retrieving files on old disquettes???????help

[Michele]

Hi,

I have some old disquettes (sony 1.44) that should have some word documents
on them. They are from 1996 and were probably made with Word on a pentium
386 PC. The 3 computers I've tried to read them on want to format the discs
and I can't retrieve the files. Can anyone please tell me how to retrieve
these old files ? Is there any special software I should be using?
I'd appreciate any advive I can get on this subject.
thank-you,
Michele

 

[S.Heenan]

Hi,

I have some old disquettes (sony 1.44) that should have some word documents
on them. They are from 1996 and were probably made with Word on a pentium
386 PC. The 3 computers I've tried to read them on want to format the discs
and I can't retrieve the files. Can anyone please tell me how to retrieve
these old files ? Is there any special software I should be using?
I'd appreciate any advive I can get on this subject.
thank-you,
Michele

http://www.stellarinfo.com/download.htm

http://www.recovermyfiles.com/

 

[old jon]

Hi M. insert floppy disc, right click and do a property check. that might
tell you if there`s anything on them that you could recover. best wishes..J

 

[kony]

Hi,

I have some old disquettes (sony 1.44) that should have some word documents
on them. They are from 1996 and were probably made with Word on a pentium
386 PC. The 3 computers I've tried to read them on want to format the discs
and I can't retrieve the files. Can anyone please tell me how to retrieve
these old files ? Is there any special software I should be using?
I'd appreciate any advive I can get on this subject.
thank-you,
Michele

If possible, try to read the discs on the drive which wrote
them (to disk). Other alternatives are trying as many other
floppy drives as possible- regardless of whether in the
system you need to use, just to get them read off the floppy
(if possible) then copied onto another floppy, more durable
media, or emailed- whatever.

Floppy drive head alignment can drift off over time and it
could be that the media itself is now degraded in some way.
All you can do is try other drives, unless this is worth a
large amount of $ to have a data recovery service take a
look at it.

 

[jim dorey]

Hi,

I have some old disquettes (sony 1.44) that should have some word
documents
on them. They are from 1996 and were probably made with Word on a pentium
386 PC. The 3 computers I've tried to read them on want to format the
discs
and I can't retrieve the files. Can anyone please tell me how to retrieve
these old files ? Is there any special software I should be using?
I'd appreciate any advive I can get on this subject.
thank-you,
Michele

magnetic media sucks for unprotected long term storage, but a thorough
disk scan might get things fixed, course that'd destroy any data that's
just sitting there. you could get an older floppy drive and see if you
can get a local nerd to increase the sensitivity, a jumper across a pin
would probably do it. read the data onto a hard disk immediately(nerd
will have to add extra noise filtering), then toss the diskette, and only
use the drive for recovery until it's fixed. but it could be they've been
erased long ago, magnetic=unstable, most stable media i can name right now
is papyrus(rocks don't really count, they're usually first to go in a
war), it lasts a loong time with the data still readable.

 

[Rusty]

magnetic media sucks for unprotected long term storage, but a thorough
disk scan might get things fixed, course that'd destroy any data that's

I never understood this unstable magnetic media stuff which is an urban myth
IMHO. I have diskettes and 5" floppies going back to before 1990 and audio
cassettes back to early 1970's all in perfect condition. Where am I going
wrong.

Mechanical drives and magnetic heads... now thats where the problem is and
always was.



rusty

 

[jim dorey]

I never understood this unstable magnetic media stuff which is an urban
myth
IMHO. I have diskettes and 5" floppies going back to before 1990 and
audio
cassettes back to early 1970's all in perfect condition. Where am I
going
wrong.

Mechanical drives and magnetic heads... now thats where the problem is
and
always was.

rusty

you keep them stored properly they may last 20 years, i know, until a few
years ago i had some 8 track tapes that were still quite clear, if i
hadn't gotten rid of them when i moved they'd still be playable. extremes
of temperature, magnetic fields, squishing, dust, bending, any one of
those could cause some serious damage to a floppy disk, or other magnetic
devices. one of the things that make audio cassettes different from
floppy disks is the difference between analog and digital, digital data
tends to get permanently damaged a LOT easier than analog, a little
strength fade, dust blocking a bit. you can drive a needle through a
strip of audio tape and often not be able to tell where the hole is when
you listen to it later.

one thing that is different is data density, 5.25's and 3.5's have
different density and head sizes, a little strength lost in one bit on a
5.25 won't cause much damage cause the actual size of the bit patch is, in
comparison, huge, makes alignment less critical as well.

 

[C R Briggs]

Hi,

I have some old disquettes (sony 1.44) that should have some word
documents
on them. They are from 1996 and were probably made with Word on a pentium
386 PC. The 3 computers I've tried to read them on want to format the
discs
and I can't retrieve the files. Can anyone please tell me how to retrieve
these old files ? Is there any special software I should be using?
I'd appreciate any advive I can get on this subject.
thank-you,
Michele

Michele,

Norton Utilities, Advanced, Edition 4.5

This will do a "Disk/File Refresh" operation and can sometimes recover
failing disks.. It is now an old program, as in DOS Utilities, and does not
recognise any file system newer than FAT16. E-mail me.

 

[kony]

I never understood this unstable magnetic media stuff which is an urban myth
IMHO. I have diskettes and 5" floppies going back to before 1990 and audio
cassettes back to early 1970's all in perfect condition. Where am I going
wrong.

