VOGONS


First post, by Hiuuz

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Hi all!

Has anyone experience with restoring data from unreadable floppy disks?

I got this gem today, but my drive cannot read them. At the first attempt, the first disk could be readed but copying was impossible. The second attempt was a already failure. I could try read them on an other FDD and there the third was readable, but unable to copy the file. It would be great to save that data because this is the first release (1.0 or 1.0a) of DI Tornado what I couldn't find anywhere on the internet!

IMG-20230626-143047.jpg
IMG-20230626-184920.jpg

Reply 1 of 18, by rasz_pl

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cd version playable at https://archive.org/details/msdos_Tornado_Ope … sert_Storm_1994
four floppy versions of this game are already dumped in on archive.org hiding in a collection

edit:
>It would be great to save that data because this is the first release (1.0 or 1.0a)
sure enough, one of the versions is 1.0. "TORNADO Installation Patch v1.00 done by ACE in '93"

Last edited by rasz_pl on 2023-06-27, 07:16. Edited 1 time in total.

Open Source AT&T Globalyst/NCR/FIC 486-GAC-2 proprietary Cache Module reproduction

Reply 2 of 18, by kaputnik

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Had success imaging and extracting data from bad floppies using ddrescue.

I've ran it from Debian, but it should be available in other dists as well. You can always make a live USB stick if you're not using Linux otherwise. Would also guess most rescue oriented dists contains ddrescue.

Reply 3 of 18, by davidrg

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That doesn't look like WinImage!

If you're desperate I've often found SuperDisk/LS-120 drives will often read floppy disks nothing else will. They're a bit of an expensive and non-renewable solution to the problem though as feeding them bad disks like that will eventually result in dirty heads. And the special cleaning disks haven't been manufactured in 20+ years making the impossible to clean - dirty heads now means buying a fresh drive.

Reply 6 of 18, by Hiuuz

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Many Thanks Guys!

I could made some progress. First I cleaned the reader head of my FDD and now it can read all 3 disc, but the copy still not working.
I saw a video earlier where a guy cleaned the disk itself, but the result was worse than before. I hope that my will be a success 😀

IMG-20230627-100103.jpg

Reply 7 of 18, by rasz_pl

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might help
Name: INSTALL.EXE
Size: 27623 bytes (26 KiB)
CRC32: FC028F8F
SHA256: d6f0383ce210f626f7dafd96d00a33f288193cc3d323ec6d2fcd16fc35cf361e

Name: TORNADO1.RNC
Size: 1354843 bytes (1323 KiB)
CRC32: 1C77BB5B
SHA256: e65deb4a03380c37a34384e4af75bf2f28c26ec931aea0227cb89a017beed318

Name: TORNADO2.RNC
Size: 1339141 bytes (1307 KiB)
CRC32: 07FE876C
SHA256: 61cc5ce65c05f9bdcf1cd7611caccbde09b8ea0ee2ee882b89569f37f71a09a0

Name: TORNADO3.RNC
Size: 1298565 bytes (1268 KiB)
CRC32: 79EF7ECD
SHA256: 8092d5eb0a03a8f28861701d83935086123f4adaec8a0f2d7c14f226f609e2a8

Open Source AT&T Globalyst/NCR/FIC 486-GAC-2 proprietary Cache Module reproduction

Reply 8 of 18, by appiah4

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Aren't these files available online? You are probably better off downloading the contents and rewriting them to disk.. I sincerely doubt those disks have any copyright protection.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 9 of 18, by Deunan

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Hiuuz wrote on 2023-06-27, 08:17:

I saw a video earlier where a guy cleaned the disk itself, but the result was worse than before. I hope that my will be a success 😀

No offence but it doesn't look like you know what you are doing. This is no "restoration" of any kind, you have been trying to copy the files - from disks you consider rare because you found no other dumps - using dirty, not tested beforehand drive. And it looks like you also used Windows 9x so unless the floppies are write-protected the original content is now modified.

And now you want to try some floppy cleaning that you never tried before and have only seen done on YT where it failed? You should stop whatever you are doing right now and read - a lot - about floppy disk preservation. A usable dump can be made even without a "pro" setup like Kryoflux or Greaseweazle if the disks are not protected with some advanced copy protection scheme, but this has to be done properly.

