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Floppy Disk Testing

S

Syntho

Experienced Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2022
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Is there some DOS software that tests floppy disks really well? I'm having to chunk a few here and there. I'd like to run the media through some rigorous testing and use the ones that have no issues.

PS: is there also a floppy disk drive tester out there?
 
If you test with a CP/M Computer there is DU-V89.LBR

For a DOS Computer Checkit would be good.

Larry
 

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I'd be very interested to know what type of disks you're having problems with, and what the problems seem to me.

My experience relates to a wide range of mfg, and machines, and drives.

5.25", DD disks, seem to still be VERY reliable. Very rare to have any problem. Except re Wabash disks.

3.5" DD, almost as good.

I'd say these two types are not worth the effort of bulk testing. If they work, they are good. 99%+ are good.

3.5" disks HD can be a bit more troublesome, but the performance of the drives seem to be pretty good (leaving aside the external USB type).

5.25" HD seem to be the most likely to be suspect, and I use these with some trepidation. Maybe the problem is more that the drives are older relative to the 3.5" types? Use as a last resort, and keep multiple copies.

Geoff
 
Some of the issue with either drive seems to be how and where they are stored. If stored in an unheated building they can be affected by condensation then drying periods when they get cold then warm back up and that can cause varying types of corrosion on the metal parts including the leads of the components. Also mice can be an issue with urine or chewing. How they are stored can cause issues too if they are tossed randomly in a box and parts that are exposed can be damaged. 5.25 drives are wide open so they are most prone to physical damage and corrosion. Dirt on the rails that the heads slide on or even light corrosion on the rails can cause misreads too
 
Color me confused. Are we talking about drives or media? Yes, media does go bad with time--lubricants migrate or evaporate, binders degrade... etc. As for drives, we all know that answer, just from the volume of postings on drive troubles here.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Color me confused. Are we talking about drives or media? Yes, media does go bad with time--lubricants migrate or evaporate, binders degrade... etc. As for drives, we all know that answer, just from the volume of postings on drive troubles here.
Click to expand...
I was talking about the drives but much of the same reasons can cause problems with the media. Re-reading the original post he may be talking about the media I guess
 
I got given a whole banana box full of floppy disks of various types. Nearly all the DD ones had mold on them, I check them all individually, an where thrown in the recycle bin. 1.2meg less so and 1.4meg/720 3.5" disks even less so. So millage does vary quite significantly depending an storage location climate and how they are treated.

I've only had one fdd go bad on me in 30years I've been using computers. The usb 3.5" drive on this machine works with 3.5" 1.44meg and 720k media just fine and dandy. In fact I would n't mind getting another on of this type. Works fantastic in Linux.

This has been my own personnel experience so please don't get over emotional and angry as folk from other forums or certain irc channels have ;)
 
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I was talking about the media itself, and below that I also asked about something for testing the drives themselves. I have a pretty good rate of good to bad floppy media but to be 100% about a small pile of them that have given me problems, I’d like to test them with something.

I’m using both 3.5 and 5.25, but the 3.5s are the ones that gave me most trouble. I’d like software for both testing the media itself, and for the drives, for both 3.5 and 5.25.

Hope that clears it up :)
 
By the way guys, I tried out FormatQM. Really neat software. Here's the funny thing though. I'm using dskimage (from Brutman?) to put some images back onto floppies. I tried had a few diskettes and some went through fine with Dskimage, but a couple gave me trouble. I grabbed brand new ones and those worked fine. That's when I posted this thread. The next day I took those supposed bad ones out, used FormatQM on them without a hiccup and was wondering how they worked. Maybe FormatQM doesn't test it as thoroughly as I thought?

I tried Dskimage again on the bad ones and one of them worked perfectly, the other had one small hiccup on one sector, but was fine after the program retried it directly after the failure. So now I don't know what to think. Why do they fail then start working? I don't know if these are actually intermittent or questionable floppies, but I'm going to separate them from the rest of my known good ones.
 
Asked - why does a disk not work, then it does?

I'd guess that the problem here is that the disk was previously formatted, and the precise coverage of the previous format is not identical to the new one. After the new format, a READ may pick up a residue from the old format, and this will produce errors. If the disk is then formatted again, the second coverage could be slightly better, so the new format may now be OK.

If disks have been previously formatted on a different machine, it may be a help to WIPE the disk with a magnet and THEN apply the new format?

Geoff
 
Depends on what version of FORMATQM you've got. PERFECT says that the disk should be rejected on the first verify error, rather than flawing the cluster in the FAT. Here's the command synopsis right out of the command line processor.
Code: 
//  FORMATQM  <format-type:> <drive list>...
//            <format-type:> <drive list>
//            NAG SILENT NOLOGO SMART NOPAUSE LOW
//            NOVERIFY PERFECT PASSES=n PATTERN=.........
//            VOLUME="xxxxxxxxx" RETRIES=n STATUS=n
//            SHELL=name RESERVE=K
 
The biggest problem I've had with 5.25" DD disks is not failure of the media, but rather mold/fungus growing on them. You can make or buy a 3D printed jig to help you rotate the disk to clean it:

www.shapeways.com

Basic 5.25" Floppy Disk Cleaner by Lemaru on Shapeways

Check out Basic 5.25" Floppy Disk Cleaner by Lemaru on Shapeways and discover more 3D printed products in Maker/DIY.
www.shapeways.com www.shapeways.com
 
Depends on the manufacture--in my experience, most majfor name-brand 5.25" floppies age well. I wouldn't let any of my drives, on the other hand, go near a Wabash. Off-brands like Brown or Elephant also age ungracefully.
 
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