Floopy disk failure PLEASE HELP!

[errorcode]

Please help. I have a 31/2 floppy that contains important information. Like always the person using the floppy thought the info so secret he didn't want to back it up. When I tried to read it the disk reports that it is not formatted. I ran norton disk doctor on it and it reported that the FAT file was physically damaged. It tried to use the second copy of the FAT but was unable to do so. Is there any way of recovering the information?

[Jumby]

Try reading it on a system with win95 which is fat 16, or win98 which is fat32, whichever you need to do.

[mjc]

Try running scandisk on it and see what it reports....

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[yawningdog]

I read somewhere that sometimes putting a floppy in the freezer for a couple of hours can do the trick. Can't hurt, right? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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He thrusts his fists against the posts but still insists he sees the ghosts.

[nimnorf2]

Yawner,
What are you thinking? He'll pull that thing out of the freezer,let it sit on his desk for about 15 seconds then it'll get normal summer humidity condensation all over it and then he'll put it into his floppy drive and spin water all over. I think it'd be better to put it in a microwave with the metal flappy thing still on it and let it spark and melt. Certainly won't fix anything but might make you feel better with the "fireworks" you created and the fact that your kitchen is on fire you won't care as much about the lost data.
Seriously, Errorcode, Yawningdog only gives the best advice (beware of the moisture issue), indeed sometimes just a different floppy drive on some other system will read it just fine. I'm just the village idiot on this forum, but am aware that there are expensive ways to "spin and read" just about any old hard drive 80 gig to 1.44mg floppy. How vital is the info?

[This message has been edited by nimnorf2 (edited 07-10-2001).]

[errorcode]

nimnorf2 Apparently to the guy who owns the disk the info is pretty important, at least to him, I am not sure if it is worth a lot of money. Isn't there a shareware program that allows the retrieval of files without using the FAT?

[nimnorf2]

Errorcode,
You're over my head with FAT 16 and 32 stuff. I wasn't kidding about being low man on the knowledge stuff here on this forum. Stay loose, one of the smart guys should enter into this thread eventually.

A couple years ago we had a tornado come through Cincinnati and I was friends with some people who had their homes demolished by it. We were finding lap tops and desk top units scattered over a large (square miles)debris field and were able to get some local tech group to "spin" most of the hard drives to salvage important data. I don't know how expensive it was, I just know it was done. Sorry, I'm not really helpful for your situation.

[errorcode]

No need to apologize. I will just hang on untill the cybercalvary gets here. Of course having all these responses should provoke one of the "Really" intelligent guys into answering! You know if this wasn't so serious this would almost be fun.....