Ask A Geek

Q: I need to access files that are on some old floppy disks. When I try to access the floppy disks, my computer states each disk is not formatted. How can I get to my information?

A: There are two common reasons why your floppy discs may be detected as “not formatted”.

First, you may have created your floppies in a format that is incompatible with your current computer. For example, Windows is often unable to work with floppies that were created on a Macintosh. If your floppies were created on an Apple computer, use a Mac OS X computer to both copy data from your floppies and convert any old files to newer formats. For instance, you should convert ClarisWorks documents to Microsoft Office formats. Then use Mac OS X to burn all of this data to CD-R. The resulting CD should be compatible with Windows. Read the rest of this entry »

Q: I have old floppy disks that I now need the information off of. When I try to access the floppy disks my computer states the disk is not formatted. How can I get to my information?