O-L-D Diskette Error Message

[mutefan]

I have one (and only one) remaining diskette containing copies of very
valuable documents from the early 90's. I thought I'd never have a
reason to need these files and so discarded other diskettes, thinking
I'd play it safe by saving this one.

When I tried to boot it with an external floppy drive on my laptop, the
message came up "This disk is not formatted. Would you like to format
it now?" I realize this might be because the original--which most
definitely WAS formatted--might not be using the XP format system.

But then I tried to read the files in the internal A drive on an old
P3, and I got the same message, and now I'm really nervous.

If anyone can point me to a link where I can learn how to get this
diskette to display the files that definitely are still on it, I'd
appreciate a response.

 

[Rod Speed]

(e-mail address removed) wrote

I have one (and only one) remaining diskette containing copies
of very valuable documents from the early 90's. I thought I'd
never have a reason to need these files and so discarded
other diskettes, thinking I'd play it safe by saving this one.

When I tried to boot it with an external floppy drive on my laptop,
the message came up "This disk is not formatted. Would you like to
format it now?" I realize this might be because the original--which
most definitely WAS formatted--might not be using the XP format system.

That isnt the problem. There is no XP format for bootable floppys,
and even if there was, the laptop doesnt care when booting a floppy,
you can always boot plain old DOS floppys. Thats the whole point
of bootable floppys, they are completely independant of what is
installed on the hard drive etc.

But then I tried to read the files in the internal A drive on an old
P3, and I got the same message, and now I'm really nervous.

If anyone can point me to a link where I can learn how
to get this diskette to display the files that definitely
are still on it, I'd appreciate a response.

Its got corrupted over the time you havent been using it or
it was written in a floppy drive that was out of alignment.

If its the first, one of the recovery system
may be able to get some of the files back.

If its the second, you'd have to read it using the drive it was written in.

 

[Arno Wagner]

I have one (and only one) remaining diskette containing copies of very
valuable documents from the early 90's. I thought I'd never have a
reason to need these files and so discarded other diskettes, thinking
I'd play it safe by saving this one.

When I tried to boot it with an external floppy drive on my laptop, the
message came up "This disk is not formatted. Would you like to format
it now?" I realize this might be because the original--which most
definitely WAS formatted--might not be using the XP format system.

But then I tried to read the files in the internal A drive on an old
P3, and I got the same message, and now I'm really nervous.

If anyone can point me to a link where I can learn how to get this
diskette to display the files that definitely are still on it, I'd
appreciate a response.

I will refrain from commenting on how wise or unwise your actions
were....

You likely have one, and only one, chance: Professional data
recovery. Especially floppies suffer from signal strength loss
over time. Standard drives are not able to read them anymore
but floppies have a high S/N ratio and better equipment has a
good chance of still being able to get the data.

You might have to shell out a couple hundred Euros/bucks for
this though. Should not be a problem if the data is really
valuable.

And one more thing: Stop messing around with the disk
immediately!

Arno

 

[Alexander Grigoriev]

Is it 1.44M (HD) or 720K (DD) floppy? Does it have a second hole?
If I remember correctly, WIndows XP doesn't support 720K anymore.

 

[Rod Speed]

Is it 1.44M (HD) or 720K (DD) floppy? Does it have a second hole?
If I remember correctly, WIndows XP doesn't support 720K anymore.

XP is completely irrelevant when BOOTING a floppy.

And XP will still READ 720K floppys anyway.

 

[mutefan]

Is it 1.44M (HD) or 720K (DD) floppy? Does it have a second hole?
If I remember correctly, WIndows XP doesn't support 720K anymore.

Thank you all for what I think is really grim news. (It's a 1.44M HD
floppy.) I tried to see if there were any way I could "talk to it."
No go.

I once before had the experience where a disk that gave the same "error
message" on a new computer booted successfully on an older one, which
was why I didn't worry at first.

So is there a chance if I found a really old computer, the disk would
boot? Whoever said that the problem occurred because the disk hadn't
been used in a long time was really right--I figure eleven years!

Man is this a bitch.

 

[J. Clarke]

Is it 1.44M (HD) or 720K (DD) floppy? Does it have a second hole?
If I remember correctly, WIndows XP doesn't support 720K anymore.

There's also the possibility that it was written on a misaligned drive.

 

[Rod Speed]

(e-mail address removed) wrote

Alexander Grigoriev wrote

Thank you all for what I think is really grim news. (It's a 1.44M HD
floppy.) I tried to see if there were any way I could "talk to it."
No go.

I once before had the experience where a disk that gave the
same "error message" on a new computer booted successfully
on an older one, which was why I didn't worry at first.

So is there a chance if I found a really
old computer, the disk would boot?

Possible. Not really old tho, it clearly needs to have a 1.44MB floppy
drive.

 

[mutefan]

There's also the possibility that it was written on a misaligned drive.

Well, as of Andy Rooney time here in the US (Sunday night), I have good
news...and bad news. I bought a program called BadCopy online and was
able to rescue entirely the diskette that contained, yeah, the doctoral
dissertation I never turned in. Footnotes and all, formatting and all.

