Salvaging data from old zip disks

Is this doable? I have some that refuse to read anymore. And some that will load half or 3/4 of a pgm. I would like to get some of my old material onto a flash card when I get a reader.

Does anyone know of any way to go into a zip disk and extract the files? Or does anyone know if the problem is a physical one that can't be fixed or what?

Thanks!

I've heard that Iomega will attempt to retrieve data from unreadable zip disks but it is very expensive, so you have to really want to get that data.

Zip drives are crap!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've went trought 2 Zip100's (died quickly) and a Zip 250 (didn't die but didn't give it the chance to fk up my discs).
Get a card reader and be done with it.

I have a cardreader coming today, so I had to do the same thing as you.
mpc editor has a backup/restore function, where you can back up an entire mpc formatted disk.
What you would do is create a backup with the zip disk, save the file to your pc.
It will be one file
Reopen mpc editor, and restore the same backup you created, and this time, save restored file to your flash or cf card.
You still won't be able to see those files on the pc, but you will be able to do whatever you want with them on the mpc.

Nice! Thanks for the info. Will def try it when I get my CF reader!

i once lost a zip full of songs and i couldnt afford to just give them up so i opened up the zip and the black disc part had seperated from the wheel in the middle i used latex gloves to handle the disk and used super glue or clear nail polish to glue it back to the center wheel it loaded up perfect and i made a duplicate on a new disk.. maybe something worth looking into if your files dont show up at all and the disk seems dead but if it shows corrupted file names and folders probably a bad disk...

So I FINALLY got enough 1GB CF cards to really start backing up my stuff.

The 250 is grumbling and groaning and freezing. I had some success with extracting the .aps file and it will tell me the disc is corrupt while loading sounds, then I go in and extract the individual sounds. This process is a pain and slow and works for a while, then the damn thing will inevitably freeze up the MPC and itself.

Mike Millz writes above about mpc editor being a possible solution. He mentions using a PC but I have Mac zip discs. Is this not a problem? Can I throw these in a PC zip drive and do what he describes? Without losing everything? And Not all of my file names are under 8 chars. I believe this only affects things if you use a Mac(which I have, but no USB drive in it.) but is it possible to use the above trick w/o files being corrupted since the computer wouldn't be reading the files?

Thanking in advance for any advice/info.

Possibly, but I don't know if the 8 characters would be a problem though. Under no circumstances, DO NOT rename any of the files. If you do, you'll render the .aps and .pgm files useless.

Peace.

Hee hee. I renamed one set of files and found out what you said. Oh well. Gonna have to rebuild that one.

Any info on the mac vs pc zip disc thing?

Thanks

I really don't know too much about macs, but when I first tried this trick, it wouldn't work off the .zip drive I had installed on my pc. The drive works, but for some reason, it wouldn't allow me to load .pgms in mpc editor. I had to actually install the .zip drive from my mpc (I don't need this anymore, since I upgraded to CF cards) for this to work.
I wouldn't think you would have a problem, since the discs were formatted in the mpc.
Another thing you can try is awave studio. It reads many file formats, including mpc 2000/xl pgms. I use this software to create .pgms for my 3000xl, and s950 samplers.
If you need a copy of the software P.M. me, and I'll hook you up.
Good Luck.

Thanks again.

I'll see what I can get done and report whatever works!

Might eventually pm you for that shyt.

the 8 character limit will bite you on mac AND pc. you don't even have to load the file, as soon as windows tries to see the files on the drive, it will destroy their filenames. and if you have any files that are named similar up to the first 8 chars (ie. FILENAME1, FILENAME2...), those files will simply vanish as windows will only see multiple files named FILENAME and corrupt them.

Yes nogginj, I know what you are talking about, I forgot to mention that. For example: CLOSEDHAT1 would look something like: CLO~1. Sometimes the program will actually load, I have quite a few progs. that open this way, certain progs. won't load at all, and some load some sounds and have multiple "cannot find * " errors. I always wondered why some progs. load and others don't. Maybe someone can chime in with some insight, I dunno.

yeah man listen to these guys. screw zip! although opening it up and doing a DIY fix might be worth it. i had a 250mb disk break on me with about 5 magical beats haha. it was so ironic losing something so good. there are places that will do back up for you but it all depends on if you want to fork out the money.
also do all your 8 character editing in you MPC. when i edit names for folder,sound, pgm etc. names on my computer (mac) my MPC cant read them for some reason. before switching out my internal zip I did the 8 characters game for like 4 days straight. about 160 rough draft, back-up and finished beats on 30 zip disks all to my computer. i knew if i didnt change all the names to 8 characters i.e. a sounds that are converted to mono that look like "SOUND1_ _ _ _R.snd" OR if there was a duplicate name my computer wouldnt find it or just corrupt the file. anyway i say try to do what InsiteTheG-A suggested. good luck!

JUKE 179r wrote:Zip drives are ****!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've went trought 2 Zip100's (died quickly) and a Zip 250 (didn't die but didn't give it the chance to fk up my discs).
Get a card reader and be done with it.

So the MPC card reader can be installed in the MPC2000xl right? I still have my old 3.5 floppy drive in, but I use an external hard drive and zip drive to transfer data back and forth to my computer.