HELP!! PROBLEM WITH FLOPPY DISK

ok,

im running windows XP. i brought a diskette to college to finsh writing this paper i am working on and save what i wrote to the disk...everything is fine. then later on i go to boot the disk in the A drive like usual and now it says all of the sudfden that my disk isnt formatted so now i cant open anything. i had been using this disk all day. opened stuff from it a bunch of times and then all of the sudden it doesnt work anymore.

can someone please tell me how i can restore the disk without having to reformate it and loose all my stuff. i didnt make a back up or anything..but there has to be a way doesnt there? again, im running windows XP. this was a microsoft word document.

Thank you,
Digitalgrl

Im just wondering, are you trying this disk on two computers or did it just stop working on the same computer.

Windows XP can be very picky when it comes to floppy disks.

Dont format the disk until you get the data someway !

My guess, at this time is that the disk will work on the same computer that you saved the data on (School).

The problem usually comes up when taking a new floppy disk from computer to computer. Not all the drives are the same and this comes up especially when moving from OS to OS. Say saving data on a windows 98 machine and then trying to access it on a windows XP machine.

This is just my guess though. Im not saying that it will work.

Also if you are getting the problem on one machine, (ie the disk was ok, you saved it was ok and then it gives you an error on the same machine) try the disk again and again. Sometimes they act strange.

Search "disk is not formatted" on google or google groups to see what other people are saying about the error before you go ahead and do anything.

Its been awhile since I used a floppy disk so take what I say with a grain of salt.

I hate it when this happens but 9/10 it is because I try to move data from a Windows 98SE machine to XP (or try to move data via floppy from 98SE to XP on the same system - don't ask why complicated family politics!). I found the easiest thing to do was use a USB key (solid state disk basically). With Windows XP they are driverless (v useful around campus) and if the drivers are installed on a windows 98 machine then this issue doesn't occur. If you conisder this option then the things are quite cheap now, just ask a friend with a windows 98 machine (or whatever OS you were transfering from) to install the drivers and move the data across for you, or do it yourself on a school machine if the policies let you (N.B. not just the OS policies but school policies as well!).

nope i tried it on the computer i saved it on at school and about 10 other ones. and i didnt move the data from 98 to xp.

apparently what happened was the library has metal detectors in it and i didnt have my diskette in a case so it reacted with it funny...at least thats what the computer tech guy said at my college. i did have some of my paper saved to the computer instead of the disk so i just rewrote what was left. thanks anyways

digitalgrl

go [urlwww.download.com...]here[url]
and download this program. IT will probably only let you recover a few items before the trial is over, but that may be all you need. My advice is to always save to more than one location. Emailing yourself documents is a handy way to save data. If you get a free online account you could have that data ready to access no matter where you are, internet connection provided.

I hate to say it, but if it went through a metal detector, it is probably gone. I don't know any way to recover a floppy, so try what the others have suggested.

As I'm sure you realised by now is that floppy's cannot be trusted. The faintest sign of electro magnetism corrupts them and sometimes they'll stop working for no reason at all. And once they're damaged you can kiss the data goodbye - 9 out of 10 times...
I don't know how we got along with them for all those years... Oh yes, the point of my post was to urge you to invest in a USB Flash drive. I've dropped mine from several heights, and it's been through the wash on more than one occasion ... to be honest I'm pretty careless with it, but I have not once have a problem with it. It seems to be indestructible. And what's more - they store thousands of times more information than a floppy. Thus, do yourself a favour, and invest in a memory stick, and chuck those floppies out the window...


Edit: Nevermind... I didn't realise this thread was an ancient one...

[edit on 10-2-2006 by Gemwolf]