Disk Transfer Reviews 67

Reply from Disk Transfer

Updated Apr 7, 2025

Many thanks for sending us your Mag-Op disks for Data Transfer from USA, and for leaving a great review :)
You had 600MB Magneto-Optical disks labeled at 512 Bytes/Sector that were last used in SGI Irix computer from mid 1990s (a unix variant) that was either EFS or XFS formatted. One disk side was Apple MacOS HFS formatted.
We made a disk image of each one so it would preserve all the data exactly as it was last written, as well as extracting the files and folders. The data was saved to USB memory sticks and uploaded to cloud server (drop box) so you could easily download the data.
It was an interesting project. We found the disks to be formatted in EFS which was SGI ( Silicon Graphics ) own early filesystem and not commonly understood by modern computers.
So thanks again Daniel for trusting us with your data. Kind regards, Howard Atherton.

Reply from Disk Transfer

Updated Aug 29, 2023

Hello Barry,
Many thanks for choosing us to convert your Claris Cad files. The Mac files consist of 2 parts, a Data Fork and Resource Fork. Sometimes when the files are backed up on different systems like Windows, Unix etc, the Resource fork becomes separated lost.
The Resource Fork is a vital component for Classic Mac OS systems as it tells the Mac which application to use, along with some configuration options and icon for the file. Without it, the Mac Software cannot open the file.
So using a hex editor I manually rebuilt the Resource Fork for each file, then loaded them in to ClarisCad and Claris Works, finally printing them out into PDF, as well as converting to Microsft Word.
Microsoft Word allows easier editing of the file than PDF (PDF usually being a final printing format as opposed to a creation / editing format).
Thanks very much Barry for taking the time to review the work, and so glad you are enjoying editing the CAD files again.
Kind regards, Howard

Reply from Disk Transfer

Jan 30, 2023

Thanks very much for sending us the Sony and Verbatim MO disks for data recovery, and for taking the time to leave us a great review :)
The disks had HFS formatted and FAT32, and were used in small office and home environments, but we still enjoy seeing this retro technology here.
Have a great week! Kind regards, Howard Atherton

Reply from Disk Transfer

Updated Jan 19, 2023

Hi Chris,
Thanks very much for sending over the MO disks, and for taking your valuable time to write a review. It is always appreciated.
In this case you had old MO Disks 3.5 inch by Phillips and Verbatim from the late 1990s containing a book manuscript. The files had been written on an Apple Mac and manually copied, rather than via a backup software like Retrospect.
Thanks for choosing us for this file transfer! Kind regards, Howard Atherton

Reply from Disk Transfer

Jan 17, 2023

Hi Mike,
Many thanks for emailing over the Iomega 1-Step Backup file from a Jaz disk, last used on Windows95.
The file name extension is .1-Step, and typically in the format "Backup Job 1, Disk 1, YY-MM-DD.1-Step".
Iomega and their software no longer exist, so this leaves many users on their own when they wish to restore the files which defeats the objective of having a backup.
Anyway it is great to know the recovery worked out well, and I really appreciate you taking the time to write your review:) Kind regards, Howard

Reply from Disk Transfer

Updated Jan 25, 2022

Hi Richard, Many thanks for your time in writing this review for Mac floppy disk transfer. I really appreciate it. The effort you go into detail helps others decide whether to come to us for their own data recovery. I recall you had tried uploading the floppies via an old-ish Mac but had no success mounting the volumes. However our process overcomes that by making a number of "light" reading passes over the disk to reconstruct the data for the whole disk (a disk image) which we can then pull the files off and convert them for PC or Apple Mac Word. Also the thesis included footnote formatting and Greek letters that initially caused trouble displaying correctly, but eventually we got them to print out ok. Enjoy your evening and thanks again for the 5 stars. Kind regards, Howard

Reply from Disk Transfer

Jan 28, 2021

Good Afternoon Paul,
Many thanks for the excellent review for recovering files from the BBC Floppy Disks. One of the considerations with the BBC floppy disks is that there were so many floppy disks drive variations for the machine, that finding the correct combination to read the disks and extract the files takes a bit of luck and prior experience.
We produce the data in 2 formats. One is saving the individual files and folders, the other is to create a disk image which can often be used in Emulators (such as BeebEm) for the full trip down memory lane.
It is great to know everything worked out ok for you. And thanks again for taking the time to leave a great review and 5 stars. Kind regards, Howard

