[WEB4LIB] Floppy Disk is Not Accessible, Not Formatted, or Not Recognized by Windows

[Robert Sullivan]

> So we wonder if anyone on this
> listserv has come across this problem and has figured out
> the solution. If you have, please share with us.

Not a solution exactly, but our workaround is an old Pentium-100 I set
up last year with MS-DOS.  We can copy the files off, reformat the disk
and put them back on.  This only works for disks which are physically
OK, of course... if they have demagnetized them in some way there's not
much hope.

I have an old copy of Norton Utilities on the computer in case any file
recovery is needed, but usually copying them off works.

If you want to try this, you may have to test on more than one old PC at
first.  My first attempt was on a 486 which turned up its nose at a
floppy which worked fine on the "newer" model.

(No, we don't make a practice of running DOS here... although our first
wave of NT PCs is approaching its eighth birthday.)

Bob Sullivan  <rsullivan at sals.edu>
Schenectady County Public Library (NY)  <http://www.scpl.org/>
Schenectady Digital History Archive
<http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/>