.... in assuming that old low density being readable over the
course of time is a sign that higher density on cheaper
media and drives will fare as well. I too have ancient 5
1/4 floppies that can be read, and 3 1/2 that can't... or
vice-versa, the older aren't immune either.

 

[Miss Perspicacia Tick]

Hi,

I have some old disquettes (sony 1.44) that should have some word
documents on them. They are from 1996 and were probably made with
Word on a pentium 386 PC. The 3 computers I've tried to read them on
want to format the discs and I can't retrieve the files. Can anyone
please tell me how to retrieve these old files ? Is there any special
software I should be using?
I'd appreciate any advive I can get on this subject.
thank-you,
Michele

"A Pentium 386", eh? You should sell that you'd make an absolute fortune;
you appear to have the only one in existence. There is no such thing as a
"Pentium 386" - what is it a Pentium or a 386? The 386 was superseded by the
486 which was, in turn, made obsolete by the 586 (which came to be known as
the Pentium). A 386 would have been pretty ancient in 1996 - I had a P3
then, if memory serves.

Anyway, floppies are *NOT* a reliable storage medium. They are probably
corrupt and your chances of retrieving the data virtually nil. Just
curious - if you've not wanted the documents in nearly a decade, why are
they suddenly so important now?

 

[kony]

"A Pentium 386", eh? You should sell that you'd make an absolute fortune;
you appear to have the only one in existence. There is no such thing as a
"Pentium 386" - what is it a Pentium or a 386? The 386 was superseded by the
486 which was, in turn, made obsolete by the 586 (which came to be known as
the Pentium). A 386 would have been pretty ancient in 1996 - I had a P3
then, if memory serves.

IIRC, you could still buy 386s till about 1990 before being
considered only salvage parts. 1996 would've been P1, P2
wasn't even affordable till the later end of '97, with P3
coming along nearer the end of '98 (give or take 1/2 a year
if we count or discount the early lower speeds at premium
prices).

Anyway, floppies are *NOT* a reliable storage medium. They are probably
corrupt and your chances of retrieving the data virtually nil. Just
curious - if you've not wanted the documents in nearly a decade, why are
they suddenly so important now?

Yep, not reliable. Then again, few things are for 10
years.... CDRs were supposed to be but I"ll randomly grab
one off the shelf only to find it has shelf-rotted and the
top turned funny colors. More and more we will become a
slave to our data, at least till solid-state storage becomes
mature and affordable.

 

[Ken]

Hi,

I have some old disquettes (sony 1.44) that should have some word documents
on them. They are from 1996 and were probably made with Word on a pentium
386 PC. The 3 computers I've tried to read them on want to format the discs
and I can't retrieve the files. Can anyone please tell me how to retrieve
these old files ? Is there any special software I should be using?
I'd appreciate any advive I can get on this subject.
thank-you,
Michele

All that the other said is true, but if you are using Windows XP, it is
particularly finicky about reading floppies. Try reading and copying
the contents via the C:\ prompt in XP. (We are going back to the
thrilling days of yesteryear and DOS) I have been able to read data
that otherwise would not be read using the Windows Explorer.

 

[philo]

Hi,

I have some old disquettes (sony 1.44) that should have some word documents
on them. They are from 1996 and were probably made with Word on a pentium
386 PC

<snip>

this might work:

http://paradiseprogramming.tripod.com/flopshow.html

but chances are the floppies just died...

never entrust valuable data to floppies.

i have some that have died in two weeks
and others that are 15 years old and still good...
go figure

 

[John McGaw]

Hi,

I have some old disquettes (sony 1.44) that should have some word documents
on them. They are from 1996 and were probably made with Word on a pentium
386 PC. The 3 computers I've tried to read them on want to format the discs
and I can't retrieve the files. Can anyone please tell me how to retrieve
these old files ? Is there any special software I should be using?
I'd appreciate any advive I can get on this subject.
thank-you,
Michele

It sounds as though the drive that formatted the diskettes and wrote the
files was out of calibration. Or all three of the reading drives are
which seems less likely. No software is necessary beyond your OS but
some hardware diddling may be called for.

I've overcome this problem in the past by connecting an oscilloscope to
the drive's signal test point and then physically loosening and shifting
the stepper assembly to obtain maximum signal so as to calibrate the
drive to the media. This is something any reasonable computer tech
should be able to do in fifteen minutes but unless (s)he is a good
friend it might start getting expensive so the value of the possible
data might be weighed before even starting.

Oh yes, after transferring the data it would be good to properly
calibrate the drive again and the calibration diskettes cost $60+ IIRC
and many shops don't have them available because drives are so dirt
cheap today.

 

[Spajky]

I have some old disquettes (sony 1.44) that should have some word documents
on them. They are from 1996 and were probably made with Word on a pentium
386 PC. The 3 computers I've tried to read them on want to format the discs
and I can't retrieve the files. Can anyone please tell me how to retrieve
these old files ? Is there any special software I should be using?
I'd appreciate any advive I can get on this subject.

the diskettes formated otherway than 1,44 or 720kB DOS, if using winXP
will NOT be recognized !!! (no problem with w9x)
Try them on a win 98se or winME machine & www.pcinspector.de for a
demo program for recovery.
I was using that to recover Atari FDs with midi files time ago
....