Read data from 5.25" floppy disk

I have a couple 5.25" disks that I would like to transfer data off of. I have the drive installed in a Win98 system. I can use Explore to see the contents of the disk but I can not open the the DOC files. If I go into DOS and type dir, I get the following list:

COMMAND COM 15,957 08-19-86 1:00p COMMAND.COM
DESK EXE 7,002 07-30-86 10:00a DESK.EXE
PMMENU PDM 56,766 07-30-86 10:00a PMMENU.PDM
PMSERV ACC 26,172 07-30-86 10:00a PMSERV.ACC
PMCORE MOD 71,242 07-30-86 10:00a PMCORE.MOD
PMACCESS ACC 21,006 07-30-86 10:00a PMACCESS.ACC
MENUDATA TAN 941 10-30-98 4:03p MENUDATA.TAN
PMWORK PDM 61,236 08-15-86 11:00a PMWORK.PDM
FAMILY DOC 52,456 01-01-80 1:16a FAMILY.DOC
ME DOC 4,075 01-01-80 12:47a ME.DOC
PMNOTEPD 1,759 01-01-80 12:17a PMNOTEPD

As far as I know, this is not an Apple computer. It's old though. It's from the mid 80s. Is there any way to open the documents that are on the disk? I know it's a long shot, but if there is a way, I would like to copy them to my hard drive and then burn it to a CD.
Thanks for any suggestions.

Mike

 

Mike,

Back then (the 80s) my computer had 2 5.25" drives and I had to boot with a disk that had the program on it that I want to use.
Since you have command.com on it, have you tried to boot with it and then type "Desk" to see if that works?

Sven

 

Sven,

I have not tried that. I'll give it a shot.

Mike

 

Sven,

No luck. The system won't boot with the disk in. Any other thoughts?

 

Would first try booting into pure dos and trying the TYPE FAMILY.DOC and see if it works.

Does the diskette have a label that says if it is single/double sided ? If it is single sided , you may need an earlier version of Dos, do not think that Win98's dos reads the single side ID bit.

If you have Diskedit part of Norton, might get it to read floppy.
Dos's Debug might work, if you know how to use program good enough.

If the diskette is high density and the drive is low density only, could also be a problem.

Try changing the drives density in the BIOS.

"As far as I know, this is not an Apple computer" if it was MS would not read it at all.

Posting error messages might help (?).

 

Those old floppies didn't have much life to them. In my experience I have learned just because you can read the filenames off of them, it doesn't mean the files aren't corrupted somewhere on the floppy. If you want those files, the time to copy the files is now.
The best and quickest way to get those files is through dos, since the constant reading that Windows Explorer does may wear these old things out. Create a folder named Floppy at the root of C: in Windows Explorer, OR stick in the floppy, open a dos window and do these commands that will make the folder, and copy all the files.
md c:\floppy
copy a:\*.* c:\floppy
FYI, from the Command.Com file size, and it's date I am guessing it is from MSDOS 3.3, and this floppy may be the old 360kb floppy although 1.2 MB did exist in 1986. The files you have listed adds up to 266,156 bytes, so not much help there.

 

Sorry for the delay. We're getting our son ready to go off to college and, for some reason, it takes up a lot of my time.

TopFarmer,

One disk has a label and it is double sided. The other looks much newer but has no label. I tried changing the drive density in BIOS and it didn't help. Still not able to read the disk files. I also went into DOS and it still didn't work. The only error message I got, and it didn't come up this time, was a disk (or drive) error.

mark62,

No luck copying the files off the disk either through DOS or Windows Explorer. From DOS, I got this error message, "general failure reading drive A ". From Windows Explorer, "cannot copy FAMILY: The system cannot read from the specified device ". If I double click on the file to open it, WordPad opens and then I get this message "An unexpected error occurred while reading A:\FAMILY.DOC ". I tried Quickview and got nothing.

I do have another 5.25" drive, but I was getting the same results with both the first time I tried things. Any other thoughts? Thanks!

Mike

 

My thoughts are that all files on the floppy can be considered lost. They are about 12 years old.
These old floppies are what taught me the value of backups due to their habit of failing.
One suggestion I do have is this. The below link gives away commercial software with a free license, a different product every day. They tend to rerun some of the products and have noticed data recovery software there, but not today.
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

 

Hello---comment/suggestion

suggestion
see if - Word Pad or Notepad- will read the .doc files---
comment
also note that many times with OS updating files are not
backward compatible...but check for freeware that may enable
you to rip them......good luck
----casca

 

Dug out a big box of 5.25 disks from the garage. Most are 360K format,
created 20+ yrs ago by many different hardware brands and OS versions.
Tried a dozen or so. All good. Oldest files date to 1984 and PCDOS 1.1
Drive more flaky than disks. Cleaned the heads and it settled down.
DOC files common then. They are text and formatted text.
Notepad works fine on them. Set file type to "All Files ".
No problem copying or reading any of the files under Win98SE.