But-- A document on a disk that still "works," but that Deep-Sixed
another extremely important file, was unhelped by BadCopy. I don't
know if it should matter to a data recovery program, but this
particular file was created with ancient scanned typewritten hardcopy
that OCR (using WORD) turned into a file.

I don't know if OCR-generated files are particularly unstable, because
every other file on this (admittedly old) floppy still is accessible.
Anyway, the loss of this particular file really smarts, 'cause it took
all of a month in 2003 to scan and then to recognize every page of this
100 page document.

But this company (BadCopy) apparently will try to help.

P.S. I can imagine but am not certain what a misaligned drive is.

 

[Rod Speed]

(e-mail address removed) wrote

J. Clarke wrote

Well, as of Andy Rooney time here in the US (Sunday night),
I have good news...and bad news. I bought a program called
BadCopy online and was able to rescue entirely the diskette
that contained, yeah, the doctoral dissertation I never turned
in. Footnotes and all, formatting and all.

But-- A document on a disk that still "works," but that Deep-Sixed
another extremely important file, was unhelped by BadCopy. I
don't know if it should matter to a data recovery program, but
this particular file was created with ancient scanned typewritten
hardcopy that OCR (using WORD) turned into a file.

Thats irrelevant to recovering it.

I don't know if OCR-generated files are particularly unstable,

No they arent. They're all just digital files.

because every other file on this (admittedly old) floppy still
is accessible. Anyway, the loss of this particular file really
smarts, 'cause it took all of a month in 2003 to scan and
then to recognize every page of this 100 page document.

And it still fitted with the dissertation on a single 1.44MB floppy ?

But this company (BadCopy) apparently will try to help.

P.S. I can imagine but am not certain what a misaligned drive is.

Basically the heads dont go where they should do.
Not a problem when reading and writing on the same
floppy drive, but it is a problem when you are reading
the floppy on a different drive to what it was written on.

 

[J. Clarke]

Well, as of Andy Rooney time here in the US (Sunday night), I have good
news...and bad news. I bought a program called BadCopy online and was
able to rescue entirely the diskette that contained, yeah, the doctoral
dissertation I never turned in. Footnotes and all, formatting and all.

But-- A document on a disk that still "works," but that Deep-Sixed
another extremely important file, was unhelped by BadCopy. I don't
know if it should matter to a data recovery program, but this
particular file was created with ancient scanned typewritten hardcopy
that OCR (using WORD) turned into a file.

I don't know if OCR-generated files are particularly unstable, because
every other file on this (admittedly old) floppy still is accessible.
Anyway, the loss of this particular file really smarts, 'cause it took
all of a month in 2003 to scan and then to recognize every page of this
100 page document.

But this company (BadCopy) apparently will try to help.

P.S. I can imagine but am not certain what a misaligned drive is.

Diskette drives use an electromechanical positioning system with no feedback
control--if the linkage is slightly worn then the position of the heads is
moved away from where it is supposed to be and the tracks are off center,
with the result that any diskette written in that drive may be readable
only in the drive on which it was written.

If you can get access to an LS-120 drive it may be able to read the
diskette--its heads are narrower than on a regular drive and may be able to
deal with a misaligned track.

 

[mutefan]

And it still fitted with the dissertation on a single 1.44MB floppy ?

HA! Oh that's a good wone. No, the dissertation diskette was on
another oldie.

Basically the heads dont go where they should do.
Not a problem when reading and writing on the same
floppy drive, but it is a problem when you are reading
the floppy on a different drive to what it was written on.

Tanks. Unfortunately, saint that I am, I always give my last PC away
to a needy family whenever I buy a new one.

Sincerely,

Sir Lancelot

 

[mutefan]

Diskette drives use an electromechanical positioning system with no feedback
control--if the linkage is slightly worn then the position of the heads is
moved away from where it is supposed to be and the tracks are off center,
with the result that any diskette written in that drive may be readable
only in the drive on which it was written.

If you can get access to an LS-120 drive it may be able to read the
diskette--its heads are narrower than on a regular drive and may be able to
deal with a misaligned track.

Now, J. Clarke, if you're helping a Neanderthal who doesn't know what a
misaligned drive is, how on earth am I supposed to know what a LS-120
drive is?

I think your description is right on target because of how the
beginning of the document *was* saved, and the recovery software says
that the file is, like 170K+ bites.

 

[J. Clarke]

Now, J. Clarke, if you're helping a Neanderthal who doesn't know what a
misaligned drive is, how on earth am I supposed to know what a LS-120
drive is?

Go to www.froogle.com and enter the keyword "LS-120"? This was the second
generation "floptical" drive--the 20 meg first generation were incredibly
fragile but the second generation was reliable and the third was fast as
well (at least for a floppy drive). Designed to get 120 MB on media the
same size and shape as a standard diskette and also to read and write
standard diskettes. The _fourth_ generation, which you can't find anymore,
put 240 MB on that same media and could write over 30 MB to a _standard_
diskette due to its narrow head and precise positioning mechanism.