Reply from Disk Transfer

Nov 23, 2020

The floppy disks were from an old Sharp Font Writer word processor making this a very interesting transfer and file conversion to a USB memory stick. The files used on the Fontwriter are .wp, however they were not Word Perfect but Sharp's own word processor format. Anyway files were extracted and converted to read or edit on an Apple or PC using Microsoft Word.
Thank you very much for the great review and 5 stars. Your time to do this is always appreciated. Kind regards, Howard Atherton

Reply from Disk Transfer

Jun 23, 2020

Hi Phillipa,
Many thanks for your 5 stars and great review on our data recovery. I recall the hard drive was from your 2012 MacBook Pro which was failing and could not access the hard drive at all. The staff at your local Apple shop advised data recovery services as lots of photos and work/household files didn’t have a backed up copy. The Laptop only dispalyed a flashing folder on a white screen on start-up and this was confirmed by Apple Genius Bar. The laptop hard drive was 750GB Hitachi HGST HTS547575A9E384 SATA which we got working and recovered the data to a new disk. Thanks for sending the work to us - it means a lot. Have a great day! Kind regards, Howard Atherton.

Reply from Disk Transfer

Nov 14, 2019

Hi Vima,
Thanks for the 5 stars!
Also for sending us the 3.5 disks, old 5.25" floppies and CD to put on to USB stick, and choosing us to convert the .wpd Word Perfect files Microsoft word .doc for easy editing and viewing.

Reply from Disk Transfer

Nov 28, 2019

Hi Manon
We were delighted you chose us for the conversion of five compact floppy discs, written in Locosoft in the late 80s on an Amstrad word processor. The files were converted to Microsoft word for easy viewing and editing and then emailed back to you.
Thanks very much for your time to review us and leave us 5 stars!
Kind regards, Howard Atherton

Reply from Disk Transfer

Apr 10, 2019

Hi Mr Woodburn,
Many thanks for bringing the USB memory stick to us. These NAND devices are inherently unstable and use sophisticated algorithms to keep your data stable. However sometimes the memory chips fail and data becomes too corrupt for the algorithms to correct so files get lost. Thanks for bearing with us as it took a while to get the data read off the usb due to the internal damage in the chips. Also many thanks for your kind review.

Reply from Disk Transfer

Mar 8, 2019

Hi Theo,
Many thanks for sending us the flight recorder MO disk, and great to know that the recovered data was readable by the aircraft engineers. Thanks for choosing us and for taking the time to write us a review for this data recovery.

Reply from Disk Transfer

Mar 6, 2019

Hi Ms Cartwright,
Thanks for forwarding the 100MB iOmega disks for recovery of the photos backed up on them. The files on the Zip disks were stored in archives called IMAGE.113 (one step backup) which had to be decoded before extracting the files to another medium (eg. cd, dvd or flash drive).
Thanks for taking teh time to leave us 5 sars. Have a great evening!

Reply from Disk Transfer

Mar 5, 2019

Hi Desilu,
Many thanks for sending us the ZIP disks and taking the time to write a review.
At first we had a bit of trouble until we realised the disks were saved using One-Step backup software with password protection - but we got there in the end!

Reply from Disk Transfer

Feb 4, 2019

Hi Frances,
Many thanks for sending us the Amsoft CF-2 compact floppy disc and 3.5inch floppies. Taking the time to send us a review is always appreciated - thanks very much!

Reply from Disk Transfer

Jan 25, 2019

Hi David,
Thanks for the MO optical discs we received for transfer. The discs were Mac formatted, but as you found, Apple computers no longer have SCSI connections for the MO drive to enable download of the graphic design files. So thanks for choosing us and for taking the time to write us a review.

Reply from Disk Transfer

Jan 24, 2019

Hi Richard,
Thanks for sending us the floppy disk, and for taking the time to write us a review. It is appreciated.
This particular floppy had been used on an old Apple Mac computer, but files were still readable despite being over 20 years old. You can't always say that for more modern disks and storage systems!

Reply from Disk Transfer

Jan 23, 2019

Hi Alex,
Many thanks for your time to review our service and for the 5 stars!
Those zip disks do survive quite well even though this one was over 20 years old.
Thanks for choosing us!

Reply from Disk Transfer

Jan 23, 2019

Hi Pete,
Thanks very much for your great review.
The drives for these Amstrad 3" floppy discs have long since been out of production. The discs you sent were recorded back in 1993. We take pride in being able to breath life back into old data so the floppies had their data transferred to MS Word for viewing on modern PCs. Thanks for choosing us for this service, we love old computring gear here!