external floppy disk drive

[Guest]

I have 2 floppy disks which have a novel I have written and saved on them.
When I insert the floppy disk into the drive and attempt to open it, I get
the message "Disk in drive a:// is not formatted" and cannot open the file,
which is written in microsoft word. I dont know what to do-if I format the
disk, I will lose my novel.....I sure could use some help.

A computer tech told me to run scan disk on the floppy, but I cant seem to
locate a scan disk program on this presario c300 with XP home edition.

Any help would be apreciated, thank you, Rick.

 

[Gordon]

I have 2 floppy disks which have a novel I have written and saved on them.
When I insert the floppy disk into the drive and attempt to open it, I get
the message "Disk in drive a:// is not formatted" and cannot open the
file,
which is written in microsoft word. I dont know what to do-if I format the
disk, I will lose my novel.....I sure could use some help.

A computer tech told me to run scan disk on the floppy, but I cant seem to
locate a scan disk program on this presario c300 with XP home edition.

Any help would be apreciated, thank you, Rick.

have a look at this:
Essentially Microsoft KB 309623 says WinXP supports only 1.44MB disk format.
3-mode FD's
capable of reading/writing 720KB, 1.2MB and 1.44MB require special driver
support and support for this feature is not included in Windows XP. See
following:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309623

Download this driver: Driver link (this is a download only):

http://downloads.viaarena.com/WinXPE/Oct02/XPe_3mflp132_v10.zip

Instructions:

1. Download driver

2. Unzip the driver - extract the file to a folder.

3. Open Windows XP's Device Manager, expand the "Floppy disk controllers"
heading, and double-click the listing for "Standard floppy disk controller."

4. Click the "Driver" tab, then click the "Update Driver" button.

5. Select the "Install from a list or specific location" radio button and
click the "Next" button.

6. Select the"Don't search. I will choose the driver to install." radio
button and click the "Next" button.

7. Click the"Have Disk" button; then, click the"Browse" button. Browse to
the location that you extracted the files to in Step 2 and double-click the
"VIA3MFPY.INF" file. The, click the"OK" button.

8. You should now have "VIA 3-mode floppy controller" highlighted in the
drivers list. Click the "Next" button to begin the driver file copy. Once
the file copy is complete, your floppy disk drive will access 3 times
(checking all 3 "modes"). This is normal. Click the "Finish" button when the
driver installation is complete.

9a. You may, or may not , have a device labeled "Unknown Device" in
the"Other Devices" heading in Device Manager. If so, continue with step 9a.
If not, skip to step 9b. If you have a device labeled "Unknown Device" in
the "Other Devices" heading in Device Manager, right-click on it and select
"Update Driver." Follow steps 5 through 8 to complete the installation of
"Floppy disk drive" (note that the naming of the driver in the drivers list
in step 8 may be different during this step - this is normal). Once you've
click the "Finish" button, continue on to step 10.

9b. If you do not have a device labeled "Unknown Device" in the "Other
Devices" heading in Device Manager, expand the "Floppy disk drives" heading
in Device Manager and double-click the listing for "floppy disk drive."
Follow steps 4 through 8 to complete the installation of "Floppy disk drive"
(note that the naming of the driver in the drivers list in step 8 may be
different during this step - this is normal). Once you've clicked the
"finish" button, continue on to step 10.

10. Reboot your PC. This should let you know if all of your hard work
REALLY paid off. Check the Device Manager one last time to be sure that you
now have the"VIA 3-mode floppy controller listed under the "Floppy disk
controllers" heading. Put a file on a floppy in Win98 (or another non-SP OS)
and you should now be able to access it in Windows XP (and vice-versa)
without issue. You made it!

 

[Anna]

I have 2 floppy disks which have a novel I have written and saved on them.
When I insert the floppy disk into the drive and attempt to open it, I get
the message "Disk in drive a:// is not formatted" and cannot open the
file,
which is written in microsoft word. I dont know what to do-if I format the
disk, I will lose my novel.....I sure could use some help.

A computer tech told me to run scan disk on the floppy, but I cant seem to
locate a scan disk program on this presario c300 with XP home edition.

Any help would be apreciated, thank you, Rick.

