reading old 3.5 inch diskettes

[zoogang75]

I have a number of old 3.5 inch diskettes that I desperately need to read.  I just purchased a TEAC USP portable diskette drive and attached it to my Dell labtop with Windows 7.  When I insert a diskette and attempt to "open," it instructs me that the disk need to be formatted.  This, of course, would erase all the data on the disk.  What am I doing wrong? Help. 

[BC_Programmer]

Floppy disks that are more then a year or two old are often unreadable.

Is it doing that with every disk?

Also, are you sure they are PC Formatted and not an older Macintosh Floppy disk format?

[patio]

Knowing what's on these floppies would help as well...

[zoogang75]

MORE INFO: yes they are Macintosh formatted.  They were last used in 2005.  Back when PC's all had built-in disc readers I had no problem reading them on PC computers.  I transferred several to a PC in 2006.  They have been carefully stored ever since.  They contain simple Word and Excel documents, nothing fancy.  Thanks.

[patio]

Without a file conversion app you will have to try opening them on a MAC...

[soybean]

You might try online conversion via http://www.zamzar.com/.  I don't know whether it will work with your files but it might be worth a try.

[zoogang75]

Since I can't get the files off the diskette and onto my hard-drive, I don't think an online conversion would work.  Am I missing something?

[BC_Programmer]

MORE INFO: yes they are Macintosh formatted.  They were last used in 2005.

Then  you aren't going to be able to read them. The formats are entirely foreign to a PC.

Back when PC's all had built-in disc readers I had no problem reading them on PC computers.  I transferred several to a PC in 2006.  They have been carefully stored ever since.  They contain simple Word and Excel documents, nothing fancy.  Thanks.

If you've read them on PCs before, they are in PC format (720K or 1.44MB).



You can try to find an internal floppy drive rather then a USB one and see if you have better results.

[soybean]

Since I can't get the files off the diskette and onto my hard-drive, I don't think an online conversion would work. 

Oops, you're right.  That would not work.

I agree with BC_Programmer about findiing computer with an internal floppy drive.  If you can't find such a computer, then you might want to buy an internal floppy drive and install it. You can still find 3.5 inch internal floppy drives on the market but the selection is getting very slim.  Here's one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16821105001R&cm_re=floppy_drive_internal-_-21-105-001R-_-Product , currently selling at a greatly reduced price.

[Salmon Trout]

Then  you aren't going to be able to read them. The formats are entirely foreign to a PC.

If you've read them on PCs before, they are in PC format (720K or 1.44MB).

Might not the PCs have had a utility installed such as MacDisk, MacOpener, or HFV Explorer? (The last of these is free and can be got here: http://emaculation.com/quick/hdexp131.zip)

[BC_Programmer]

Might not the PCs have had a utility installed such as MacDisk, MacOpener, or HFV Explorer?

Yes,  But This makes me think they didn't:

Back when PC's all had built-in disc readers I had no problem reading them on PC computers

The way I interpreted it was that they had no problem- that is, they didn't encounter a problem that caused them to look for, say, HFV explorer; sounds like it worked "as is". Additionally, I don't think that Macintosh computers that formatted disks like that have been around for ages- we're talking Quadra's, at least, probably. And most of those didn't come with a floppy, so probably  something like a mac IIci or something; My guess (and it's just a guess) was that they aren't actually "macintosh formatted" but that they may have been created on a macintosh, such as, for example, a mac running OS-X in a more recent time frame, in which case I think they would be standard 1.44MB "PC" formatted disks, not sure about that.

That being said, if they are in fact "Mac-Formatted" disks (in the traditional sense), then HFVExplorer or the other tools mentioned could be used to read them.

[zoogang75]

Just to be clear, the diskettes are DEFINATELY Macintosh Formatted (Maxell MF2HD) because they're still in the original packaging.  The diskettes were all initiated on a Mac G3 using OSX.  They were also used on a G4 labtop with whatever OS was current in 2005.  I downloaded HFVExplorer this morning, but my computer is still not recognizing the diskettes as being formatted.  I'll find a MAC somewhere and see if it will read the discs with the USB diskette reader.  Assuming that works, and I move the files to a CDR, is there any reason to think my PC would have a problem opening those?

[soybean]

is there any reason to think my PC would have a problem opening those?

You said they are Word and Excel files, so they are .doc and .xls type files, right?  If so, I believe you should be able to open them as long as you have Microsoft Office or OpenOffice.