Hi, Paul posted this a day or so after the other post and it seems the Hot & Cold Affair disk did work again after leaving it overnight (see below). Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk --- Paul Panks <lumberjacks76 at lycos.com> wrote: There is an addendum added to yesterday's posting of Phase III of the Diskette Experiments. Here is the addendum: A new conclusion has been reached regarding the second disk experiment. Additionally, the final Phase III conclusion has been modified somewhat to showcase this change: "The Hot and Cold Affair ----------------------- This test called for putting ice cubes on the front side of the disk, while simultaneously holding the back side of the disk over a stovetop range at Medium heat (held approximately 3/4th of a foot from the surface of the stovetop due to overwhelming heat and potential hand burn considerations). The disk was held over the surface for a period of ten (10) minutes, while carefully juggling the ice cubes on the 1st surface simultaneously. The disk was allowed to cool for a period of 20 minutes, then read. The result was a disk that did not read, as the internal mylar floppy could barely be moved by force from side to side by this person. Conclusion: The disk was unreadable due to a physical (non-bit) failure of the disk jacket and internal disk mylar semi-sticking to the jacket itself. However, after waiting overnight and trying the disk again, it read without error. Performing a simple read/write on the disk -- writing (then reading back) a 2 block sequential file -- worked flawlessly. Although heating the disk and placing icecubes atop it is not recommended, the disk nonetheless did recover once it was allowed to cool overnight." The conclusion has also been modified somewhat. Here is the change: "Experiment Phase III Conclusions -------------------------------- Two of the disks were a total loss, as the experiment never progressed beyond the first question asked ("Could a disk still be read by the disk drive?"). The disk in the "Hot/Cold Affair" experiment failed at first, but then worked upon waiting 24 hours for the internal disk mylar to cool overnight. Disks are not impervious to permanent and irreversible physical damage from oatmeal, milk, water, heat ( >= 250 degrees F ), ice cubes, shoes and golf spikes. Heating a disk and placing ice cubes atop it will cause it to temporarily become unreadable, although the disk should return to working order within 24 hours. It is nonetheless strongly recommended by this person that end users strictly avoid such implements (as described above) when at, near or around a floppy disk or drive." The entirety of the Diskette Experiments can be viewed online here: http://www.geocities.com/dunric/diskfun.txt Paul