Rick:
I hope the suggestions sent on to you by Gordon resolve your problem.
Frankly, if the problem is due - as I suspect it is - to corrupt data on
your floppy disk due to a defective disk, it's a very difficult, if not
impossible task for the consumer to resurrect such data. Hopefully you'll
have some luck with this.

The reason for my post is because it's obvious that the data on that floppy
disk is absolutely vital to you. (I'm assuming the problem is with only one
of your floppies, not both. That's so, is it not?). As such, you should be
extremely cautious in using that floppy disk any further in an attempt to
retrieve the currently lost data. At the most, you should diskcopy the
problem floppy and work with the copy. (I assume you've tried the original
floppy on a different machine but with the same problem).

You should consider engaging a data recovery service to see what they can
do. It will be expensive, but since the data is so valuable to you it may be
worth the cost. Needless to say there's no guarantee the data can be
recovered.

Finally, and not that I have to tell you this, but...

Using floppy disks to store crucial data without any other backup system is
akin to playing "Russian Roulette" with your data. No doubt by now you've
backed up the data on the other non-defective floppy, yes?
Anna

 

[FreeComputerConsultant.com]

Please look here for future backup options. Floppies are not reliable
over time.

http://www.freecomputerconsultant.com/computer-backup.html

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have 2 floppy disks which have a novel I have written and saved on
them. When I insert the floppy disk into the drive and attempt to
open it, I get the message "Disk in drive a:// is not formatted" and
cannot open the file, which is written in microsoft word. I dont know
what to do-if I format the disk, I will lose my novel.....I sure
could use some help.

Were this diskettes written on an older version of Windows? If so, your
problem is the media descriptor byte
problem described here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140060

The solution is to format another diskette on your Windows XP machine, take
that diskette and the one with a problem to a friend's Windows 98 machine,
and copy the old one to the new one. The new one will now be readable on
your XP machine.

A computer tech told me to run scan disk on the floppy, but I cant
seem to locate a scan disk program on this presario c300 with XP home
edition.

He's not much of a computer tech if he doesn't know a: that there is no
scandisk in WIndows XP; it's called chkdisk; b: that, regardless of its
name, it's the wrong solution to the problem; c. that the media descriptor
bvyte problem is a common one.

One additional point: floppy disks are a very unreliable medium for storing
anything important. If files are important to you, you need at least two
copies, and preferably neither of them will be floppies.

 

[Poprivet]

I have 2 floppy disks which have a novel I have written and saved on
them. When I insert the floppy disk into the drive and attempt to
open it, I get the message "Disk in drive a:// is not formatted" and
cannot open the file, which is written in microsoft word. I dont know
what to do-if I format the disk, I will lose my novel.....I sure
could use some help.

A computer tech told me to run scan disk on the floppy, but I cant
seem to locate a scan disk program on this presario c300 with XP home
edition.

Any help would be apreciated, thank you, Rick.

Is this a 1.44 Meg FAT floppy?
Try one or more of these freebies:
http://www.geocities.com/systechsoftware/recover/
http://paradiseprogramming.tripod.com/index.html FlopShow V1.2
http://www.floppy-recovery.com/floppy-recovery-features.htm

Best case, the old Norton programs used to have a program for this purpose.
It worked by reading each sector up to ten times and then deciding which of
the reads is most accurate, and then writes that to the disketter - so, it
DOES destroy the floppy, but if you've given up getting hte data anyway,
well, ... <g>.

All else failing, and reliable, you CAN get disk editors that will bypass
the os calls and allow you direct access to the floppy surface. Then it's a
monkey-work effort to find/recover the data, but it can be done, if it's
important enough to you. You might have to learn how to follow the
connecting descriptors of a file, but ... it is workable.
Best thing is, this will let you make a COPY of the floppy, so you don't
have to work with the original.
Norton also used to have a program called diskedit that did just that,
but I can't find mine right now. I'm sure it's available on the 'net
somewhere, it's so old.

Failing the above, you'll have to spend some money on the effort. If you
do, inquire about whether they will destroy the original floppy or not ...
some do, stupid as that is. They should always be working with copies they
make with their own recovery software.

HTH
Pop`