On Sat, 27 Jun 1998 00:24:54 -0700 Mark Rode <[log in to unmask]> writes:
> The drive had a corrupt boot sector and a number of bad sectors

It sounds like you've already used some form of disk doctor and/or
antiviral program. If you haven't, I'd start with these. Could the
physical disk surface be damaged, i.e. was the drive or computer dropped
or the victim of static electricity? Is the data on this disk backed up?
HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS DATA TO YOU?  The good news is you have some
options.

Allow me to amplify on Rick Glazier's response -- see below -- to this
question:
IT IS VERY DAMN VITAL THAT YOU KNOW EXACTLY -- emphasis on EXACTLY --
what you're doing before you edit ANY area of a disk using a real Disk
Editor.  You could easily turn a disk into a door stop; that is, making
the disk impossible for ANYONE to access.

Using a disk editor is not something you can attempt for the first time
from instructions over the internet -- something Rick was saying also.
This is the land of professional help if the data on the disk is that
important. This is exactly the reason God created "the backup."

Please understand that I'm not trying to be a horse's posterior here;
the consequences could be pretty bad screwing up with a disk editor. On
a any disk there is something called the Media Descriptor Byte, which
the PC operating system uses to determine the type media it's accessing.
This information -- the sector and offset values -- is so vital, it's
stored in three separate places on the disk. The good news is that, if
the data's really important, and you are so unfortunate that something
lesser can't be used, there are many places -- and people -- that can
fix you up for a price.  Expect this to cost more than a new drive,
which you may need anyway.

Your friend's c: drive is not the place to learn, this is a job for
others; however, you can start to learn to use a disk editor yourself on
floppies.  Just make sure that floppy's not real important itself. From
here, work your way up through discarded hard disks.

Fortunately, Disk Editors have been around for a very long time -- there
are many skilled folk that can perform minor miracles on damaged disks.
With time, patience and experience, you can also.

Best regards,
Jim Griffin
--
Prometheus was the first Beta Tester.
Sisyphus was the Corinthian Systems Administrator.


On Sat, 27 Jun 1998 00:24:54 -0700 Mark Rode <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>The drive had a corrupt boot sector and a number of bad sectors
snip
>However I can not label the drive. When I formatted I did not create a
>label and yet there is one .....Ai......I suppose I could have
>inadvertently created this but I don't think so. I can not remove it or
>change it and any attempt to do so with the label command results in a
>error message from Dos

On Sat, 27 Jun 1998 10:58:14 -0400 Rick Glazier responded:
>       I think you have questions you have to ask yourself:
>   1). Do I feel lucky?
>   2). Can I spell (and use) disk editor? (This word causes my posts to
>         "fail" on the list, SO, DO NOT PLAY with a disk editor, see #1)