Like duh

[Amy]

I have an old fashioned floppy disk. It worked just 2 days ago, but now
says it is not formatted or has been formatted for Macintosh. The
computer I am using is IBM, and the disk is formatted for that. Where
did the documents go, are they erased, why did this happen when it just
worked the other day on the very same computer that is now telling me
no? Help!!!!

 

[hadnmaiden_fbi]

My advice...stop using floppy disks! Get yourself a USB flash
drive...it's dirt cheap, holds a lot more, and is much more reliable.
The floppy disk syndrome you speak of is getting more and more common
and affects many people.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Amy:
Try the floppy in another computer.

 

[Cats Whiskers]

I have an old fashioned floppy disk. It worked just 2 days ago, but now
says it is not formatted or has been formatted for Macintosh. The
computer I am using is IBM, and the disk is formatted for that. Where
did the documents go, are they erased, why did this happen when it just
worked the other day on the very same computer that is now telling me
no? Help!!!!

Floppy disks are not very reliable, they can and do fail at anytime,
especially if they are old. As suggested, try it in other computers. If it
will not read in other computers then the disk is faulty and you have lost
the data on it.

 

[paulmd]

I have an old fashioned floppy disk. It worked just 2 days ago, but now
says it is not formatted or has been formatted for Macintosh. The
computer I am using is IBM, and the disk is formatted for that. Where
did the documents go, are they erased, why did this happen when it just
worked the other day on the very same computer that is now telling me
no? Help!!!!

Do not panic, and especially don't try do do anything with the disk
until you're ready to attempt a recovery.

Try this to recover. Copy the disk.

you will need a *new* DOS formatted floppy disk.

From the command prompt:

insert bad disk in drive
diskcopy a: a:
chose to continue if even if you get read errors. (most likely it'll
bitch about track 0 not found or something)

when prompted, insert your new floppy disk.

type dir a:

with luck, your files will be there.

 

[Pennywise]

I have an old fashioned floppy disk. It worked just 2 days ago, but now
says it is not formatted or has been formatted for Macintosh. The
computer I am using is IBM, and the disk is formatted for that. Where
did the documents go, are they erased, why did this happen when it just
worked the other day on the very same computer that is now telling me
no? Help!!!!

I have had lots of problems with floppies and XP.

It's been mentioned in this group, to go into your BIOS and select 1.4
for the type of Floppy (mine doesn't have that option).

 

[witan]

I have had lots of problems with floppies and XP.

It's been mentioned in this group, to go into your BIOS and select 1.4
for the type of Floppy (mine doesn't have that option).

It reminds me, I have had similar trouble in Windows 98SE, with
floppies that had Lotus123 (DOS) files on them. That was about 7 yrs
ago. Strangely, there was no problem if I restarted the computer in
full DOS mode.

 

[MAP]

I have an old fashioned floppy disk. It worked just 2 days ago, but
now says it is not formatted or has been formatted for Macintosh. The
computer I am using is IBM, and the disk is formatted for that. Where
did the documents go, are they erased, why did this happen when it
just worked the other day on the very same computer that is now
telling me no? Help!!!!

I have always had problems with floppies and xp. I saved this from a post
from about a week ago I forget who posted it (it was an MVP) and I have yet
to try it myself but here it is.

Restart your PC and check the BIOS (cough CMOS but who's going to listen?)
settings and disable 3 mode floppy support and see if that makes a
difference. It might not - it may well be the drive or the controller but XP
doesn't have three mode support drivers built in and, as such, can be
awfully finicky to the point of reading a disk one moment and the very next
saying that it isn't a formatted disk and/or locking up while trying to read
it.

Good Luck!

 

[Guest]

i had this prob until i updated my floppy driver. let me know if this helps