floppies

I have a floppy on which I`ve transferred info from Word documents,
then deleting the info from Word. I`ve brought up the info from the
disc numerous times but now, when I try to load it, am getting the
message, "The disc needs formatting. Do you want to format it now?" If
I say, "No" the disc won`t load, if I say "Yes" I`d lose all the info
on the disc. Anyone know a way I can get this info back from the disc?
Would be most grateful for any ideas. Thanks a lot. Neil.

How many times have you write/rewrote on the floppy? What version of
Windows (or...Mac...I guess) does this happen in?

"gamefreak301" <> wrote in message news:< roups.com>...
> How many times have you write/rewrote on the floppy? What version of
> Windows (or...Mac...I guess) does this happen in?

Windows 98 and Windows XP. I have written onece on the
floppy but made a few alterations!

Does this error only occur with that particular floppy? Try another
floppy, preferrably another brand. If the message still occurs, maybe
your floppy drive is broken.

good point.
first make sure your device is working with another floppy disk, then write
and
test to see if everything is in fact connected and working (cables go bad
too)

if that's fine,suspect the disk itself. media flakes or gets corrupt.
this scenario
is harder to deal with. you could see if an older version of spinrite can
help.
you don't need v. 6. v.5 will work since you don't need anything but FAT
format. this app will heal data and corrupt blocks on media, and might do
the trick.

one last Q : are the heads clean? if you haven't done this, clean the heads
with commercial disk cleaner. THIS might be the only problem.

L

"les" <> wrote in message news:<wcmdnUfNBcIkQbzfRVn->...
> good point.
> first make sure your device is working with another floppy disk, then write
> and
> test to see if everything is in fact connected and working (cables go bad
> too)
>
> if that's fine,suspect the disk itself. media flakes or gets corrupt.
> this scenario
> is harder to deal with. you could see if an older version of spinrite can
> help.
> you don't need v. 6. v.5 will work since you don't need anything but FAT
> format. this app will heal data and corrupt blocks on media, and might do
> the trick.
>
> one last Q : are the heads clean? if you haven't done this, clean the heads
> with commercial disk cleaner. THIS might be the only problem.
>
> L

Sorry, perhaps I didn`t explain properly, yes the heads are fine,
other floppies load ok, it`s just this one that won`t load - and I
need the info on it! Neil.

well, then obviously your FAT table is troubled.
again, spinrite might be the solution. perhaps someone knows if
spinrite can fix this as well as the data blocks..............

There are 100's of data recovery tools , try searching for "floppy
disk data recovery"
Have you tried debug from a DOS or Command prompt ?
Debug can read the data from a floppy directly into a memory area.
from the prompt type DEBUG <Enter>
You should now have a debug prompt.
EG. Type L 100 0 0 255
This loads to memory location 100 from drive 0 (the A drive) sector 0
255 blocks.
You can then use D 100 to display the raw data from the disk.
It's a bit low level and slightly dangerous because you can also
access your hard drives from debug.

"les" <> wrote in message news:<a8adnStT6Z1QmbnfRVn->...
> well, then obviously your FAT table is troubled.
> again, spinrite might be the solution. perhaps someone knows if
> spinrite can fix this as well as the data blocks..............

yeh but floppy disc data recovery seem to cost about 430. I`m
desperate to recover this info from the floppy-but not that desperate
It`s definitely the disc at fault cos I`ve tried to run it on other
peoples computer too-without success. Scuse my ignorance but what`s
spinrite and how do you get it? thanks.