Floppy Failure Help

[jho]

Hi Friends!

I recently acquired a complete set of Opcode Vision 2.0.3 MIDI software from eBay; 3 disks and the manual! Unfortunately, after installing all 3 disks, it won’t read disk 1 anymore to authorize the computer for permanent use.

I think maybe ten minutes passed between using disks 1-3 to install initially, then reinserting disk 1 to authorize. I now receive an error stating the computer cannot read disk 1 with options to initialize or eject (it is an 800K disc). Disks 2 & 3 work fine.

I used the Application ‘Floppy Fixer’ to try and repair things which it was able to for all but one file that needed it. So it looks like the stuff is there, but perhaps one of the files became corrupted somehow.

I have several other floppies that work just fine, the drive is in great condition too. I assume the disk is just dead (it is about 30 years old after all), but I thought I’d check in with this community to see if there are any options or ideas at all.

This software isn’t really available on the internet anymore (there are some copies on Macintosh garden and Macintosh repository but they’re not usable due to copyright protection). This was such a rare find and if there is any way to restore this disk I’d be elated!!!

thanks for reading if you got this far : ]

Computer: Macintosh Classic II
RAM: 10MB
BlueSCSI: 2GB
OS: 7.5.3

 

[JDW]

Do any of those disks make a louder than normal sound when you insert them and they start spinning? If so, look at them under a lens or microscope to see if there’s any mold or debris on the disk itself. To do that, you need to slide the metal slider open so you can see the disk itself.

The reason I mention this is because I recently had a situation where I put in a very old 400K disk and it made an abnormally loud sound when spinning, and then when I ejected it and put in another known good disk, that good disk was unreadable, yet but I put it in a different disk drive, the good disk worked fine. I then was forced to clean the head multiple times in order to get my drive working again, probably because so much mold and crud from the bad disk got stuck on the head.

Another interesting thing is that only some brands of disks in my collection have grown moldly through the years, while others seem quite impervious, even though they were all stored together.

 

[naruse]

This software isn’t really available on the internet anymore (there are some copies on Macintosh garden and Macintosh repository but they’re not usable due to copyright protection). This was such a rare find and if there is any way to restore this disk I’d be elated!!!

if you are able to get them back to work it would be really worth adding them to macintosh garden / repository so the community can use it.

Would it be feasible (if you have the hardware) to try it out on another computer?

+1 on cleaning the head of your drive

 

[jho]

Hi @naruse thanks for the comment. I'm not against cleaning the drive, but I have 6 other disks that work immediately without issue so I'm doubtful there is an issue with the drive itself. The previous owner of this Mac also serviced the drive before selling it to me. If I do ever get the disk working I will absolutely upload the set to Macintosh Garden/Repository!

Unfortunately, I do not have another Mac to test it on.

 

[JDW]

Here's the moldy floppy I mentioned in my previous post, which negatively affected my heads, even though I had just cleaned the heads and the entire drive only hours prior to testing that disk.

 

[jho]

Here's the moldy floppy I mentioned in my previous post, which negatively affected my heads, even though I had just cleaned the heads and the entire drive only hours prior to testing that disk.

View attachment 18694 View attachment 18693

Thanks for sharing! Fortunately, my disk isn't exhibiting signs of mold or damage. I examined it earlier and it looks pretty clean.