3 1/4 discs

[Geoff Richards]

I have a number of these floppies with files on that I have used for a few
years. now I am told that the format on them is not recognised or they might
need to be formatted. Another response is that the format is RAW.
In the past they have opened ok in word. Can anyone please explain what has
happened and can the contents be retrieved?

 

[Miss P.T.]

I have a number of these floppies with files on that I have used for a few
years. now I am told that the format on them is not recognised or they might
need to be formatted. Another response is that the format is RAW.
In the past they have opened ok in word. Can anyone please explain what has
happened and can the contents be retrieved?

1) This has nothing whatsoever to do with Office.
2) Anyone who stores valuable data on floppies, without a backup on
another, more secure and reliable, medium deserves everything they get.
3) They are dead. Your work is gone. Let this be a valuable lesson to you
on the unreliability and corruptibility of the floppy disk.

 

[Bob I]

Minor correction, the discs would be 3 1/2. But they should be readable
on a Windows 98 PC. To recover the data, format NEW floppies on the
Windows XP (NT operating system) and then take them and the OLD floppies
to the Win 98 PC and transfer OLD to HD TO NEW.

 

[Bob I]

In addition to the previous, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER edit the files directly

 

[VManes]

Miss PT - get up on the wrong side of the monitor again?

It's not that floppies are inherently unreliable or corruptible. It's that
WinXP does not adequately support all modes of floppy drives. M$ has said
so in a KB (I don't have it handy right now.) Or, in another view of it,
not all $10 floppy drives are M$ certified.

Just part of the Wintel conspiracy to force out legacy hardware interfaces -
floppies, parallel printers, RS-232 serial devices.

***************************
Practice safe eating -- always use condiments.
***************************

I have a number of these floppies with files on that I have used for a few
years. now I am told that the format on them is not recognised or they
might
need to be formatted. Another response is that the format is RAW.
In the past they have opened ok in word. Can anyone please explain what
has
happened and can the contents be retrieved?

1) This has nothing whatsoever to do with Office.
2) Anyone who stores valuable data on floppies, without a backup on
another, more secure and reliable, medium deserves everything they get.
3) They are dead. Your work is gone. Let this be a valuable lesson to you
on the unreliability and corruptibility of the floppy disk.