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

[Joseph Murphy]

On Feb 16, 2005, at 6:04 PM, Robert Sullivan wrote:

>> 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.

I'm smiling from ear to ear to find out I'm not the only person doing 
this, except that I'm using Windows 3.1.1 and I am using Norton Disk 
Doctor. We also put the files on a new floppy, or better still a 
network drive space, and tell the user to consider that old floppy dead 
and throw it out.

We have recently started using Bad Copy Pro on Windows 2000, with 
pretty good results. Still find a few which only come around on the old 
pizza box, though.

Mostly, though, our solution is to use this as a selling point for (a) 
our backed-up network storage options and (b) a personal committment to 
LOCKSS. (Library Acronyms: they're not just for Breakfasts [Related 
Term -- Brunches] anymore.)

Joe Murphy
Librarian and Technology Consultant
Library and Information Services
Kenyon College
murphyjm at kenyon.edu
740/427-5120