Cannot open floopy disk in Word

[Emrys Davies]

I have Win98 SE, OE6 and IE6 and Word 2000

My wife has saved a document in Word on a floppy disk using the 'Save
As' heading as 'Jerusalem' and Files of Type as Word Document. It was
saved in Times New Roman -Normal.

Everything was fine until today when the document would not open.

The Open page displays Doc.1
Jerusalem
and the Files of type shows: Word Documents.

When I try to open 'Jerusalem' I get the reminder ' Do you want to
revert to the saved 'Jerusalem', yes or no, but whatever I choose it
does not open.

The .doc file and 'Jerusalem' shows in Windows Explorer and on 'My
Computer', where 245,760 bytes is indicated.

One thing I notice and which is very unusual to me: None of the 'Files
of type' have any extensions on them.

I have tested on a blank disk and everything works fine.

Can you help please?

Regards,
Emrys Davies.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You should never save a Word document directly to a floppy or open one
directly from a floppy. Instead, copy the file to your hard drive and open
it from there.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Emrys Davies]

You should never save a Word document directly to a floppy or open one
directly from a floppy. Instead, copy the file to your hard drive and open
it from there.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

I copied the two files to my dard drive, but they will not open from
there.

 

[Terry Farrell]

In which case it is already corrupt reinforcing the advice never to work
directly with a floppy disk (or any other removable media either).

Try the Recover Text from any File Option (in the File Open dialog) and if
that fails, try opening the doc in WordPad.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

They may already be corrupted, then, by having been saved directly to a
floppy, or by previous attempts at opening. You may be able to extract the
text contents by using the "Recover Text from Any File" setting in the Open
dialog. See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Stefan Blom]

Can you open the documents via the Open dialog box (File | Open)?

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message

 

[Emrys Davies]

In which case it is already corrupt reinforcing the advice never to work
directly with a floppy disk (or any other removable media either).

Try the Recover Text from any File Option (in the File Open dialog) and if
that fails, try opening the doc in WordPad.

Sadly, I cannot find WordPad. Tried Find files and folders but,
although there are lots of references to it, I could not locate it. It
is of course in the Start menu but that will not assist me in this case.
Can someone walk me through opening a file on 'C' in Notepad.

 

[JoAnn Paules]

To start WordPad: Start - All Programs - Accesxsories

--
JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

~~~~~
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

 

[Emrys Davies]

In which case it is already corrupt reinforcing the advice never to work
directly with a floppy disk (or any other removable media either).

Try the Recover Text from any File Option (in the File Open dialog) and if
that fails, try opening the doc in WordPad.

Would you be more explicit here please: "Try the Recover Text from any
File Option (in the File Open dialog)" I think I know what you mean,
but would like to be sure that I doing the right thing. I could not open
the files in WordPad. I am learning fast, but I need quite basic
instructions as I am a bit out of my depth here at the moment.

Thanks a lot.
Emrys Davies.

 

[Emrys Davies]

open choose

Would you be more explicit here please: "Try the Recover Text from any
File Option (in the File Open dialog)" I think I know what you mean,
but would like to be sure that I doing the right thing. I could not open
the files in WordPad. I am learning fast, but I need quite basic
instructions as I am a bit out of my depth here at the moment.

Thanks a lot.
Emrys Davies.

Found that now: "Recover Text from any file"
and working on it. Recovered some text which is somewhat jumbled, but I
am getting there slowly. I think that the floppy is too corrupted, but
not much has been lost. In any case most of the information, if not
all, is on another floppy.

Thanks,
Emrys Davies.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Found that now: "Recover Text from any file"
and working on it. Recovered some text which is somewhat jumbled,
but I am getting there slowly. I think that the floppy is too
corrupted, but not much has been lost. In any case most of the
information, if not all, is on another floppy.

Thanks,
Emrys Davies.

Don't even think of opening the document(s) directly from your backup floppy
or that will corrupt also.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Emrys Davies]

Can you open the documents via the Open dialog box (File | Open)?

No, that failed, although some jumbled text was revealed. However, I
have been able to recover the lost data from 'bits and pieces'. I have
fully formatted the disk and it is working now that I am following the
correct procedures as advised by the forum. I also have back-up
engaged.

Would you answer this question for me as it will help my learning curve.
I now know (and am following religiously) that I must not save a Word
document directly to a floppy and that if I use a floppy I must copy a
file to it from where it is saved on the hard drive. If I do the
latter, why is it now safe to open the file from the floppy, directly?

Also, I did my Word studies some eight years ago and I cannot recall
being given any anti corruption advice about floppy disks, although I
did obtain City & Guilds in Word level 1 and 2, so that prompts me to
ask, in the nicest possible way, if there has been a big learning curve
re Word in the meantime.

Thanks a lot
Emrys Davies.

 

[Emrys Davies]

In which case it is already corrupt reinforcing the advice never to work
directly with a floppy disk (or any other removable media either).

When you say "or any other removable media either" are you including a
USB Flashdrive, as I used one of them to back-up my .dbx files. I made
a folder on the Flash Drive and copied my Identity into it from Windows
Folders. Or does your observation just relate to Word, only?

Thanks,
Emrys Davies.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

This relates primarily to Word and covers (to some extent) *all* removable
media. You should not save directly to them nor open directly from them.
Always work from the HD. There's even a setting on the Save tab of Tools |
Options to "Make local copy of files stored on network or removable drives."

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[JoAnn Paules]

Never save directly to removable media - period.

--
JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

