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Thread ID: 59661 2005-07-09 03:56:00 getting files off disk which says it needs formatting superoman (6703) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
370667 2005-07-09 03:56:00 Hi

Ive got a friend who has a floppy disk that has files on it but when the disk is put in the drive it asks for the disk to be formatted.

Is there any cheap reliable was to get the files off the disk.

If the disk was formatted would I be albe to get the files off with a deleted file searcher program?

you thoughts please
superoman (6703)
370668 2005-07-09 04:00:00 Have you tried a different floppy drive? Sometimes drive faults can cause the operating system to reject the disk as being unformatted. Try another drive. :) Sb0h (3744)
370669 2005-07-09 04:51:00 we have tried heaps of different computers

there are programs onthe internet that say they will recover files of formatted disks but are a bit reluctant to do that at this stage.

Looking into proffesional data recovery services as well
superoman (6703)
370670 2005-07-09 05:02:00 That message means that the disk can't be read by that drive on that computer.

The first thing to do is to physically remove the write-protect tab. Just pick it out with something sharp, so the disk can't be written to. That will stop any accidental formatting. ;) FGormatting will remove any chnacve of recovering the files.

Try reading the disk on any other computers. You might get lucky, and be able to get the files off and copied to (at least) two other new, fully formatted floppies.
Graham L (2)
370671 2005-07-09 05:40:00 As you have already tried other drives, it means the disk is stuffed. pctek (84)
370672 2005-07-09 06:41:00 This costs money, but it's worked for me many times:

www.grc.com

Good luck
Glenn (98)
370673 2005-07-09 12:25:00 i've come across this many times over the years, in most cases, i did a scandisk on the floppy & that worked. sometimes the file became corrupted & that was it. but it's worth a try & takes a couple of minutes quarry (252)
370674 2005-07-09 12:42:00 try dumping the disk in Linux. I'm not too clued up about it, but my friend has saved quite a few disks this way Greven (91)
370675 2005-07-10 02:19:00 There is still a remote chance of getting the files. Apart from a corrupted disk, the other reason for getting that error message is that it is in another OS's format.

A common culprit is Apple Macintosh. ;) Although from a fairly early stage it has been possible to write "Microsoft" disks on a Macintosh, it does have its own format. This is not readable on a "PC".

It's much less likely that it has been written on a Linux/Unix machine in a native format. Most people keep floppies in MSDOS format because that's so much easier.

*nix dd relies on having a recognisable format on a disk, though it doesn't need a directory to do a raw dump of a disk's contents. The error message indicates that the format is bad (according to MS). It would have complained about a bad directory if the format had been usable.
Graham L (2)
370676 2005-07-10 04:43:00 This have been covered in PressF1 quite recently.

Have a look at this thread (www.experts-exchange.com) too.

I have used getdataback myself to recover data from two floppy disks that were saying they were unformatted.

You should also just quickly try and read it in a Windows 95/98 machine as they might be able to read it (or DOS).

And please tell those involved to never use floppy disks again ;)
Instead buy 2 usb pen drives....
gibler (49)
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