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When I put the disc in the A drive it says the disc is not formatted and will not open. Is there any way the documents on it can be recovered? Or am I totally screwed?

2006-07-18 13:11:27 · 5 answers · asked by mrjones502003 4 in Computers & Internet Hardware Desktops

5 answers

Check out this link

2006-07-18 13:56:16 · answer #1 · answered by mrresearchman 6 · 0 1

Try bringing the document up from the computer that you originally stored it on, when you used the floppy. If that doesn't help, then there is nothing that I know of that can be done.

Otherwise, here is a Website that claims that the data can be recovered (for a fee of course). I don't know how important the document is.

http://www.hotdownloads.com/index.php3?job=3&id=43587

2006-07-18 16:45:46 · answer #2 · answered by Christian93 5 · 0 0

This is a very common problem, and since floppies are rarely used
now, the " how to " knowledge has been lost...

Whatever you do, do NOT scandisk, check for errors, or
defrag, or do any " dumb " built in " new and improved" feature
in Windows - it does not care about your files, -- only about the
floppy itself, and will destroy your data permanently!!

1/ Make sure your disk is Write Protected ( a holey disk is "holy" and
cannot be destroyed by a dumb machine, so make certain
the slide tabs are slid OPEN to have 2 holes (( assuming
you are using 3 1/2 inch High Density diskettes )) )

2/ The vague mention in the first answer that someone copied
the disk, bit by bit, was correct -- NEVER touch the original
floppy, but use software to copy the bits, one at a time to a
second floppy and, then you can attack the second floppy
to try to re-gain your floppy...

This question has been asked a few times in various ways,
and my typical answer is below :


________________________________________________



almond_hu
2 months ago



How can i retrieve files in a floppy disk that require to be formatt?

I am using a floppy disk to do my home work. But just now when i want to get files from that floopy disk, there display a message ask me to format my floppy disk. How can i retrieve all files in that floopy disk without format it? why this could happen?
5 answers


robin_graves
2 months ago



Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

FIRST, WRITE PROTECT THE FLOPPY !!
If this is the disk that you were using all along, then
you have just worn it out --- I know someone who did one year's worth of work on a single floppy ( VERY BAD IDEA ). If you do work in the future on a floppy, use about 7 floppies, and
change the floppy each day - update the NEXT floppy, each time you use it, so that you only loose one days worth of work at the most. ALSO, I do not know what program you are using, but if you take EXCEL and some other programs, there is NO SAVE,
-- it is a hidden feature that you have to go into the menu and turn on, and then activate. Some colleges, believe it or not, tell the students to use the same floppy over and over, NEVER tell the students to save anything, and never suggest using different floppies.... Some accounting programs have no save whatsoever !! ON THE HARDDRIVE, SO THAT YOU ARE fubar -- THE PROGRAM ONLY "SAVES" WHEN YOU exit the program or switch input modes etc. and then, only if you ask...

SO....

Make absolutely certain that no " FORMAT" or REPAIR in Scandisk " etc. can take place...

Then, 1 / As someone suggested, try the floppy in another computer.... if it will not read, then you have worn out the
BOOT RECORD where the head of the floppy reads what the floppy is, and what is on it... IF it DOES work, save to harddrive, and make another floppy with the information copied from the harddrive to the new floppy...

2/ Someone suggested that you use a program to try to gather the data from... As well I would suggest searching the web for FLOPPY FIX, or FILE REPAIR etc. There are dozens of programs that read CD's, FLoppies, and HARDDRIVES that are corrupt, and these programs show you whatever the raw data is, --- sometimes this data can be copied into a " RESTORED" file, such as in EXCEL, which has a couple of programs that will re-Structure the corrupt data, into a working file - the bad data bits will be missing, but most of your work will be there.... FLOPPY COPY and FLOPPY FIX were 2 programs that I have used in the past... Search the web to see what is currently available...
Once you "have" the data, you may have to go another step and use a specific program to re-structure the file in the same format as the program that you were using... for example, you might be using ZARKADSoft, and then you would need a program that took the raw data, and re-sturctured working ZARKADSoft files - just " Repairing " the files may not be enough to get you going again... your program ( whatever you were using to create the floppy information ), may not understand the " Repaired " files if just raw data is used, and EXCEL, and Accounting software will do a CRC check or file length check, and discover that the file is missing data, or has data changed within the file, and refuse to open the document... Even if it is " Mostly " there...

The most important thing to do is to NOT TOUCH the floppy with any software - scandisk " repair" and other " FIX" software that re-writes the disk itself will usually destroy the information on the floppy. Only programs that " READ " the floppy, and make " COPIES " on the harddrive or on another floppy, should be used...

As a last resort, there are dozens of computer repair centers around the world that will take a floppy or harddrive, and read the information for you. These companies are in the phone books, and are used by LARGE Corporations, when invaluable data is lost, and millions of dollars of work are at stake... They will not even give you quote as to how much it will cost, over the phone.... ( That alone should give you a hint as to how expensive it is )...


Good Luck

__________________________________________________

There are anumber of copy programs out there, that do not
use DOS, and which ignore DOS's rather crude copy parameters ( ie if DOS detects any errors, it just quits ).

Search the web for floppy copy software, and much of it
will be out of date, and free, since floppies are so out of date,
new computers do not even have them... try a search for
an old non windows exe program like TELEDISK etc.

Hopefully, much of the data is still there. Try a DISK HEAD
cleaner, which is a white fiberous disk with a bottle of alcohol,
which you put in the floppy to remove dust and bits of magnetic
material from the read heads. Cheap floppies often leave some
of the magnetic coating on the heads, as do very worn out
floppies. Rarely used Floppy readers clog up with dust. Yanking
out and roughly inserting floppies while the machine is running
can cause mini head crashes that collect magnetic particles
and scrape the surface.

Miss-alignment of the read heads from one Floppy reader to the next happens a GREAT deal, and the advice from the answerer
above to READ the disk in the SAME machine that created it, is
very good - you can read and write floppies on a machine with the read heads out of alignment ( they are starting the first track
moved over a tiny bit , and following that position each step, or track, across the surface ) for years with no problems, until you
try to read or write those floppies on any OTHER machine !!.

Also, VERY different technologies existed over the lifetime of
the manufacture of ordinary floppies, with different heads, different tolerances, and different amplifiers, etc. so that a
"bad" disk may be readable on reader that has better amplification, or a head that "sees" the magnetic data better...

Hope this information helps !

ROBIN

2006-07-18 17:33:21 · answer #3 · answered by robin_graves 4 · 0 0

There is a way to do it. My father-in-law, a computer guru from the beginning when they first came out, did it before. I don't know exactly what procedure he used, but I remember him saying that he had copied the disk, bit by bit. Meaning the actual bits on the disk. Other than that, I have no idea. His level of knowledge far exceeded a typical computer users.

2006-07-18 13:17:42 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Stick the floppy into the floppy drive. Open MY COMPTER, and right click on A DRIVE. Click on tools, and then ERROR CHECKING and CHECK NOW. After it runs, the floppy should work.

2006-07-18 16:39:53 · answer #5 · answered by ddesa 4 · 0 0

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