ahh, the HP 9133A - the largest and heaviest external 3 1/2" floppy drive ever built.
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it spins, but it sounds bad. not much hope for this drive, unfortunately.
the Gesswein MFM emulator was able to capture a flux transition dump! i used their mfm_util to analyze it, and it is a very odd format: check out the command line:
--format EC1841 --sectors 32,0 --heads 4 --cylinders 153 --header_crc 0x0,0xa00805,32,4 --data_crc 0x0,0xa00805,32,4 --sector_length 256
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the Gesswein MFM emulator was able to capture a flux transition dump! i used their mfm_util to analyze it, and it is a very odd format: check out the command line:
--format EC1841 --sectors 32,0 --heads 4 --cylinders 153 --header_crc 0x0,0xa00805,32,4 --data_crc 0x0,0xa00805,32,4 --sector_length 256
example output of the analyze command... some bad sectors, but a lot of good ones!
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example output of the analyze command... some bad sectors, but a lot of good ones!
output of 'strings' shows some cool stuff!
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output of 'strings' shows some cool stuff!
the HPIB verification program for the HP5005B signature analyzer. wild
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the motor won't move. I think it is stiction. ugh.
@tubetime I feel like knowing what stiction is, without looking it up, dates us.
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yeah all the heads are stuck. trying a heat gun now...
@tubetime
Maybe it just needs some Head and Shoulders (TM). -
a single-sided 3.5" drive head is something you don't see every day. they were never that common.
@tubetime
Apple sold tons of 3.5" single-sided drives (Sony mechanism, but special for Apple, because... Apple.)
They were uncommon in PCs. -
example output of the analyze command... some bad sectors, but a lot of good ones!
My AutoArchaeologist toolkit can turn the LIF filesystems into static HTML files so you can spelunk the contents.
Example:
Software:
AutoArchaeologist
AutoArchaeologist - Python tool-chest for presenting contents of old data-media as static HTML files.
Codeberg.org (codeberg.org)
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My AutoArchaeologist toolkit can turn the LIF filesystems into static HTML files so you can spelunk the contents.
Example:
Software:
AutoArchaeologist
AutoArchaeologist - Python tool-chest for presenting contents of old data-media as static HTML files.
Codeberg.org (codeberg.org)
@bsdphk useful, can it handle partially corrupted images?
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@bsdphk useful, can it handle partially corrupted images?
I dont know how robust the LIF excavator is, I have only written/tried it on good images, but the general idea of AA is to handle whatever you throw at it, as well as possibe.
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I dont know how robust the LIF excavator is, I have only written/tried it on good images, but the general idea of AA is to handle whatever you throw at it, as well as possibe.
The fastest way to find out, is probably if you send me the image, but I can also walk you through the setup so you can run AA yourself.
(I've never finished the proper python packaging so it's a bit manual)
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example output of the analyze command... some bad sectors, but a lot of good ones!
With some effort it may be possible to recover more if its just heads were pulled out of alignment when they were stuck.
If you want me to take a look at your transitions file to see if I think that method may work send me a private message.
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yeah all the heads are stuck. trying a heat gun now...
@tubetime There’s just a lot of data in that cylinder them heads are reading.
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it spins, but it sounds bad. not much hope for this drive, unfortunately.
@tubetime Try SpinRite 6.0 that will fix it right up.
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it spins, but it sounds bad. not much hope for this drive, unfortunately.
@tubetime Don't feel bad. I had a Data General Nova at work that I used to collect and process data from flight testing. One day, the machine made a sound like bad brakes. I asked one of the admins, who said, "Oh, yeah. That happens from time to time. We always lose a bit of disk space when that happens."
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The fastest way to find out, is probably if you send me the image, but I can also walk you through the setup so you can run AA yourself.
(I've never finished the proper python packaging so it's a bit manual)
@bsdphk i'm going to try and get a better image file, then i will give it a shot.
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the HPIB verification program for the HP5005B signature analyzer. wild
@dgesswein , who authored the MFM emulator tool i am using for this task, reached out. i updated the software to the latest version (i was tragically out of date). got a new dump. only a few bad sectors this time, and none on track 0!
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@dgesswein , who authored the MFM emulator tool i am using for this task, reached out. i updated the software to the latest version (i was tragically out of date). got a new dump. only a few bad sectors this time, and none on track 0!
bad sectors were on tracks 37, 75, 113, and 152. the 9133a uses hardware partitioning to get four logical volumes, so these "bad sectors" are really just extra sectors at the end of each disk.
for posterity, the command i used was
./mfm_read --format Xebec_104527_C0_256B --sectors 32,0 --heads 4 --cylinders 153 --header_crc 0x0,0xa00805,32,2 --data_crc 0x0,0xa00805,32,2 --sector_length 256 --retries 50,4 --drive 1 --xebec_skew --begin_time 151000 --tran hp9133a_st506 --ext hp9133a_st506.bin
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bad sectors were on tracks 37, 75, 113, and 152. the 9133a uses hardware partitioning to get four logical volumes, so these "bad sectors" are really just extra sectors at the end of each disk.
for posterity, the command i used was
./mfm_read --format Xebec_104527_C0_256B --sectors 32,0 --heads 4 --cylinders 153 --header_crc 0x0,0xa00805,32,2 --data_crc 0x0,0xa00805,32,2 --sector_length 256 --retries 50,4 --drive 1 --xebec_skew --begin_time 151000 --tran hp9133a_st506 --ext hp9133a_st506.bin
'file' is superintelligent these days. it knows about LIF disks! looks like the binary data is good!
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'file' is superintelligent these days. it knows about LIF disks! looks like the binary data is good!
also the drive is running very smoothly now. a few days ago it was making horrible screeching sounds but i think that was the spindle bearing.
i've been running it upside down to allow the oil to warm up and drain back into the bearing.
