Bad, Bad Floppy!

Dadgummit · 03-29-2005, 08:56 AM

This is probably something very simple. I have a floppy with a bunch of Excel and Microsoft Works Spreadsheet files on it. The other day I closed the Excel file I was working on, took out the floppy, and got that little "warning" you get when you take out a floppy too early. Instead of putting the floppy back in (because I hadn't been trying to save anything and figured it didn't matter)and clicking OK, I just clicked cancel. Well, now when I try to open the Excel files on that disk, Excel opens (but not the file itself) and says:

" 'FILE NAME' cannot be accessed. The file may be read-only, or you are trying to access a read-only location. Or, the server the document is stored on may not be responding."

"Retry" gets me the same message. All I can do is cancel. I've made sure "read only" wasn't selected in the files' properties. I've tried copying the files to the desktop, but I get "Error performing inpage operation." All the Microsoft Works files open fine.

These are order forms for work, and I'd like to not have to recreate every single one of them!! Any ideas on how to get my files to open???

Thanks.

Ried · 03-29-2005, 10:25 AM

Hi and welcome to TSF,

Unless someone else has any ideas, try ResQflpy. (it's about half way down the page)

It has a really good ReadMe along with it. You can 'clone' what is already on your disk to another floppy or your desktop.
Quote: "ResQflpy produces an image file of a source floppy even when it has defective sectors in data area, root directory or boot sector. Defective sectors are ignored, or read by force where possible, during generation of the image file."

Hope this helps

Dadgummit · 03-30-2005, 07:33 AM

Used it (thank you), and I now have a copy of the original to mess around with. BUT...I still can't open the Excel files! I don't know how to actually recover anything :(

And to think, at work *I* am the one people come to to fix computer problems!! hahaha

Nat

NoReason · 03-30-2005, 07:46 AM

did it happen to leave a tmp file on the disk? you could recover it from that if so, or try to open excel, browse to the floppy and try to "open and repair" instead of open.

Ried · 03-30-2005, 08:39 AM

Make sure you have your 'clones' on a separate floppy. Try what scottcamp suggested. If no go, 'play' with the cloned files by trying the different options in the ReadMe file. Scandisk,chkdsk,diskedit, etc. Just be sure to only 'play' with the cloned and not the actual source disk.

If you can grab even some of them, send to desktop, then save again to a new floppy.

sinclair_tm · 03-30-2005, 05:42 PM

i know that there are someprograms that will 'lock' a file when you open it and if it doesn't 'unlock' that file by closure of the file or app, that you will not be able to open it later. i believe this is to keep someone else from opening the same file while you have it open, a network server type guard. autocad is one such program, and in order to open these files in autocad, we had to use some in app utility to 'unlock' the file so that we can use it. i do not have much experience with excel, so i can't tell you how to unlock it, but this would be my guess. maybe someone can tell us if there is a way to edit a file's properties without opening it from excel that would allow you to unlock and then open the file.

03-29-2005, 08:56 AM	#1 (permalink)
Dadgummit Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 4 OS: Windows 2000	Bad, Bad Floppy! This is probably something very simple. I have a floppy with a bunch of Excel and Microsoft Works Spreadsheet files on it. The other day I closed the Excel file I was working on, took out the floppy, and got that little "warning" you get when you take out a floppy too early. Instead of putting the floppy back in (because I hadn't been trying to save anything and figured it didn't matter)and clicking OK, I just clicked cancel. Well, now when I try to open the Excel files on that disk, Excel opens (but not the file itself) and says: " 'FILE NAME' cannot be accessed. The file may be read-only, or you are trying to access a read-only location. Or, the server the document is stored on may not be responding." "Retry" gets me the same message. All I can do is cancel. I've made sure "read only" wasn't selected in the files' properties. I've tried copying the files to the desktop, but I get "Error performing inpage operation." All the Microsoft Works files open fine. These are order forms for work, and I'd like to not have to recreate every single one of them!! Any ideas on how to get my files to open??? Thanks.

03-30-2005, 07:46 AM	#4 (permalink)
NoReason HJT Trainee Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: South Carolina Posts: 514 OS: XP Home	did it happen to leave a tmp file on the disk? you could recover it from that if so, or try to open excel, browse to the floppy and try to "open and repair" instead of open. __________________ "Four freedoms: The first is freedom of speech and expression - everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of everyone to worship God in his own way, everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want . . . everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear . . . anywhere in the world." --Franklin D. Roosevelt U.S. President

03-29-2005, 10:25 AM	#2 (permalink)
Ried Assistant Manager, TSF Academy; Moderator/Analyst Security Team Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Ohio Posts: 19,083 OS: WinXP and Vista	Hi and welcome to TSF, Unless someone else has any ideas, try ResQflpy. (it's about half way down the page) It has a really good ReadMe along with it. You can 'clone' what is already on your disk to another floppy or your desktop. Quote: "ResQflpy produces an image file of a source floppy even when it has defective sectors in data area, root directory or boot sector. Defective sectors are ignored, or read by force where possible, during generation of the image file." Hope this helps

03-30-2005, 07:33 AM	#3 (permalink)
Dadgummit Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 4 OS: Windows 2000	Used it (thank you), and I now have a copy of the original to mess around with. BUT...I still can't open the Excel files! I don't know how to actually recover anything :( And to think, at work I am the one people come to to fix computer problems!! hahaha Nat

03-30-2005, 08:39 AM	#5 (permalink)
Ried Assistant Manager, TSF Academy; Moderator/Analyst Security Team Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Ohio Posts: 19,083 OS: WinXP and Vista	Make sure you have your 'clones' on a separate floppy. Try what scottcamp suggested. If no go, 'play' with the cloned files by trying the different options in the ReadMe file. Scandisk,chkdsk,diskedit, etc. Just be sure to only 'play' with the cloned and not the actual source disk. If you can grab even some of them, send to desktop, then save again to a new floppy.

03-30-2005, 05:42 PM	#6 (permalink)
sinclair_tm Mac Method Wiz -- Manager Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Dusty Mexican Border Lands Posts: 8,277 OS: MS Win XP Pro SP3 & Mac OS X 10.5.5 My System Blog Entries: 24	i know that there are someprograms that will 'lock' a file when you open it and if it doesn't 'unlock' that file by closure of the file or app, that you will not be able to open it later. i believe this is to keep someone else from opening the same file while you have it open, a network server type guard. autocad is one such program, and in order to open these files in autocad, we had to use some in app utility to 'unlock' the file so that we can use it. i do not have much experience with excel, so i can't tell you how to unlock it, but this would be my guess. maybe someone can tell us if there is a way to edit a file's properties without opening it from excel that would allow you to unlock and then open the file.