Reading WIN 95 disks on WIN7 PC -- help!

[pschreck]

I inherited my father's 3.5" floppy disks, and when I try to read them I get "A:\ is not accessible. The disk media is not recognized. It may not be formatted." I suspect this is because the disks were used on a PC running Windows 95. Any suggestions on how to access the files on a Windows 7 PC?

 

[Snipergod87]

Floppy disks will lose their data overtime, and a weak magnetic field can erase it, it is rather common. I would first try reading the disk in another floppy drive and see if the data is available.

 

[ss202sl]

Floppy disks were notorious for failing, and when they failed you usually get the error you are seeing.

Also I've seen where a disk was written on a particular machine(or floppy drive) and wouldn't read on a different machine, but would read fine on the original machine. So try a different floppy drive if you can.

 

[Snipergod87]

Also I've seen where a disk was written on a particular machine(or floppy drive) and wouldn't read on a different machine, but would read fine on the original machine. So try a different floppy drive if you can.

This would be because the original machine floppy head could have not been calibrated correctly, which could have caused the data to be read in written in slightly different tracks and sectors, making it unreadable by another machine

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi


Microsoft says Floppy Disks Formated in Windows 95 or MSDOS are different from those formatted by latter Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/140060

What sort of Floppy disk drive do you have ?
(Internal or USB external ?)
Does it work with other floppy disks ?

I currently rely on a USB 3.5" floppy drive though I have not used it for 6 months
When I used it to recovered data from a pack of 10 year old disks without problems

regards

Mike Barnes

 

[pschreck]

Hi Mike,

Yes, I had seen this on the Microsoft website, which is what prompted my initial question, wondering if there is a way to add the missing markers so Windows 7 can read the discs.

I have tried reading these discs with both a USB external drive and an internal drive that I have migrated with every new system just to have access. This is the first time I have been unable to read a disc on either of them, so I doubt the problem is with the hardware.

Hi


Microsoft says Floppy Disks Formated in Windows 95 or MSDOS are different from those formatted by latter Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/140060

What sort of Floppy disk drive do you have ?
(Internal or USB external ?)
Does it work with other floppy disks ?

I currently rely on a USB 3.5" floppy drive though I have not used it for 6 months
When I used it to recovered data from a pack of 10 year old disks without problems

regards

Mike Barnes