Kings Quest V EGA Dual Drive

[MKSheppard]

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?

[MKSheppard]

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

[dotkel50]

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.

[MKSheppard]

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).

[dotkel50]

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.

[MKSheppard]

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.

[Collector]

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.

[MKSheppard]

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.