Can't read 3.5 in floppy

[Guest]

I have a laptop that uses windows 98. I have been having loads of trouble
wiht the hardware, saved some vital files to disk. The laptop as since died
and now I can't read the disks on my PC which has is XP. I can't reformat
the disks without loosing the info?

help!

 

[Rob Schneider]

What is the exact error message?

It could be that the floppy disks are as dead as the laptop. Have you
tried on another machine?

It could be that the floppy drive on the XP machine is bad. They are so
inexpensive these days that you might want to try buying a new one and
give that a try.

Or it could be XP. There are a few issues, as I understand (but have
not seen it in real life). See
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;811839 and other
articles via the search of the KB at
http://support.microsoft.com/search...sk&QuerySource=gsfxSearch_Query&srchExtraQry=

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms

 

[GHalleck]

I have a laptop that uses windows 98. I have been having loads of trouble
wiht the hardware, saved some vital files to disk. The laptop as since died
and now I can't read the disks on my PC which has is XP. I can't reformat
the disks without loosing the info?

help!

First, check via bios setup that the floppy disk drive
is enabled. Second, if it cannot read a pre-formatted
floppy diskette, either bought new or formatted on a
known, working computer, then replace the floppy disk
drive. Do not reformat the floppy diskettes without
retrieving the data; formatting will delete the saved
data.

 

[BarCom]

No!!! Do not reformat anything. There are many, many recovery progs out
there for just this sort of problem.

 

[Guest]

Disk is not formatted
The disk in drive A is not formatted.
Do you want to format it now?

that is the exact error message.

I have used disks formatted by my laptop previously in other machines,
including my PC prior to installing an XP upgrade.

 

[Rob Schneider]

The same possible root-causes apply.

If I were you, I'd find a machine that can read these floppies, and then
from that machine a) copy files to CD, b) copy files to a shared lan
drive accessable also by XP machine, or c) email the files to the XP
machine.

If the "problem" is getting the files and if the floppies are indeed
still ok, this will work.

On the other hand, if the "problem" is reading the floppies on the XP
machine, then more debugging required. Were the Microsoft Knowledge
Base articles of any use? I've never tried, as I said, to fix this XP
floppy drive problem. It very occasionally crops up, or I hear of
someone having the issue. Instead, in the rare circumstances in the 21st
century where it was an issue, we just worked around it and moved on.

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms

 

[Rock]

I have a laptop that uses windows 98. I have been having loads of trouble
wiht the hardware, saved some vital files to disk. The laptop as since died
and now I can't read the disks on my PC which has is XP. I can't reformat
the disks without loosing the info?

help!

XP sometimes has trouble reading disks written by other OS's. Try
reading them in a computer with win98.

 

[Ben]

I have a laptop that uses windows 98. I have been having loads of trouble
wiht the hardware, saved some vital files to disk. The laptop as since died
and now I can't read the disks on my PC which has is XP. I can't reformat
the disks without loosing the info?

help!

It is impossible.......
Sometimes my computer cannot see the floopy.
I tried to restart computer, and it saw my floopy.
The disk I told was made in XP.......Strange??

 

[Guest]

thanks very much for your advice. I will go into work, use my work PC and
email them to my home PC

I am mostly concerned at this stage that I get the files that are now saved
on the disks.

Obviously I will have to explore why XP isn't reading the A: drive, but I
will double check that I can read the
disk at work before I launch into fixing the A: drive problem.

thanks again
fliss

 

[Ben]

thanks very much for your advice. I will go into work, use my work PC and
email them to my home PC

I am mostly concerned at this stage that I get the files that are now saved
on the disks.

Obviously I will have to explore why XP isn't reading the A: drive, but I
will double check that I can read the
disk at work before I launch into fixing the A: drive problem.

thanks again
fliss


:

Did you try to create a floopy from XP with files and see is it good???

 

[Ben]

It is impossible.......
Sometimes my computer cannot see the floopy.
I tried to restart computer, and it saw my floopy.
The disk I told was made in XP.......Strange??

You got so many answers...........

 

[Kenny]

I have seen this on my own PC where floppies created in Win 98 couldn't be
read in XP. I believe it has something to do with 3 mode floppy drivers but
the only info I could find was this.
http://groups.google.com/[email protected]&rnum=1

 

[Barry Watzman]

Most likely there is an "alignment difference" between the computer on
which the floppy was written and the one on which you are trying to read
it. (e.g. the drives are adjusted such that the tracks are not in the
same place on both drives).

Try reading the diskette on a variety of other computers, you may find a
computer on which you can read it.

Do not format the diskette or you will probably make whatever is on it
completely unreadable forever.