~~~~~
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

 

[Terry Farrell]

The observation only relates to Word - though I would not reply solely on a
Flash Drive for anything that is mission critical as they are not
invulnerable to corrupting or dying and the data does have a limited life.
It would be better to back up to a CDR or DVDR and use verify to ensure they
files are correctly written.

Terry

 

[Jay Freedman]

When you say "or any other removable media either" are you including a
USB Flashdrive, as I used one of them to back-up my .dbx files. I
made a folder on the Flash Drive and copied my Identity into it from
Windows Folders. Or does your observation just relate to Word, only?

Thanks,
Emrys Davies.

The advice is specific for Word (although there may be some other programs
that behave similarly) and mostly for floppies (but with some caveats for
other removable media).

The big problem with Word and floppy disks comes from the way Word uses
temporary files (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=211632). There are a
number of temp files, some of them as large as the document itself, that
Word must keep in the same folder as the original document. With the limited
capacity of floppy disks, the total size of the document and its temp files
can easily exceed that capacity. If that happens, Word behaves badly, and
irretrievably corrupted documents are the result.

On a USB drive or other gigabyte-or-larger removable media, this specific
kind of problem is unlikely (although theoretically still possible, as it
would also be on a nearly full hard drive). The danger here is that you may
forget that you have a document open -- maybe in a minimized window -- and
remove the drive. That, too, can result in a corrupted document.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Emrys Davies]

They may already be corrupted, then, by having been saved directly to a
floppy, or by previous attempts at opening. You may be able to extract the
text contents by using the "Recover Text from Any File" setting in the Open
dialog. See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

Susanne,

A very relevant link, the contents of which I am still studying. Other
advice is getting me there slowly and is very much appreciated. Just
one point at the moment: I have 'Save AutoRecover info every 10
minutes' enabled and I am not sure that this is a good idea yet for the
likes of myself and my wife, who I am helping. What are your thoughts
on that please?

Thanks,
Emrys Davies.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Why do you think this is a bad idea? The AutoRecovery backups are saved to
the HD regardless of the location of the file itself, and the more often
they are made (up to a point), the better.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Stefan Blom]

in message

No, that failed, although some jumbled text was revealed. However, I
have been able to recover the lost data from 'bits and pieces'. I have
fully formatted the disk and it is working now that I am following the
correct procedures as advised by the forum. I also have back-up
engaged.

Would you answer this question for me as it will help my learning curve.
I now know (and am following religiously) that I must not save a Word
document directly to a floppy and that if I use a floppy I must copy a
file to it from where it is saved on the hard drive. If I do the
latter, why is it now safe to open the file from the floppy, directly?

The reason why you should never open files from, or save files to, a floppy
disk is that there isn't enough space for Word's temporary files on the
floppy, which may cause corruption. However, you can still *copy* files to
or from a floppy if you want to move it (even though USB sticks are safer,
and can store a lot more data).

Also, I did my Word studies some eight years ago and I cannot recall
being given any anti corruption advice about floppy disks, although I
did obtain City & Guilds in Word level 1 and 2, so that prompts me to
ask, in the nicest possible way, if there has been a big learning curve
re Word in the meantime.

Eight years ago, floppy disks were pretty much what was available (to
ordinary users, at least). I guess that explains why nobody warned for
them...

Seriously speaking, files are more complex in recent versions of Word. They
are also larger (this does not apply to files created in the new file
formats of Office 2007, though).