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Preserving a floppy disk with a logic analyzer and a serial cable
Introduction Being involved with retro computers, I have a few floppy disks (of the 3.5-inch variety) that I would like to preserve as faithfully as possible. Of course, I know there are dedicated devices for doing that, such as the Kryoflux or the SuperCard Pro.
It is important to note, however, that the floppy disk imaging is performed at raw flux level and as such will work with every encoding. With a DD floppy disk inserted and the motor now spinning, one can capture a trace with the logic analyzer – preferably triggered on the falling edge of the index signal. But the two sectors containing part of the FAT (file allocation table) were overwritten by a different drive with nearly perfect timing – marked by orange boxes.
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