Question for Computer Literates

[UTUSN]

Been saving text to a diskette, using MS Works Word Processor, and adding on. Luckily I printed out, so all is not completely lost. And when not in use, left the diskette lying on top of the radio (not the speakers). Today after about 2 weeks of not using, the diskette in the A Drive would not open, saying that the program (file?) might be in use elsewhere or the file might be corrupted.

Did the diskette get ruined by the radio? (Magnets are in the SPEAKERS, which are far away, correct?) Should I be saving up for the regular Word software? Would it be better to use a CD, can these be added-onto?

Thanks for stifling any potential mockery at my ignorance and for any help.

[orthogonal]

1. Try this:

Keep trying to open the diskette, and you'll probably get more back.

Do a mass copy, using xcopy, onto your harddrive.

Finally, run scandisk on the floppy.

From now on, save to the hard drive, or save a second copy on a second disk.

CDs are somewhat fragile, and can't be erased/changed. Use CDs for long-term backup.

[rabid_nerd]

2. The diskette wouldn't open or the file?

Can you browse (get a file listing) of the diskette?

Any EM Field can potentially fudge up a disk.

I would say save it to your Hard Drive - unless it's not your computer.

Even the new fangled flash memory drive USB doo-hickeys are built to better withstand damage than a floppy.

And they're no more expensive per MB then floppy disks.

About $40 for 128MB or less than 50 cents per floppy-worth

Staples Flash Drives

Of course if you can't plug anything USB in, well...

[UTUSN]

3. Thanks You Two

(didn't understand most of it.)

A third "reason": "or the file is not supported by the installed converters".

[necso]

4. Just check to see what is on the floppy, first.

Double click on "My Computer" on the desktop (the basic windows screen) or Start --- "My Computer".

It will show a floppy icon. Double click on this. A new window should open with some file name(s). (Or it will come back with an error -- which is bad.) Use drag and drop to copy any files to the desktop. (Move the mouse pointer over the file icon, left PRESS and while holding the left button down, move the mouse pointer over the desktop and release.)

You should format (full) floppies before first using, make at least two copies, and never expect them to last very long. I check all my floppies twice a year and lose data on 5 - 15% of them. Some smaller number of them permanently lose some sectors, at which point I toss them.

If the data is damaged on the floppy, there are things you can try to recover it.

Heat, magnetic fields, dust, physical damage can harm a floppy. I have seen one become unusable in a single day because of high temps.

You should keep the main version of the file on the hard drive (it will likely end up in "My Documents" and be easy to find) and keep multiple floppy copies.

I have to work, but I will check back in later.

[TrogL]

5. There is a magnet in your radio

It's part of the transformer, part of the power supply.

[LTR]

6. A silly idea

Get a Yahoo! account (5mb of space). Email documents to yourself, so you have access anywhere there is net access.

Or get an online storage account (i.e. Ripway). You can save these files (which are usually fairly small) online and always have access.

[UTUSN]

7. Thanks, All, Kindly

Am printing out to try the different things. Will be gone the rest of the evening. Thanks again.

[UTUSN]

8. An Update of Thanks

Update: The Staples crew had the flash memory doohickies, but they were shorthanded and busy.

A couple of Best Buy whiz kids zeroed in on the product (it holds 88 diskettes' worth) and played around with my diskette. They couldn't open the document on Word Processor, but WERE able to open it with Notepad, and they saved it to the flash memory thing. I thought that the Notepad could be copied, then pasted into a new processor document, but this turned out not to be the case.

So, ended up trying OCR software that came with the scanner for the first time, and THAT worked. Saved it as a Word '97(!) document that pasted into the Word Processor new document.

Erased the files in the diskette and the flash drive, saved the new document into the HARD DRIVE (I've learned my lesson), and into the flash drive, and THREW AWAY THE DISKETTE.

The kids said the flash thing is less (or not at all) susceptible to the radio and dust. But I will keep it tucked safely. Thanks again.

[arwalden]

9. As A Floppy Diskette Ages It Loses Its Ability To Store And Hold Data...

... reliably. How old was the diskette?

-- Allen

[UTUSN]

10. Pal, I am SO un-techlike

that this was the first diskette I had ever used. The box sat around for 8 months or so before I tried one, then half of the box was tossed for being unformattable. The rest of them were good to go------or so they SAID------

I thought these things were reliable.

[arwalden]

11. They are... mostly...

I've got some 3.25" diskettes that are nearly 10 years old... I needed one the other day, and it worked fine. I was amazed! --- But I've always heard that age and use take a toll on a diskette's life.

-- Allen

P.S. I feel the same way about cars. Key goes in here. Gas goes in there... the rest is just MAGIC.