[rawhide]

the 340-megabyte drive was only half full, and the damage happened where data had not yet been written. Edwards attributes that to a lucky twist: The computer was running an ancient operating system, DOS, which does not scatter data all over drives as other approaches do.

Good old DOS.

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After cleaning the platters with a chemical solution, Edwards used them in a newly built drive. The process — two days from start to finish — captured 99 percent of the drive's information

[babygene]

More credit goes to the drive manufacturer in my opinion than to DOS. On this generation of disk drive, the servo code is embedded in the data allowing the heads to properly track the center of the data track and also identify the beginning and end of the error correction code for each sector. Older drives used a servo surface on one plater which was used as a reference for all the other platters. That would gave been tougher.