Data on a 3.5 diskette

[Den]

I realize this may be somewhat old school, but I have a problem with some
data on a 3.5 diskette using WinXP. I put some personal data in a '.xls'
file on a 3.5 diskette and update it every now and then. The other day when
I put the disk in to enter some new data, I received the following error
msg: "book1.xls" cannot be accessed. The file may be read-only, or you may
be trying to access a read-only location. Or, the server the document is
stored on may not be responding. My options at this point are "RETRY" or
"CANCEL".

I check the disk drive with other diskettes to see if it worked with them,
and they opened fine. I copied another *.xls file to the diskette to see if
I could access it, and it worked fine. I had no problem opening the 2nd
xls file on the diskette. I ran error checking on the disk, and it came up
clean. I tried disk-copy with no luck either. Can anyone help me with this,
or advise me where I can get help?

Thank you!
Dennis

 

[Anthony Buckland]

I realize this may be somewhat old school, but I have a problem with some
data on a 3.5 diskette using WinXP. I put some personal data in a '.xls'
file on a 3.5 diskette and update it every now and then. The other day
when I put the disk in to enter some new data, I received the following
error msg: "book1.xls" cannot be accessed. The file may be read-only, or
you may be trying to access a read-only location. Or, the server the
document is stored on may not be responding. My options at this point are
"RETRY" or "CANCEL".

I check the disk drive with other diskettes to see if it worked with them,
and they opened fine. I copied another *.xls file to the diskette to see
if I could access it, and it worked fine. I had no problem opening the
2nd xls file on the diskette. I ran error checking on the disk, and it
came up clean. I tried disk-copy with no luck either. Can anyone help me
with this, or advise me where I can get help?

Thank you!
Dennis

You didn't say whether you had checked the properties of
the offending file, to see whether you had accidentally set
it to read-only. Regarding copying the file, what happened
when you tried? Did it decline to copy? Did it create another
file, also unusable?

 

[DL]

Presumably you tried to copy back to your HD, via command prompt?
Personally I would'nt edit any file stored on a floppy, niether would I use
a floppy or USB stick to store critical data, only for use in copying data
from A to B

 

[EN59CVH]

Personally I would'nt edit any file stored on a floppy, niether would I use
a floppy or USB stick to store critical data, only for use in copying data
from A to B

who cares what you do or not do. USB sticks are meant to create backups
and there is nothing wrong to edit files directly on them.

You are jobless drug junkie and consequently without any brains. Your
opinion is not important here.

 

[EN59CVH]

I suggest boot up your system in safe mode and then copy everything from
the flash-drive to your HD in a temporary folder. Then perform a quick
format on your flash drive before re-using it. You can then put
everything back on this drive and you will be able to access your
files. It looks like you pulled the flash drive from the USB port
before doing the Safe Removal Operation.

hth

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

I suggest boot up your system in safe mode and then copy everything from
the flash-drive to your HD in a temporary folder. Then perform a quick
format on your flash drive before re-using it. You can then put
everything back on this drive and you will be able to access your
files. It looks like you pulled the flash drive from the USB port
before doing the Safe Removal Operation.

hth

Mmh. Wasn't the OP talking about a 3.5" diskette?

 

[Gord Dibben]

What type of flash drive is a 3.5 inch diskette?


Gord

 

[Gord Dibben]

Excel creates a temporary file on the source disk when the file is opened.

If the temp file is not properly deleted when you close the file, Excel
still thinks the file is open and gives the "read-only" message.

Very common when opening from or saving directly to a floppy diskette.

Not a practice I would recommend.


Gord

 

[Nil]

quit wasting your time and throw it out and use another one

Which reminds me to wonder... I have boxes of old diskettes in a dark,
neutral temperature and humidity closet. Why are they all going bad? As
time goes by, when I occasionally need one, I have to go through
several that can't be formatted before I find one viable one.

I suppose I'll someday discover something similar with all the CD-Rs
I've burned.

 

[Big_Al]

Den said this on 3/5/2010 3:06 PM:

I realize this may be somewhat old school, but I have a problem with
some data on a 3.5 diskette using WinXP. I put some personal data in a
'.xls' file on a 3.5 diskette and update it every now and then. The
other day when I put the disk in to enter some new data, I received the
following error msg: "book1.xls" cannot be accessed. The file may be
read-only, or you may be trying to access a read-only location. Or, the
server the document is stored on may not be responding. My options at
this point are "RETRY" or "CANCEL".

I check the disk drive with other diskettes to see if it worked with
them, and they opened fine. I copied another *.xls file to the diskette
to see if I could access it, and it worked fine. I had no problem
opening the 2nd xls file on the diskette. I ran error checking on the
disk, and it came up clean. I tried disk-copy with no luck either. Can
anyone help me with this, or advise me where I can get help?

