From: joe@user.com   
      
   "sylvan butler"  wrote in message   
   news:slrneoliag.3u0.ZsdbUse1+noZs_0612@sdba64.internal...   
   > On 19 Dec 2006 23:57:10 -0800, vad  wrote:   
   > > in the 80's I used a data recovery tool (spinrite-?) which   
   > > automatically looked for structures that looked like dbase files.  I   
   > > was able to successfully transfer a kaypro database to a MS-DOS system   
   > > using this tool... strange, eh?  I can't remember if Spinrite did this   
   > > or Norton Disk Doctor or if it was another, but if you can do the   
   >   
   > Not spinrite.  All that did was low-level formatting without losing   
   > data.  (To keep the data aligned with the heads which tended to drift a   
   > bit as the drives aged.)  Norton DD might have done something like that,   
   > but I don't remember it.  Diskedit was pretty good though.  :)   
      
   Actually Spinrite would read a track and figure out what the optimum   
   interleave was for reading the data in the least number of revolutions.   
   Then re-format the track and put the data back.  (It was interesting   
   in that the floppy disk interleave was a big issue with me with   
   TRSDOS-II...  But that's a story for another time!  TRSDOS 2.x was   
   set up to read the floppy on 5 revolutions...  )   
      
   I didn't know the Norton DD did the extract.  I thought there was a   
   utility in the Norton Utilities that did it though.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)