On Wed, 21 Feb 2001 at 00:46:56, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
(Ref: <2.2.32.20010221084656.006bbe34@mail>)
>Hello to all..
>
>I don't know how big a minefield I am stepping into with this question but -
>I have about 20 microdrive cartridges that I would like to try and salvage
>and I really don't have $170 to spend on a QL ( I believe there are 2 on
>ebay ), so I am torn between cobbling up a microdrive on a breadboard and
>doing my best to make it go, or finding a used but working model that I can
>buy for cheap so I can see how many 'gravestones' I have. :)
The only realistic way to get files from dodgy mdvs (unless you have
plenty of spare time) is to use the
format ram1_mdv1
facility in (I think) the Tony Tebby ramdisk extension (ramprt).
This comes with the commercial QPAC2.
This requires a QL memory expansion.
It makes a very quick sector copy to ram, with minimum retries, and
marks files with bad sectors with a trailing '*'
One can write controlling program to copy good files to a store, and
keep trying.
I have recovered files from many 'dead' cartridges this way.
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