Thank you!
Dennis

You can try doing a chkdsk on it. Just like a hard drive. Problem is,
the program will fix the disc but you may lose the data.

 

[Sardine]

Which reminds me to wonder... I have boxes of old diskettes in a dark,
neutral temperature and humidity closet. Why are they all going bad? As
time goes by, when I occasionally need one, I have to go through
several that can't be formatted before I find one viable one.

I suppose I'll someday discover something similar with all the CD-Rs
I've burned.

Same thing happens to our brains, duh, what was I about to type...

Sardine

 

[Gordon]

I realize this may be somewhat old school, but I have a problem with some
data on a 3.5 diskette using WinXP. I put some personal data in a '.xls'
file on a 3.5 diskette and update it every now and then. The other day
when I put the disk in to enter some new data, I received the following
error msg: "book1.xls" cannot be accessed. The file may be read-only, or
you may be trying to access a read-only location. Or, the server the
document is stored on may not be responding. My options at this point are
"RETRY" or "CANCEL".

I check the disk drive with other diskettes to see if it worked with them,
and they opened fine. I copied another *.xls file to the diskette to see
if I could access it, and it worked fine. I had no problem opening the
2nd xls file on the diskette. I ran error checking on the disk, and it
came up clean. I tried disk-copy with no luck either. Can anyone help me
with this, or advise me where I can get help?

Thank you!
Dennis

You NEVER edit MS Office files direct from a floppy disk. If you are old
enough to be using floppies then you should be old enough to know that doing
this is the quickest and easiest way to corrupted files.

You should be copying the file to your HDD, editing it from there and
re-saving to the floppy.
<aside> - why is ANYONE still using 3.5" floppy disks in the 21st century?
Even machines over TEN years old usually have USB ports....

 

[Twayne]

In

You NEVER edit MS Office files direct from a floppy disk.
If you are old enough to be using floppies then you should
be old enough to know that doing this is the quickest and
easiest way to corrupted files.
You should be copying the file to your HDD, editing it from
there and re-saving to the floppy.
<aside> - why is ANYONE still using 3.5" floppy disks in
the 21st century? Even machines over TEN years old usually
have USB ports....

Because they're handy. Because I have a lot of them. Because I know the need
refreshing on about a monthly cycle. Because they're large enough for most
data I need to sneakernet around. Because they're so cheap. Because they
work. Because they're reliable when treated correctly. Because they were
handy when I was making ASR floppies and using ntbackup.exe. Because
they'll format while you do other things and you lose no time with them.
Because I want to.
Also, when I read a query about a 3.5" diskette, I don't respond with
"stick" answers.

<aside> Why would anyone worry about whether it was 21st century technology
or not? You ARE aware of course, that nearly all disk drive and memory is
20th century equiment, right? Along with 90% of the other components used in
your computer that was bought just last week?

 

[Gordon]

Because they're so cheap.

Actually they aren't. MB for MB a flash drive is FAR cheaper than
floppies...

10 1.44 MB diskettes - £1.98. That's 14.4 MB for £1.98 - £0.14 per MB

2 *GB* flash drive £5.49. That's two THOUSAND MB for £5.49 - that' £.002 per
MB.
And flash drives last much longer than floppies...

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

MB for MB a flash drive is FAR cheaper than
floppies...

10 1.44 MB diskettes - £1.98. That's 14.4 MB for £1.98 - £0.14 per MB

2 *GB* flash drive £5.49. That's two THOUSAND MB for £5.49 - that' £.002 per
MB.

Good point, and one that I never thought about before.

As a general rule, the more bytes some storage device holds, the
cheaper it is per byte.

 

[Twayne]

In
They ARE cheap. Who said anything about flash? Or compared the cost to
flash? No one asked for the cheapest cost/byte and which media. Your
attempt to redirect has failed.

Twayne

 

[Twayne]

In

Good point, and one that I never thought about before.

As a general rule, the more bytes some storage device
holds, the cheaper it is per byte.

But off topic and irrelevant since it has nothing to do with the OPs query.

 

[Gordon]

In

They ARE cheap. Who said anything about flash? Or compared the cost to
flash? No one asked for the cheapest cost/byte and which media. Your
attempt to redirect has failed.

Moron.

 

[Gordon]

But off topic and irrelevant since it has nothing to do with the OPs
query.

Not at all. The question is - why would anyone want to use 1.44 MB floppy
discs anyway in the 21st century?

 

[ybS2okj]

Moron.

Another nutter who has leant a new word today! It seems all he knows is
complete and utter rubbish. His mummy is to busy s u c king c0cks!