floppy disk trouble...urgent!

momneedshelp · 12-04-2004, 08:19 PM

hi.i am new to this forum but i am trying everything i know how. i have a floppy disk with some very critical info on it. my floppy drive kicked the bucket a week ago. i needed to get more information put on to my disk so i went to a friend's house to do my work and save it to disk. while i was "indisposed" he put the disk in his pc...opened it...and because i had my stuff saved to windows 98 word & excel files...he tried to convert to his system...xp office. big mistake. i had no idea he had this system until he told me he screwed up! now when i open the disk it says it only has 3 out of the 29 documents i had saved! does anyone know how to retreive data when this kind of thing happens? please help if you can. these documents are legal stuff and i go to court in january to fight for child support! i am in a big panic!

parrotfan · 12-05-2004, 02:42 PM

You might try a data recovery service.
They are not cheap though.
Where I worked we used a tape back-up system, one of the tapes went bad.
System could read header to display contents.. service near shop said they could probably get it to a new tape. Cost was about $1500.00 for diagnostics, and then $250.00 per hour for additional time need to transfer and verify data. Would have been about $8000.00
We decided to reenter data.
Did you have printed copies of any files?
If so you could scan and OCR with Textbridge or Scansoft. Just an idea.
Good luck.

momneedshelp · 12-05-2004, 06:28 PM

i wish i had that kind of money to restore data but i don't! lol! i do have one avenue i am going to follow on. the buddy's place i was at yesterday when my disk got screwed up....well turns out he knows someone in the data recovery business. he's going to see what can be fixed. i do not have a hard copy back up...i did but it's not as comprehensive as what was on the disk. this is 8 monthes worth of records on the disk. also, i can go back to my buddy's pc and try a few tricks...but it is very risky. i'm not a pro so i'll let the pro's handle it first. i appreciate your help :) i'll keep you posted :)

jernelsingh · 12-05-2004, 06:42 PM

hi
Visist the site if it can help u

www.ptech.co.nz/recovery/diskettes.html

momneedshelp · 12-05-2004, 07:50 PM

jernelsingh, thank you for the info. i found a few places locally that say they can do the same thing for a modest price. i will let my buddys' IT pro's look at it first. i hope i can get my info back. i have to go to court in january to try to get child support. one of the documents on the disk is crucial to my case. i could do the whole thing over again but i don't have eight monthes...which is what it took to compile my info! keep your fingers crossed for me! :)
if all fails, i will contact this place in new zealand. this would seem a bit far away seeing as how i am in canada! take care :)

12-04-2004, 08:19 PM	#1 (permalink)
momneedshelp Registered User Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 6 OS: Win98	floppy disk trouble...urgent! hi.i am new to this forum but i am trying everything i know how. i have a floppy disk with some very critical info on it. my floppy drive kicked the bucket a week ago. i needed to get more information put on to my disk so i went to a friend's house to do my work and save it to disk. while i was "indisposed" he put the disk in his pc...opened it...and because i had my stuff saved to windows 98 word & excel files...he tried to convert to his system...xp office. big mistake. i had no idea he had this system until he told me he screwed up! now when i open the disk it says it only has 3 out of the 29 documents i had saved! does anyone know how to retreive data when this kind of thing happens? please help if you can. these documents are legal stuff and i go to court in january to fight for child support! i am in a big panic!

12-05-2004, 06:42 PM	#4 (permalink)
jernelsingh Registered User Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: USA,Ohio Posts: 227 OS: win 2003 ,Win XP	Re hi Visist the site if it can help u www.ptech.co.nz/recovery/diskettes.html

12-05-2004, 02:42 PM	#2 (permalink)
parrotfan Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Chicago-Suburbs Posts: 23 OS: Windos XP Pro	You might try a data recovery service. They are not cheap though. Where I worked we used a tape back-up system, one of the tapes went bad. System could read header to display contents.. service near shop said they could probably get it to a new tape. Cost was about $1500.00 for diagnostics, and then $250.00 per hour for additional time need to transfer and verify data. Would have been about $8000.00 We decided to reenter data. Did you have printed copies of any files? If so you could scan and OCR with Textbridge or Scansoft. Just an idea. Good luck.

12-05-2004, 06:28 PM	#3 (permalink)
momneedshelp Registered User Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 6 OS: Win98	i wish i had that kind of money to restore data but i don't! lol! i do have one avenue i am going to follow on. the buddy's place i was at yesterday when my disk got screwed up....well turns out he knows someone in the data recovery business. he's going to see what can be fixed. i do not have a hard copy back up...i did but it's not as comprehensive as what was on the disk. this is 8 monthes worth of records on the disk. also, i can go back to my buddy's pc and try a few tricks...but it is very risky. i'm not a pro so i'll let the pro's handle it first. i appreciate your help :) i'll keep you posted :)

12-05-2004, 07:50 PM	#5 (permalink)
momneedshelp Registered User Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 6 OS: Win98	jernelsingh, thank you for the info. i found a few places locally that say they can do the same thing for a modest price. i will let my buddys' IT pro's look at it first. i hope i can get my info back. i have to go to court in january to try to get child support. one of the documents on the disk is crucial to my case. i could do the whole thing over again but i don't have eight monthes...which is what it took to compile my info! keep your fingers crossed for me! :) if all fails, i will contact this place in new zealand. this would seem a bit far away seeing as how i am in canada! take care :)