SHP Forums

Got it over e-bay, the tenth 3.5" disk is missing... or it may be in 5.25" format

The 3.5" disks are marked

KINGS QUEST V
16 COLORS
720K SET / MS
DISK 1 of 10
VER #0.000.054
INT#11.15.90

and

KINGS QUEST V
DUAL DRIVE STARTUP
1.2M SET/MS/16
DISK 6 of 6
VER #0.000.054
INT#11.15.90

I think this is completable because there's a 5.25" disk marked as "disk 10 for the 720k set".

Unfortunately, I don't have a working 5.25" floppy drive; just a USB 720/1.4MB 3.5" drive.

BTW, the shipper did not heed my instructions to mark the package "MAGNETIC MEDIA"...how worried should I be regarding corruption?

I think it's dead Jim. I've tried imaging a sampling of disks; and none work.

If the disks are corrupted it's because they're 20+ years old. Hopefully you'll be lucky. My copy of KQV is different from yours, as it comes on 8 disks. I'm sure someone here can help you though. Good luck.

Or it could be my 1.44MB/720kb USB 3.5" floppy drive. I managed to maybe partially image the 3.5" startup disk, then the drive simply stopped seeing any disks after that -- everything was "disk is not formatted, do you want to format it now?"

I know there's a problem with the drive; because I put a expendable 1.44MB floppy into it and it would not read it; but it read in my other 1.44MB USB floppy, which cost me only $20, but could only read 1.44MB disks.

I then dropped the working 1.44MB only drive onto the floor, breaking the case.

Blegh. I think I'll just go to the local thrift store tomorrow after work and get a old computer with a 3.5" drive and cannibalize that into one of my machines and see if THAT works...

(PS; I really don't care if I can't get this exact disk submission of KQV; all I care about is getting a working KQV EGA install -- I'm on a mission to track down all the Sierra SCI0 EGA releases as I played SQ4 on a Tandy 1000! So far I've already got a working set of SQ1 Remake EGA disks; as THAT ebay shipper actually remembered my instructions to mark it as Magnetic Media).

The disk is not formatted msg means that the disk is corrupted. There are 2 free or free to try programs that may be able to recover the data, if it's recoverable. They are Badcopy Pro and Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier. I've used both, mostly successfully.

dotkel50 wrote:The disk is not formatted msg means that the disk is corrupted.

Actually, you can get that if you try to read a 720kb floppy in a cheap 1.44MB drive; you have to check the case/boxes for those drives carefully, because a lot of manufacturers deleted 720kb compatibility to save money.

Also, it might happen if your drive is bad. For example, the expendable disk I had containing the X-COM version 1.4 patch gave me "disk not formatted" in my previously working $40 dollar 720/1.44MB drive, but worked fine in my $20 1.44MB only drive.

But thank you for the program recommendations; I'll try those tomorrow after I scavenge up a floppy drive at the thrift store.

My EGA copy is a different version, too. If no one has your version, you could try a data recovery program. I have had good luck with Roadkil's Unstoppable.

UPDATE:

After work today, I found a small computer shop off of Rockville Pike in Rockville, MD and got an internal Samsung 3.5" Floppy Drive for $30 along with a floppy cable.

After an initial bout of frustration due to me not pushing in the floppy cable tightly enough (god, I don't miss the old days of IDE cables, compared to SATA or USB cables); it read the disks fine and at a very fast rate -- the USB Floppy drives read it very slowly, while the internal drive chewed through them fast.

I finally found out what went wrong.

The disk marked:

KINGS QUEST V
DUAL DRIVE STARTUP
1.2M SET/MS/16
DISK 6 of 6
VER #0.000.054
INT#11.15.90

Was bad/corrupted about 35 kb into the track.

So now I know what happened. My $40 USB external drive hit that corrupted track; and simply died and refused to read anything after that point.

Meanwhile, the Samsung internal FDD hit that corrupted track, coughed and quit the image program early; and continued to read other disks fine.

So lesson learned for disk imaging of 15-20 year old floppy disks; be prepared to lose drives, and you will lose less drives if you get a brand name internal floppy drive.

Just tested the install program from the disk images I made; and the game installs and works in Oracle VM VirtualBox, and the internal version number is 0.000.055

Here's the install flier for those interested in why this was so zany -- it was designed to be played from floppies; so that's why you never saw it before.