Converting 3 1/2 Inch Discs

Try OpenOffice document writer. I have found that even when MS Word refuses to work, sometimes OpenOffice tends to work. Its free you should Google it and simply download it.

Good luck

Hi Kenneth,

does the Canon machine still work? if so, you can print the documents and have it scanned as text. if you can't print it as text, grab it from the screen using the <Prt Sc> function, save it as an image file and print. then scan as text.

if the machine does not work anymore, try to get it fixed just for the above purpose.

you can also look for and try using older machines that have the 3-1/2" drives. they might recognize those files.

HTH!

I have used Windows Notepad to open text files. Even managed to open a corrupt Word doc once on a floppy & recover the text.

Worth a try & you won't even have to search the net for it!

Cheers

I use 'quick View' is freeware opens everything link goes to gov computer news article

Kenneth,

I was able to find a couple of things that might help you on the internet. It looks like the Canon Starwriter Pro 5000 was a dedicated word processor that had a special format different from Windows Word or standard text format. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that you can tell that the disks contain some files, but you cannot open the files by double-clicking on them without getting a prompt from windows to "...specify what program to use to open this type of file." If this is true, then read the next paragraph. If not, then the disks may not be readable and you might try the paragraph after the next.

I found a website that claims to be able to convert your files and that will retain the formatting from the Canon Starwriter document and change it into Word format (or others if you like). It does seem to cost a small amount (not sure how much) and there may be someone else who has made this tool for free, but here's the link to this web site. (I don't know anything about the state of the web site or if they still supply the program, but this is what Google turned up). They do ask for copies of the disks and if your data is confidential or proprietary, you'll have to talk with them about how to trust them with this info. You might be able to search for a program to convert the format, but nothing came up for me right away.

http://www.luxsoft.demon.co.uk/lux/cconv.html

If, on the other hand, your problem was that you didn't see any files on the diskette when you opened it in Windows Explorer, then you'll need to try something else.

You could try to go to the command line in Windows and type the command "cd a:" (Change directory to the A drive). Then try typing "dir" (directory list) to see if any filenames appear. You'll always get two entries named "." and ".." at the top of the list and then you should see some names of files listed. If not, the Windows computer seems to be unable to read the disks. If it can, then you should be able to copy the files to the hard drive of your computer and to try to find a program that will read the data on the disks.

Let's start with that and see if that helps at all...

Calvin

Ken,

What is the file extension for these files? (the last three letters of the filename, after the period (.???)

I did some searching, but I didn't find anything relevant.

Tom

At one point in time there were companies that either converted strange media or provided programs to do so. I would look for media conversion services.

Good luck

I should have added in my previous post that the floppies in question may not have the same FAT and directory structure that a MicroSoft operating system would expect which would render the floppies unreadable and any attempt to fix them may ruin them forever. I repeat my suggestion, find a place that specializes the conversion either at their place or via a program that might not be free.

The suggestion that if the Canon still works and you can print the documents so that you scan them in with OCR software that will convert them to either a text file or as a word processor file of your choice is a good one.

Regards!

FlopShow v1.2

FlopShow is a file recovery plus file undeletion tool for floppies.

FlopShow can recover files from bad , damaged floppy disks and

undelete files from good ones. FlopShow can also make and restore floppy

disk images.

Get FlopShow

http://paradiseprogramming.tripod.com/flopshow.html

FlopShow v1.2 win 9x/ME/NT/2K/XP Download (zipped. size 86Kb)

Program Descriptions

FlopShow is a file recovery + file undelete utility for fat - 12 partitions
(floppies).Like any other recovery/undeletion utility this program also don't

offer you 100 % recovery or undeletion .The recovered/undeleted files may

( may not be ) corrupt . This newer version of the program also has options

to create floppy disk images and later to restore it . License FREEWARE

http://paradiseprogramming.tripod.com/FlopShow.zip

==========

HD-Copy from Oliver Frormme Germany.

HD-Copy

~~~~~~~~~

F A Q --- Frequently Asked Questions

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Copyright (c) 1992-95 by Oliver Fromme -- All Rights Reserved

Oliver Fromme, Klingestr. 2, 38640 Goslar, Germany

Internet email: fromme@rz.tu-clausthal.de

WWW: http://www.rz.tu-clausthal.de/~inof/

Note:

Lately [sometime in 90s] to get the copy he replied to type "HD-COPY Help" in Subject & sed mail

14 years old. But working on XP very well.

Haajee

=============

HD-COPY in my view was the best out of at least I tried some nearly 100 programs.

If you don't get mail me I will send both.

Hope

worth trying.

GA, Haajee!

Thanks Langyaw !

It is really worth trying.

I still use HD-COPY for all problems of floppy. Even rewrites boot-sector. thus any virus in boot-sector is cleaned.

Though the ERA of Floopy has gone.

Regards

"FlopShow is a file recovery + file undelete utility for fat - 12 partitions"

I don't think the floppy disks in question use a FAT. If your FlopShow program tries to "fix" the partition, it may destroy the proprietary file system, and make further read attempts impossible.

As far as I am aware, floppies do use a File Allocation Table too.....I looked around on the web and found several web sites that supported this.....no 100% guarantee though....

Regards.

Yes of cource there is another file having the same name. I had to save those files with 2 names; the 2nd with addition of (-) not to overwrite one another.

I may have both & will search in my CD's Lib of Rare-Collections.

Floopies have "FAT" only not FAT12. FAT is I think FAT-6.

The Flopshow is a multifunction file for Floppies. See its Menue:

Regards.

Regards

If you have a floppy drive & a Floppy try to format please & see what it says about FAT

I don't have in Laptop.

ABBYY Finereader

ABBYY Finereader pro 5

Where are you Kenneth Leigh:

For most purposes, the NTFS file system is superior to FAT in terms of features and reliability; its main drawbacks are the size overhead for small volumes and the very limited support by anything other than the NT-based versions of Windows, since the exact specification is a trade secret of Microsoft. The availability of NTFS-3G since mid 2006 has led to much improved NTFS support in Unix-like operating systems, considerably alleviating this concern. It is still not possible to use NTFS in DOS-like operating systems without third-party drivers, which in turn makes it difficult to use a DOS floppy for recovery purposes. Microsoft provided a recovery console to work around this issue, but for security reasons it severely limited what could be done through the Recovery Console by default. The movement of recovery utilities to boot CDs based on BartPE or Linux (with NTFS-3G) is finally eroding this drawback.

FAT is still the normal file system for removable media (with the exception of CDs and DVDs), with FAT12 used on floppies, and FAT16 or FAT32 on most other removable media (such as flash memory cards for digital cameras and USB flash drives). Some removable media are not yet large enough to benefit from FAT32 and FAT16 is used on these drives for reasons of compatibility and size overhead, although some larger flash drives, like SDHC, do make use of it.

The FAT32 formatting support in Windows 2000 and XP is limited to volumes of 32 GB, which effectively forces users of modern hard drives either to use NTFS, to partition the drive into smaller volumes (below 32 GB), or to format the drive using third party tools.

Regards.

Good information about FOrmatting types.

A GA for your answer.