I have a floppy disk that I've been using and I know that it's already formatted and I've been using it in the same way and I've even been using with the same two computers. I was writing an essay last night and I was periodically saving the Word(97) document on the disk. Today I tried to open the doc from the disk and it wouldn't; I kept getting messages on 3 different computers such as "disk is not formatted or is formatted for a Mac" and such. But as mentioned before, the disk IS formatted and I have been using it successfully and have never had problems with it. Has this problem ocurred from high usage? Is it just 'worn out'? I have been using this disk under the same conditions and it's as though one minute it was working, and the next minute it wasn't. Anyway, is there ANY way that I can get my document from the disk? I am very confused and frustrated and I'm not so good with the computers so please try not to use 'complicated computer jargon', if you chose to reply. (Luckily, I saved a partially finished version of the essay to the hard drive to one of my computers, but it would be great if some one knows a way to help so that I don't have to remember half the things I wrote.) Please help a student in great need!

Test another floppy diskette in the drive. See if you cat write to it and then see if you can read whatever you just wrote. If you can't, then you have a broken drive.

Floppies don't last forever. You should have been periodically backing it up on your hard drive...then you could copy it to the floppy when you're finished. That way, you'd have been able to retrieve the file from the hard drive again. Too late now, but hopefully you'll do it this way in the future. You didn't mention what version of Windows...you could try booting off a boot floppy, then popping in the floppy with the .doc file on it to see if it can be seen in DOS. If it is, try copying it back to the hard drive. You could also try running scandisk on the floppy. Asus A7N8X-X 1800+ @8x210mhz 512mb PC3200 Ti4200/8X 128mb WDC 60GB

Hi I've had this problem with floppies - saying that they are not formatted when they are. In effect, the disk is screwed up, but not all is necessariy lost. Often most information is recoverable. I use a progam which I paid a lot for years ago which can pull back virtually anything and generally I've been successful with 'unformatted' disks. I think, however,that there are other programs for free which can recover information. Somewhere else in these forums someone mentioned them, but I've had a quick look and can't spot them. Perhaps those who know can repost the details? There's a good chance that your document is fairly intact, just waiting to be recovered .. Sven Forkbeard. I expect your document is still there

A search of http://www.simtel.net returned 128 choices for "data recovery" software, most of them payware of one sort or another. There are trials and shareware listed, but I didn't take time to look through all 13 pages for a free one. However, I did find one free one, and the author's page explains the error messages Windows gives for disks, and WHY. Doesn't hurt to check it out ... http://www.bestdiskrecovery.com/arfd/arfd.html Good luck! You don't have to be realistic to be cynical, but you DO have to be cynical to be realistic!

Sorry about the extra post ... I did find a free floppy repair tool, Disktest Pro 1.1 The producer states: "Disktest PRO is a Windows (32Bits) program to analyze, repair or modify 3.5" Double Sided High Density floppy disks on first floppy drive (A:). You can test floppy disks, search for bad sectors, repair bad sectors, format, quick format, recover data on bad sectors, make backups, mark/unmark bad sectors, erase data without using files, test floppy disk speed on reading. Data, when recovered, is 100% reliable." If you put dtpro1_1.zip in the simtel.net search engine, it should take you right to the page. You don't have to be realistic to be cynical, but you DO have to be cynical to be realistic!

As an absolute last resort, putting hard drives in the freezer for a few hours can temporarily resurrect them long enough to get some data off them. Maybe the same would work with a floppy ?! < insert profound, thought-provoking statement here >