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About Dinesh
Expertise
I can answer questions regarding Floppy Disks , accessing floppies through programs and the inner details of the floppy

Experience
I did projects in Floppy Data Recovery & management

 
   

You are here:  Experts > Shopping > Computer Peripherals > Floppy, Zip, and Jazz Drives > External Floppy Drive

Floppy, Zip, and Jazz Drives - External Floppy Drive


Expert: Dinesh - 10/16/2009

Question
I own a typing business and I'm doing a project for a client that's from the stone age.  He has Windows 98 on his computer, Windows XP and he is still saving his work to a floppy disk.  He has an external floppy disk drive that he uses and he brought it so I could plug it into my computer and load his files.  He works in Microsoft Works which I have on my computer.  I plugged the drive in and his files came up, but I wasn't ready to work on them at the present.



I left everything plugged in and logged off from my computer.  The next day I booted up my computer and went to reload his files and the disk didn't show the files at all.  What could have happened to those files?  I get a message asking if I want to format the disk and I'm afraid to because I'm thinking it wil erase what's on there.  I don't know how to get into MS-DOS to run the disk directory to see if the files are there.  I have Windows Vista so would that have anything to do with the files disappearing.  If so, why did they appear in the first place.  Please help.  I don't want to tell this man that his files are gone.


Answer

Hello, It's because of the floppy's poor quality. Some floppy drives are not good at reading such floppies and they fail like yours. As they fail to read some sectors of floppy, they ask you to format your drive.  

I can suggest you two ways,

1. Try reading data from your floppy using some other floppy drive.
2. You can use any of file or data recovery software to recover your data.

Analysing your problem, I am sure that your data won't have been lost. By properly using the software mentioned, you can retrieve your files almost completely. It's preferable to try recovery of files in an operating system other than Windows Vista.

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