PC help: The lost book

Q A few years ago I started to write a book in Lotus Word Pro, and I got to 285,000 words.

I saved this to a floppy disk, which I still have in my possession. When I changed computers, the new one had Windows XP installed, and nothing I try can get me access to the disk. My original operating system was Windows 98. Is there a way to get my book back?
Michael Drew

A That depends on the nature of the problem, because it could be caused by one of two things. If your computer can’t read the contents of the disk at all when it’s put in the computer, it’s likely the disk no longer works.

Floppy disks are notoriously unreliable, which is why we recommend against using them for anything important now that more reliable media such as CDs and USB keys are available. If you can see some of the files on the disk but not your book, this may have happened.

All may not be lost: programs exist that claim to recover some lost files, including Badcopy. We haven’t looked at it yet, but look out for a review in a future issue of Computeractive. Alternatively, if you can see the file on the disk but can’t open it in the applications on your new computer, it should be easier to get it back.

Firstly, though, you should copy the file over to the new computer’s hard disk, by dragging and dropping it into the My Documents window on the new PC. That way you’ll have a copy if the disk does go bad later. You’ll then need a program to open the Word Pro file. There is a list of software that includes a couple of tools to do the job at http://www.s2services.com/123-spreadsheets-viewers.htm. Try downloading the file kvlot32.exe, which is a viewer for Word Pro documents.

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!