Floppy

[L.F.]

I used a floppy to save some files. Now Windows is
saying that the floppy is not formatted. What do I do to
get to these files?

[Rob Schneider]

L.F. wrote:
> I used a floppy to save some files. Now Windows is
> saying that the floppy is not formatted. What do I do to
> get to these files?

floppy is probably dead. hopefully you saved a copy first on your hard
disk. never ever rely on floppy disk to save only copy of anything.

if you didn't save copy on hard disk, you may be out of luck. best you
can do is try to repair the floppy. but that would take special
software which you probably don't have.

[Russ]

You could try scandisk in the floppy properties.
>-----Original Message-----
>L.F. wrote:
>> I used a floppy to save some files. Now Windows is
>> saying that the floppy is not formatted. What do I do
to
>> get to these files?
>
>floppy is probably dead. hopefully you saved a copy
first on your hard
>disk. never ever rely on floppy disk to save only copy
of anything.
>
>if you didn't save copy on hard disk, you may be out of
luck. best you
>can do is try to repair the floppy. but that would take
special
>software which you probably don't have.
>
>.
>

[Dean Black]

Could also be a bad drive. I have a floppy with files on it on my computer
the files are there but on my daughters the computer states that the floppy
needs formatted. Have had the problem before and it has been a bad drive.
Try the floppy on another computer. Then try reading a floppy created on
another computer.


"Rob Schneider" > wrote in message
...
> L.F. wrote:
> > I used a floppy to save some files. Now Windows is
> > saying that the floppy is not formatted. What do I do to
> > get to these files?
>
> floppy is probably dead. hopefully you saved a copy first on your hard
> disk. never ever rely on floppy disk to save only copy of anything.
>
> if you didn't save copy on hard disk, you may be out of luck. best you
> can do is try to repair the floppy. but that would take special
> software which you probably don't have.
>

[Ken Blake]

"L.F." > wrote in message
...

> I used a floppy to save some files. Now Windows is
> saying that the floppy is not formatted. What do I do to
> get to these files?



Did you create the floppy on the same computer? The first thing
to do is to try to read the floppy on another computer,
preferably the one you created it on, if it's not the same one.


--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

[Unknown]

Probably a head alignment problem.
"Russ" > wrote in message
...
> You could try scandisk in the floppy properties.
> >-----Original Message-----
> >L.F. wrote:
> >> I used a floppy to save some files. Now Windows is
> >> saying that the floppy is not formatted. What do I do
> to
> >> get to these files?
> >
> >floppy is probably dead. hopefully you saved a copy
> first on your hard
> >disk. never ever rely on floppy disk to save only copy
> of anything.
> >
> >if you didn't save copy on hard disk, you may be out of
> luck. best you
> >can do is try to repair the floppy. but that would take
> special
> >software which you probably don't have.
> >
> >.
> >

[Khemyst]

BEFORE you scandisk which could totally blow your data into oblivion.....:

1: Try reseating the disk a few times. I've had dust get in the way of
floppies seating properly- blew air cleaner into a floppy, and it quit
reading- found a big dust bunny in the seating rail that kept it from
aligning properly- second hit with air cleaner took care of business...

2: Purchase a floppy cleaning kit- try cleaning the floppy drive. (allow
the cleaning solution to completely evaporate- (like at least 15 minutes or
so) so the freon/isopropyl mixture remaining on the read/write head doesn't
dissolve the ferric oxide floppy coating on your disk when you insert it
into the drive... I've resurrected many a floppy this way. It ground and
clunked, and banged away, but got the job done... Eventually I got to learn
in the office- who had marginal floppy drives and used them as a last resort
to try to rescue floppies..

3: Try reading it on another computer. We often have this problem at work-
mostly because of issues related to item #4- temperature- particularly with
laptops...

4: If its temperature related. Most materials expand with temp except
water- which is why ice floats...(If the disk was in the computer a long
time before you wrote it, the mylar r/w media base got hot and may have
expanded, (usually a problem more with notebook/laptops that run hotter)
and it wrote the sectors differently (marginally) vs cooler floppies. If it
was in a long time when it got written to, try the same- let it get warm and
try to re-read again.



"L.F." > wrote in message
...
> I used a floppy to save some files. Now Windows is
> saying that the floppy is not formatted. What do I do to
> get to these files?