Strange one this. Girlfriends a teacher, she's been supplied some important information from an retiring colleague on a floppy.
Only thing is when we put the disc in it comes up with the info
'this disc has not been formatted. Would you like to format?'
If we press yes It oges onto explain that all info will be erased from the disc.
What can we do to gain access?
Thanks.

 

This is a common problem. It was probably written to using a different version of Windows. If she has access to the machine it was created on, or one with the same O/S then should be able to open. Otherwise try it from a command (DOS) prompt. To get the command prompt:

• In Windows 95/98/ME, click Start > Run, type Command and click OK
• In XP/NT/2000, click Start > Run, type cmd and click OK.

Make sure the floppy is in the drive,
In the new window that opens, type A: and press return, then type DIRand press return to get a directory listing of the disk. Assuming this is successful, try typing:
md c:\tmpdir press return. Then type
Copy A:\*.* C:\tmpdir press return
this should copy the files from the floppy to the folder tmpdir on your hard drive, and you should be able to open from there.

To close the command window, type exit and return

HTH




[Edited by Figment - 8/28/2003 10:06:59 PM]

 

OK I get the following message; The volume does not contain a recognised file system

Also; Volume in Drive C has no label. Volume serial Number is D42F-CCC3.

Thanks for the help.

 

Check what operating system was on the machine the disk was created on. Was it definitely a PC (not a MAC)?


Do not be tempted to format the disk or you will lose any chance of recovering what it contains.

 

OK Figmant. Thanks for that, will check into what operating system was used but it defo was a PC.

Cheers,
Andy.

 

maybe they picked up the wrong disk n gave u blank one by mistake?

 

another reason for this happening if the disk is the
right one and it does have info on it, is that the file
allocation table could have been corrupted. This is quite possible
with those stiffy disks ... Then u gonna need a recovery program to
rebuild the table ....

good luck

leeps