URGENT question, saved to floppy, now I can't read it

[PeterM]

One of our ladies in the office saved a excel file to a floppy, and now
we can't read it. It wants to be formatted. We used the disk before, and
it has several files on it. Is there a magic program that I can
buy/download/use, to get my file back. Nothing was deleted, or
undeleted. Any help is appreciated........Peter

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Xref: kermit microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics:226057

If you have access to a Windows 9x machine, that's a PC with one of the
Windows 9x operating systems installed, see if you can retrieve the files on
that system.

NOTE: do not try to open the files on the floppy disk, copy them to the hard
drive and try opening them there.

--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

"PeterM" > wrote in message
...
> One of our ladies in the office saved a excel file to a floppy, and now
> we can't read it. It wants to be formatted. We used the disk before, and
> it has several files on it. Is there a magic program that I can
> buy/download/use, to get my file back. Nothing was deleted, or
> undeleted. Any help is appreciated........Peter
>
>

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In ,
PeterM > typed:

> One of our ladies in the office saved a excel file to a floppy,
and
> now we can't read it. It wants to be formatted. We used the
disk
> before, and it has several files on it. Is there a magic
program that
> I can buy/download/use, to get my file back. Nothing was
deleted, or
> undeleted. Any help is appreciated........Peter


Have you tried reading it on more than one machine? If yes and it
won't read on any, the floppy is apparently NG. Floppies are
*not* a reliable media for saving data.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

[gls858]

PeterM wrote:

> One of our ladies in the office saved a excel file to a floppy, and now
> we can't read it. It wants to be formatted. We used the disk before, and
> it has several files on it. Is there a magic program that I can
> buy/download/use, to get my file back. Nothing was deleted, or
> undeleted. Any help is appreciated........Peter
>
>
If you are trying to open it on a different machine
go back to the machine that copied the file to the
diskette and try there. Floppy drives sometimes have
head alignment problems.

gls858

[Kevin]

While all the other replies to your inquiry are very good, and posted by
folks who know a hell of a lot more about this than I do, I do have an idea
not mentioned by any previous replies. Was the file actually saved with the
..xls extension, or did it get saved, by accident, with some other extension?
I know you have thought of this, but if not, have you opened Excel on the
machine it was saved on and checked for the file in the File menu item?
With luck, it will be among the most recent documents opened and you can
retrieve it from there. Good luck!

"PeterM" > wrote in message
...
> One of our ladies in the office saved a excel file to a floppy, and now
> we can't read it. It wants to be formatted. We used the disk before, and
> it has several files on it. Is there a magic program that I can
> buy/download/use, to get my file back. Nothing was deleted, or
> undeleted. Any help is appreciated........Peter
>
>

[PeterM]

Bless you all, and especially Michael, that came up with the first
answer it worked. I went to the only Win 98 machine, and it read the
files. I made a tremendous jump all over the place, and the ladies as
well as the guys here are as happy as we can be. What a relief on such
short notice you are all so wonderful. The files all had the xls
extensions, thanks for the idea though, I did that once myself, forgot
the extension and couldn't find the file.
The Office manager is the one that saved the file, and she saved it
instead of copying it to the floppy. Then no one here had her log on and
she is in Texas. You all did it and saved the day........many many many
thanks.........Peter


"Kevin" > wrote in message
...
> While all the other replies to your inquiry are very good, and posted
by
> folks who know a hell of a lot more about this than I do, I do have an
idea
> not mentioned by any previous replies. Was the file actually saved
with the
> .xls extension, or did it get saved, by accident, with some other
extension?
> I know you have thought of this, but if not, have you opened Excel on
the
> machine it was saved on and checked for the file in the File menu
item?
> With luck, it will be among the most recent documents opened and you
can
> retrieve it from there. Good luck!
>
> "PeterM" > wrote in message
> ...
> > One of our ladies in the office saved a excel file to a floppy, and
now
> > we can't read it. It wants to be formatted. We used the disk before,
and
> > it has several files on it. Is there a magic program that I can
> > buy/download/use, to get my file back. Nothing was deleted, or
> > undeleted. Any help is appreciated........Peter
> >
> >
>
>

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

You're welcome, Peter, glad I could help.

For future reference, XP has issues with some floppies and the issue has not
been resolved. For one thing, there's no pattern to it. But one thing I
can tell you, XP is far less forgiving of imperfections or any issue that
might exist with a floppy disk and as such, you can run into this type of
issue. The XP boards are replete with such problems, it's quite common.
The best thing you can do is start moving any data now saved on floppy disk
to some other media.

Good luck, Peter and thank you for the kind words.

--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

"PeterM" > wrote in message ...
> Bless you all, and especially Michael, that came up with the first
> answer it worked. I went to the only Win 98 machine, and it read the
> files. I made a tremendous jump all over the place, and the ladies as
> well as the guys here are as happy as we can be. What a relief on such
> short notice you are all so wonderful. The files all had the xls
> extensions, thanks for the idea though, I did that once myself, forgot
> the extension and couldn't find the file.
> The Office manager is the one that saved the file, and she saved it
> instead of copying it to the floppy. Then no one here had her log on and
> she is in Texas. You all did it and saved the day........many many many
> thanks.........Peter
>
>
> "Kevin" > wrote in message
> ...
>> While all the other replies to your inquiry are very good, and posted
> by
>> folks who know a hell of a lot more about this than I do, I do have an
> idea
>> not mentioned by any previous replies. Was the file actually saved
> with the
>> .xls extension, or did it get saved, by accident, with some other
> extension?
>> I know you have thought of this, but if not, have you opened Excel on
> the
>> machine it was saved on and checked for the file in the File menu
> item?
>> With luck, it will be among the most recent documents opened and you
> can
>> retrieve it from there. Good luck!
>>
>> "PeterM" > wrote in message
>> ...
>> > One of our ladies in the office saved a excel file to a floppy, and
> now
>> > we can't read it. It wants to be formatted. We used the disk before,
> and
>> > it has several files on it. Is there a magic program that I can
>> > buy/download/use, to get my file back. Nothing was deleted, or
>> > undeleted. Any help is appreciated........Peter
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>
>