Another techy question....about 3.5" flopppy discs

banslug

banslug

Cathlete
I have another techy question for all you 'computer people'.

I have 9 3.5" floppy discs that have portraits on them, from the WalMart Portrait Studio. I'd like to get these pics to a CD. When I put the floppy in the drive and choose the drive to open the disc, the PC fiddles around some and finally says something about the disc not being formatted, do you want to format the disc now? Of course I tell it NO because I know that will erase my pics. I've done this on 3 different PCs and nothing. I've made sure the disc is 'unlocked' with that little tab across the top.

What's the scoop on this??? How can I get these pics from these floppies onto a CD? Is there a secret software or program (downloaded, and free, hopefully) that might do it? Or am I missing a detail in here somewhere???

I'd ask the BF (who IS TRULY the computer genius, but he's now my EX BF! :)

THANKS!

Gayle
 
You need to find out what formatting was used on these floppies. I would call or go to Wal-Mart and ask. This will let you find the right program to open the files. You might even just see if they could transfer them for you.
 
Well, I've never owned a Mac, first off. Secondly, when I originally got these floppies at portrait time, I KNOW I used these discs to use the pictures in screen savers, cards/invitations, etc. So I know I was able to get these pics from the disc into other programs. Does that mean anything???

I'll take the suggestion of taking it to WalMart to see if they could/would do anything for me.

Anything else???

Gayle
 
:-(

I hate to say this but floppies don't last very long and it's quite likely that they've gone bad :-( There is a chance Walmart might have copies of your pics somewhere and can make new disks for you...

-- Mindy
 
I was going to say the same thing as Mindy (heh, not that much of a coincidence, I guess...she's my sis!) I have had some floppies go bad lately too. Just like VHS tapes, I guess that magnetic media doesn't last forever.

edit: DH says that there are services that can try to retrieve whatever data might be left on them, but he thinks they may be pretty pricey.
 
CDRs don't last forever supposedly too

I've also heard that CDRs (CDs that you burn yourself on your computer) don't last forever either (or DVDRs). So if you're putting all your files on CD, thinking they will never go bad, I don't think that is the case. I haven't had one go bad on me yet but I think it takes around 10 years. CDRs are not as reliable as a music CD you buy since music CDs are pressed using a more permanent process (as are commercial DVDs). Keeping your homemade CDs out of light is supposed to make them last longer. YMMV

-- Mindy
 
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