and fix up the boot sector. Then, if you find the FAT and Directory still intact, consider yourself fortunate. -- * George R. Woodside - Citicorp/TTI - Santa Monica, CA * * Path: woodside@ttidca * * or: ..!{philabs|csun|psivax}!ttidca!woodside *
4225_5132@uwovax.uwo.ca (Andrew Semple) (04/13/90)
In article <12096@ttidca.TTI.COM>, woodside@ttidca.TTI.COM (George Woodside) writes: > In article <5671.262220af@uwovax.uwo.ca> 4225_5132@uwovax.uwo.ca (Andrew Semple) writes: >> >> lots of stuff about destroying a disk with Format 11. >> > > If your disk was write protected, the formatter should have been unable > to modify it. However, your note indicates that it is now unreadable. > > If you have access to any of the disk copiers, make a backup copy of > the disk first. Make a couple, in fact. I am unable to make copies of the disk, in any way (I have tried almost all the pd copiers avail., from DC format all the way to Hack'nwhatever). > > If only the boot sector is destroyed, you have hope. If the FAT and > Directory have been destroyed, you now have a scratch disk, suitable > for formatting. It seems that this is the problem, and I have given up, in the process deleteing all copies of Format 11 (I found the originals, and the doc's say that the writer won't be held responsible (I have no problem with this) and that is about all. No info on what it does to your disk). > The easiest way I know to rebuild the boot sector (pardon my humility) > is to use the REPAIR function of VKILLER (version 3.00 or higher, > posted here a few months ago, and available in the May, 1990 issue of > STart Magazine). This also met with no success. What I still find incredible is that this program did this to my disk with the WRITE PROTECTION ON. How? (The drive made a real good noise as it sounded (to me) that the head was traversing the sectors from the inside, out). > * George R. Woodside - Citicorp/TTI - Santa Monica, CA * > * Path: woodside@ttidca * > * or: ..!{philabs|csun|psivax}!ttidca!woodside * ----------------------------------------------------------------- Andrew Semple Andrew.Semple@hydra.uwo.ca 2nd Year Applied Math/Computer Science ads@hydra.uwo.ca The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario Canada "Perfection is the result of extensive correction" -Emery