3 1/2" in floppy..xp says not formatted and I know it has data on

[Guest]

I have an old floppy that has some data on it that is important to me. I put
it in tonight and xp says disc needs to be formatted and won't let me do
anything exept choose yes or no. I think if I choose yes it will erase what
is on the disc. This disc worked a couple of yrs ago. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have an old floppy that has some data on it that is important to me. I put
it in tonight and xp says disc needs to be formatted and won't let me do
anything exept choose yes or no. I think if I choose yes it will erase what
is on the disc. This disc worked a couple of yrs ago. Anyone have any

ideas?

Floppy disks are notorious for becoming unreadable after
a period of time. They must not be used for backup purposes.
Use a hard disk in an external USB case (best), a flash disk
(just as good) or a CD/DVD.

You ***may*** be able to read your disk on somebody else's
floppy disk drive.

 

[Bob I]

What operating system was used the last time it was read. If it was on
the same system, your disk may have died, If it was a Windows 98 or
like, it is likely the media descriptor byte is incorrect and you will
need to read it on a Windows 98 system an copy the data off.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have an old floppy that has some data on it that is important to
me. I put it in tonight and xp says disc needs to be formatted and
won't let me do anything exept choose yes or no. I think if I choose
yes it will erase what is on the disc.

Yes, that's correct. Formatting destroys the contents of the diskette.

This disc worked a couple of
yrs ago. Anyone have any ideas?

Was this diskette created on a system running an older version of Windows?
If so, this is very likely the well-known media-descriptor byte issue. Read
here: http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=140060

Format a new diskette on your Windows XP machine, then take that
XP-formatted disk and the original to a friend who is still running Windows
98 or Me. Copy the diskette to the XP-formatted ones, which will then be
readable on your machine.

 

[Guest]

Thank you all for your responses. I thought that might be it. I used to have
windows 98 on here and updated to xp a couple of years back. Now, I don't
know anyone with windows 98 anymore. My kids have both updated to XP. I'll
have to think of someone. I wish I had known this before updating. I could of
moved it to some other place. I don't use hard discs anymore. It is one I
have had it since the days when that was all I had to store on.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thank you all for your responses. I thought that might be it. I used to have
windows 98 on here and updated to xp a couple of years back. Now, I don't
know anyone with windows 98 anymore. My kids have both updated to XP. I'll
have to think of someone. I wish I had known this before updating. I could of
moved it to some other place. I don't use hard discs anymore.
Really?

It is one I have had it since the days when that was all I had to store

on.

You can boot your machine with a Win98 boot disk from
here: www.bootdisk.com. Perhaps there is even a Win95
boot disk there.

 

[Guest]

I just tried looking at some zip cartridges and they are not recognized
either. It keeps telling me to insert a disc when there is one in there. They
were created pre-XP. Could this be the same problem?

 

[Byllon]

I am using usb hard driver with uplus sync to backup my data with the
driver daily. This program is good for backup with external usb
drivers. It's dangerous for the old data in the floppy because i almost
can not find a floppy disk can be read.