20 Oct
2012
20 Oct
'12
11:36 a.m.
On 10/20/2012 10:22 AM, Chris Tofu wrote:
I've been meaning to ask this. If you have a disk
that can't be read
in a drive, is it possible to extract data using optical methods, i.e
a microscope? How powerful would the unit need to be?
(Please wrap long text lines!)
If the medium is of low-density, you'll need something to make the
domain walls visible, such as Magnasee, Kyread, Vistamag, QView etc.
Basically a colloidal iron suspension in volatile carrier. Using a
microscope to perform manual reading would be tedious beyond belief.
More appropriate would be a laser with optical pickup.
Usually, when any of the above are used, it's for gross issues, such as
bit crowding, alignment errors, etc. and not for data retrieval.
If you?e talking about modern high-density fixed disks, I don't know of
a visual way, but that? not to say that there isn't one--or that it's
even the preferred method.
--Chuck