Computer Question re: saved files to floppies

[Kymberley]

Some guys at work have several discs that they have saved very important files on. They have a computer that is a piece of crap.


These are almost all .xls files in a workbook. When they try to open the files, they get an error msg saying that the server is not responding or may be a read only file.

Any way to fix this and open the file anyway?

I have had it happen to me on a few of their other discs and just left it as the files were lost. When I do a quick view of the disc, I can see the workbook pages but unable to copy them or make any changes to the file when it is a read only.


Is it possible to recover this data? If so, how?


Thanks

 

[april-wine]

I can offer NO computer advice sorry Kymberley..........Just came in to say Good Morning......Hmmmmmmmm coffee anyone......

 

[Kymberley]

*smooches those lips in her dreams*


Having a nice hot cup of french vanilla as we type.

 

[april-wine]

*smooches those lips in her dreams*


Having a nice hot cup of french vanilla as we type.

Hmmmmmmmmm a soft kiss............ummmmmm good coffee

Just plain old Columbian for me.............

 

[Fly_On_Wall]

first off right click on the file on the disk go to properties and see if it is indeed a read only file. there are 4 boxes at the bottom, archive, read only and the others i forget, if read only has a check mark in it click on that so the checkmark is gone, if that don't work
the disk eather has bad sectors or the file is corupt, coppy them from the disk to the hd... if it will not coppy the disk is bad and need to be formated, this will loos all information on the disk so don't do that if you don't want to loos the file.

if it does coppy and still won't open, the file is corupt, but most programs have a recovery built into them... since i'm not sure which program your useing i can't tell you how to do the recovery though sorry

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

These are almost all .xls files in a workbook. When they try to open the files, they get an error msg saying that the server is not responding or may be a read only file.

Any way to fix this and open the file anyway?

First, they should copy all of the files into a folder onto the hard disk, and then try to open them. Don't try to open them from the floppy. That might help.

Next, I would be careful about relying on floppies for a backup; sometimes the floppy drive on one computer can be out of alignment and can make the floppy unreadable on another computer. It is better for everybody to backup their important files to a central server and to have that one backed up periodically to a CDR or tape (I prefer doing both, but I also prefer CDR to tape if space is not a problem).

I am not an Excel person so I can give much more advice.

 

[Kymberley]

I believe their computers are the new Microsoft ME or possibly 98.

It is written in Office 2000.

 

[Fly_On_Wall]

Ohhhhhh Exel, that program i actualy know
I checked... it's a microsoft product so has no recovery in it, or at least not obviousl one, they are usualy under file pull down menue. (microsoft is a bitch)

this sounds dumb but.... try opening it in microsoft word (yes and exel file witll open there)

this way you can at least get the numbers or whatever info is in the spread sheet so if the file is garbage you don't have to start over from scratch.

 

[Kymberley]

So far nothing is working.


They can't copy it to the hard drive. The properties were originally under archive.

 

[Fly_On_Wall]

is there a message enable/disable macros?

 

[Kymberley]

Nope

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

So far nothing is working.


They can't copy it to the hard drive. The properties were originally under archive.

Then it sounds like something is wrong with the floppy. Try using some floppy repair program on it. The files might come out corrupted, but you might be able to save parts of them. This is why I rarely use floppies for backup anymore.

 

[Fly_On_Wall]

okay so open exel, then opne the file and you get what msg?

also what is the msg you get when trying to coppy the file from flopy to HD?

 

[Willing and Unsure]

check on the floppy.. there's a little on the back of it (opposite side of the label)... its kind of like a switch, make sure it is down (not protected).. and when i say down, i mean closer to the bottom of the disk instead of the top

 

[Kymberley]

same message. File cannot be accessed; file might be from a read only location or the server the document is stored on may not be responding.

 

[Weird Harold]

Can you read any other files saved on floppy from their computer?

You might also try running scandisk (thorough mode) on the floppy. That will often recover information stored on a bad sector or at least make the file readable.

MS Word 97 and later has a "recover text from any file" mode of opening files. It won't save the formatting or any formulae but it will retrieve the basic data entriels from an Excel file.

 

[Kymberley]

How would I find the option of recovering the text?


Will scandisk reformat the disc or just find the bad sectors? What will it do when it finds them?

 

[Weird Harold]

How would I find the option of recovering the text?


Will scandisk reformat the disc or just find the bad sectors? What will it do when it finds them?

Set Word to :confirm file conversions" and when you open a file other than a word document, it will give you a list of possible file types -- one of the choices is "recover text from any file."

Scandisk will lockout just the bad sectors -- after moving any data if it can read it. It will tell you if it could recover the data if there is data on a bad sector.

Scandik does NOT reformat a disk.