Short: Bad disk formatting utility Author: Timm S. Mueller Uploader: tmueller neoscientists org Type: disk/misc Version: 0.2 Architecture: m68k-amigaos Purpose: Badformat is a disk formatting utility that masks out bad tracks, so that partially defective floppy disks can be used. Moreover, experiments have shown that bad disks - sometimes, to some degree - can be "healed" by formatting weak tracks multiple times over. Badformat supports this with an experimental mode (see below). This tool targets DD disks chiefly, but it should work with HD disks as well. Please do not try to revive disks that make noises when spinning. Warning: Use it at your own risk. This software is experimental and may be hazardous to your data. Masking will neither survive defragmentation/reorganization nor regenerating a disk's invalid bitmap. Usage: badformat DRIVE/K/A,NAME/K,OFS/S,FFS/S,HEAL/S DRIVE/K/A Drive name, df0:-df3: NAME/K Volume name [default "Empty"] OFS/S Old filesystem mode [default] FFS/S Fast filesystem + international mode HEAL/S Healing mode (experimental) In healing mode, a track is formatted up to twenty times over with varying bit patterns until a verify succeeds. It is then formatted and verified with a different set of bit patterns as many times as it took to succeed initially. If that fails, the track is given up, and masked. Examples: > badformat drive df0: > badformat drive df0: heal > badformat drive df0: name hello ffs Author, website: tmueller@neoscientists.org http://neoscientists.org/~bifat/binarydistillery/ Version history: - 0.2 Warning added.