How can I format my floppy disc without losing everything?

Question

I have a ton of work that is due on this floppy, and only on the floppy. Tons of stuff. Anyway when I go to use it it says I need to format it. When I go to format it says I will lose everything. There is no way I can lose the info for the whole 2 weeks of work, and no way to start over!

Answer 1

no sorry that's what formatting is going to do, erase everything. think of this. are you using the floppy in different computers? try using the same computer you used first. another thing try using memory sticks they're not that expensive and you would avoid those problems in the future.

Answer 2

Typically if it is telling you that you need to format the floppy, it is either formated already under a different operating system or it has never been formatted. If it was formated on the same computer you are using, then the allocation table might be corrupt on the disk. Have you tried doing a chkdsk or scandisk of the floppy? Hope this helps!

Answer 3

There's no way to format it without losing data. If it's telling you it's not formatted and you're sure data was stored on it, then it's some how became corrupted as the disk would've had to been formatted prior to storing data on it. Some disk come pre-formatted so if it wasn't formatted before you tried to store data on it, it would've told you then. So if it's now saying it's not formatted then the disk is now bad and the data is probably already lost.

I don't know if data can be recovered from a floppy, but you I'd suggest calling a Computer Repair shop and see if they have any solutions for you.

Answer 4

First, I assume you're using one platform - ie the disk was created on a pc, and you're trying to read it on a pc. If the disk was created on a Mac, it will have been "initialized" which is their term for formatted. Next, try what someone else suggested and try to open it from a DOS prompt. If that does nothing, try this; Put the floppy in the drive and type, without the quotes, " xcopy A:\ C:\"
If that doesn't work, look for software online which will read disks directly, ie without accessing the disk's native FAT. The only thing I've seen that comes close to that is a program called "DirSnoop". ps You might try opening it in a Mac - If it is going to work, the Mac will open a program called MacLink in an attempt to read the disk. Good luck!

Answer 5

Try to use a norton disk doctor (part of norton utilities) with that floppy
The program have also the option for floppy disk and sometime works.
try to use that floppy on the olsd computer with other operating system for example Win 98 even dos
Try to read and copy this floppy in dos mode
strat windows in safe mode with command promt
change to A:> (with cd..)
and type dir /p
It is possible to work and permit you to make a copy
A tutorial about dos commands can be found here:
http://www.computerhope.com/msdos.htm

Answer 6

It sounds to me like you've already lost the data. When you go to use it, it says to re-format?

If you can really use it, then copy everything off to your C:\ drive, re-format the floppy and then copy everything back to the floppy.

Answer 7

Buy another floppy disk! Move the info onto a hard drive. Put the info on a new disk.

Answer 8

Ouch. If you did the work on another computer, you may want to go to that computer and copy all your files over to a flash drive. Obviously your computer cannot read the floppy.

Answer 9

sometimes floppy drives become out of alignment
and will only read disks that it wrote to
it becomes a problem moving data from one puter to another
if that is your situtaion
put the disk into the computer that you originally used to save your work, it should read then

Answer 10

To my knowledge its not possible as Format does erase all data.
May be Search for some data recovery software . But i have heard it for HArd disks but not for floppy drives.


But finally
GOK ---- God only Knows.