Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!natinst!bigtex!pmafire!geoff
From: geoff@pmafire.UUCP (Geoff Allen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Need help for a sick floppy disk (SOLVED!!)
Summary: MacTools solved the problem
Keywords: floppy corrupted desktop file recovery AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGH!
Message-ID: <881@pmafire.UUCP>
Date: 4 Dec 89 15:35:44 GMT
References: <874@pmafire.UUCP>
Reply-To: geoff@pmafire.UUCP (Geoff Allen)
Organization: WINCO Computer Engineering, INEL, Idaho
Lines: 47

In article <874@pmafire.UUCP>, I wrote a tale of woe concerning a floppy
disk which seemed to be playing hide-and-seek with all of the files on
it.

>MacTools brings up a window for the disk.  No files appear in the
>window.  But MacTools *is* able to tell me that the disk has 360K used
>and 440K available (or whatever the actual numbers are).
>
>"Verify Disk" using MacTools gives me several errors, all with an ID of
>-72.
>
>If I examine the disk using the "View Edit" command, it appears that the
>files are still there.
>
>It seems at some time or another, a message flashed by that the Desktop
>file was corrupted or missing or something.

I managed to see the message again.  It appeared when allowing the
Finder to try the "minor repairs" that it recommended.  After a bit of
whirring and such, the Mac reported back to me that it was "unable to
create Desktop file."  Aha!  As I suspected, something wiped out my
Desktop file and my Mac was complaining about it (understandably).

Now, it is my pleasure to inform you all that I now have my files back! 
Here's what happened:

One kind netter offered to try to fix the disk for me if I mailed it to
him.  (To nicely save me from needing to spend $100 just to get my stack
back.)  I had decided to take him up on his offer, since I had given up
all other hope.  Just in case, I decided to make a copy of the disk
before sending it off.  I decided to try "Copy Disk" in MacTools before
resorting to a sector or bit copy in Copy II.  Anyway, it just so
happens that I forgot to lock my disk before copying it.  After the
copy, I inserted my original disk and saw all the files!  My only guess
is that MacTools, in reading the disk to make the copy, found all the
files and created a Desktop file for me.  Since I hadn't locked the
disk, MacTools was able to save the Desktop file back to my disk.

Serendipity strikes again!

I'll post a summary of some of the responses I got in another article,
in case people are interested.

-- 
Geoff Allen                  \  WINCO doesn't believe in Macs, 
{uunet|bigtex}!pmafire!geoff  \  so of course these are my views.
ucdavis!egg-id!pmafire!geoff   \