Reply 10 of 18, by Hiuuz

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So some progress happend. I cleaned the disks but for normal windows copying not helped. But with WinImage I could restore the INSTALL.EXE, TORNADO2.RNC, and TORNADO3.RNC. An other https://www.roadkil.net/program.php?ProgramID=29 I found, saved the files with both.
An interesting sidenote for file recovery: for first attempt WinImage gives a lot of error, but try after try the errors was fewer and fewer. After aprox 10-15 try the disk was fully readable without error, with both program.

My bad: On the first disk I see a scratch. I think I did it when for the first time I put in the floppy to my drive without any cleaning. I think this scratch prevent the read of the TORNADO1.RNC file from the first disk.

Reply 11 of 18, by Hiuuz

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Deunan wrote on 2023-06-27, 09:49:
Hiuuz wrote on 2023-06-27, 08:17:

I saw a video earlier where a guy cleaned the disk itself, but the result was worse than before. I hope that my will be a success 😀

No offence but it doesn't look like you know what you are doing. This is no "restoration" of any kind, you have been trying to copy the files - from disks you consider rare because you found no other dumps - using dirty, not tested beforehand drive. And it looks like you also used Windows 9x so unless the floppies are write-protected the original content is now modified.

And now you want to try some floppy cleaning that you never tried before and have only seen done on YT where it failed? You should stop whatever you are doing right now and read - a lot - about floppy disk preservation. A usable dump can be made even without a "pro" setup like Kryoflux or Greaseweazle if the disks are not protected with some advanced copy protection scheme, but this has to be done properly.

No problem. Yes I think I f*ced the first disk, but it's past already. The disks are write protected. I cleaned the disks with warm water and soup, not alcohol. See my previous post 😀

Reply 12 of 18, by rasz_pl

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Hiuuz wrote on 2023-06-27, 11:35:

But with WinImage I could restore the INSTALL.EXE, TORNADO2.RNC, and TORNADO3.RNC.

do they match SHA256 I posted?

Open Source AT&T Globalyst/NCR/FIC 486-GAC-2 proprietary Cache Module reproduction

Reply 13 of 18, by Hiuuz

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rasz_pl wrote on 2023-06-27, 12:58:
Hiuuz wrote on 2023-06-27, 11:35:

But with WinImage I could restore the INSTALL.EXE, TORNADO2.RNC, and TORNADO3.RNC.

do they match SHA256 I posted?

I am already at work but tomorrow I will check it! Thanks!

Reply 16 of 18, by Hiuuz

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So, after some time I have learned some information about Tornado. That release on the picture of the first post is a release from a Singapore based company TELAHIN. The disks are the same as the european release 1.0.
Meanwhile I bought the original european release (v1.0), the DS addon (v1.0D), the Action16 and Trimark CD-ROM releases (both are v1.0E but the Flight.exe files are different sizes). I have found the 1.0B, 1.0C, 1.0E patches in the labyrinth of the wayback machine. I have luck with the Floppy disks on the picture, all of them are readable. I can install the game and the addon from those without an error! But the game has some sort of copy protection. Normally the RNC files can't be installed but from the original disks. Besides the installed game can be run from the machine to which installed was. If I made a copy to my modern PC to run it under DOSBox, it recognises it and the game says that I have to reinstall the game from the original disks.

Now it's not a big deal because I have the latest versions but I still wonder about that is it possible somehow to make an image file from the Floppy disks and use those images to install the game under DOSBox?

IMG-20230807-200808.jpg

Last edited by Hiuuz on 2023-08-07, 19:44. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 17 of 18, by TheMobRules

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"RNC" stands for "Rob Northen Compression", it was a format used to distribute some PC games. I believe it was mostly used on Amiga games and to compress graphics for games on other platforms.

Some of the games distributed on this format use a form of copy protection called "Copylock". It requires the disks to be written using a special duplication machine, but can be read with any standard drive. More info at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Northen_copylock

Reply 18 of 18, by Hiuuz

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TheMobRules wrote on 2023-08-07, 19:27:

"RNC" stands for "Rob Northen Compression", it was a format used to distribute some PC games. I believe it was mostly used on Amiga games and to compress graphics for games on other platforms.

Some of the games distributed on this format use a form of copy protection called "Copylock". It requires the disks to be written using a special duplication machine, but can be read with any standard drive. More info at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Northen_copylock

Thanks! That makes it a bit complicated so I think I stick to the CD releases of this game. The disks goes to small plastic bags agains moisture and back to the boxes. Hoping those last another 30 years 😀