Anyway to read info. on Floppies from many years ago, please?

[crestwood]

I have some old floppy 3 1/2 disks from many years ago. I placed them in the floppy drive on my Acer Desktop and I cannot read the documents on the floppies. I am asked which program I want to open with and I have tried different options but nothing will work. Is there anyway to view the documents stored on these old disks or should they just be tossed? Thanks in advance.

[LochLomonder]

crestwood,

Can you actually see the documents on the floppies if you pull up a directory listing? That's what I'm inferring from what you wrote, and it seems as if you can't find an appropriate application to open them.

If that's the case, can you see the file extensions of the files? Are they all the same and, if so, what's the file extension?

[crestwood]

I put the floppy in the floppy drive and selected to open with Microsoft Word, then I received a message that the feature I am trying to is on a CD Rom that is not available and that I should install Microsoft 2000 Small Business.

[crestwood]

Sorry, I think I accidently overlooked your question. Some of the files show:
Z0003943.WPF - WPF File - 179KB and others show something similiar to that. Then, some of the other files show M-22 File 202KB and some are similiar to that.

[123456]

Try opening it in notepad... WPF files are WordPerfect files.
OpenOffice is also compatible with WPF files.

[crestwood]

It worked and thanks so very much. I so appreciate the excellent advice I always receive on this forum.

[mjc]

The WPF reader is what the message about needing to install MS 2000 Small Business was about...that's were it was found. I suppose it's also buried somewhere in the MS servers. But OpenOffice is the way to go...it handles many of the formats from years gone by, without having to hunt down translators.

[crestwood]

OpenOffice works GREAT for viewing these old documents and thanks so much for telling me about it!