DISK & FILE TROUBLE SHOOTING GUIDE

Related Information:

• Understanding Data Loss
• Protecting Your Data
• Recovering Lost Data

General Floppy Disk Procedures.

1. Write-protect all disks you touch!
   As soon as some one hands you a floppy disk, write-protect it. This prevents all sorts of bad things.

2. Put the disk in a reliable computer. Do not test it on the computer the user was using.

3. Copy the data file(s) to some other media.
   It is best to copy all of the contents of the disk to another device.
   • An error occured while trying to copy.
     If there are any problems copying the data, then the media has errors and you will need to employ some data recovery techniques. See Recovering Lost Data.

4. Examine the copies.
   Examine the file(s) with the appropreate software applicaiton.
   • File(s) can be read properly by the applicaiton.
     If the application does not have any problems reading the file(s), there is either a problem with the user's computer hardware or nothing is wrong. The hardware can be tested by with media known to be good. Put some files on a good disk, take it to the system in question, and try copying files to and from the disk. If there are problems, you need to make sure a service request is generated or the problem is recorded in the Repair Machine. If there are no errors, the users problems have dissapeared. It is possible that their media does not jive with the drive, too. In any event, it best just to destroy the old media and use new.

     This is part where you tell them about data safty and file managment. See Protecting Your Data.

   • File(s) cannot be read properly by the applicaiton.
     If the software application has trouble reading the file(s), the original media is not (severly) dammaged, but the data is corrupt. In this case, you will need to employ some data recovery techniques. See Recovering Lost Data.