It wasn't a problem this morning....

[Guest]

have been using the same disk(imation, IBM
formatted 2HD,3.5" ds, hd-1.44MB/Mo) for a while now and I never had any
problems with it.Until today I was using Microsoft Word 2003,and I was saving
changes
to an already saved document but before it could
finish saving I accidently pulled out the disk.Microsoft
then became unresponsive and froze so I closed it and reopened Word.The
files I was working on poped up on a side panel underneath the words
"Recoverd Files" I tryed clicking on the documents to reopen them but it
stated the file could not be found.I shut down my computer restarted it and
check back about 6 hours later.I put my disk in and tried to open a document
I saved on my floopy.A message popped up saying:"The floppy disk in drive
A:is not formatted or has been formatted for a macintosh." I try again and
another message pops up saying:"A:/ is not accessible.The disk media is not
recognized.It may not be formatted." Why can't I access my documents all of
a sudden when I had no problem accessing them this morning? How can I access
my word documents? any help is appreciated.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Lesson #1: Just because something worked this morning is no guarantee that
it will work this afternoon, especially if you make a serious blunder in
between. In your case, it was removing the disk from the drive while Word
had files open on it.

Lesson #2 (not obvious, but now you *will* remember it): If you value your
files and your sanity:

- DO NOT save files directly from Word onto any removable disk
(floppy, CD, USB stick, etc.).
- DO NOT open and edit Word files directly from any removable disk.
- DO copy the document file from the removable disk to the hard drive,
open it there close it, and then copy the file back to the removable disk.

There are multiple problems with removable media. First, as happened to you,
removing the disk while files are open can trash the disk's file allocation
table and make it unreadable. You *may* be able to recover your data with a
sector-level editor (I think Norton Utilities still includes such a program)
but it's highly unlikely. I hope you have separate backups of your files,
although if you did you wouldn't be here asking about recovery.

Second, anything as small as a floppy disk quickly runs out of space for the
many temporary files Word creates, and it can easily corrupt your document
if not the whole disk.

Third, most removable media (with the exception of CD-R) are much more prone
to random failure (bad sectors, etc.) than hard drives. Floppies can and do
"just go bad" without warning.

Lesson #3: BACK UP!!! If a file is important to you and would be difficult
to reconstruct from scratch, then having only one copy of it is just asking
for disaster. Multiply that by as many files as you lost...