Help with Microsoft Word XP needed ASAP!

[lakotawind13]

When I try to open a certain disk in my A: drive, a little window pops up that says either one of two things - most of the time it says "The floppy disk in drive A: is not formatted or has been formatted to a Macintosh." Then, after I click "OK", another window pops up that reads "A: drive is not accessible. The disk media is not recognized. It may not be formatted.

Help! I don't know what to do! I have a compaq which was reading my disk just fine last night - I have my ENTIRE midterm (which was worked on for DAYS!) on this disk which I've only used on this computer. I have tried other disks since I got these messages, and they work just fine. Why isn't my disk working - I can't even open the drive with this disk, and it's never even been in the same room with a Mac.

I desperately need assistance from a knowledgable person. Thank you, I greatly appreciate any help or suggestions.

[badpolarbear]

maybe you can find some help here http://www.apple.com/za/smallbusiness/m ... aring.html

[lakotawind13]

Thank you polarbear, I am checking this out right now...

[lakotawind13]

I don't think the software listed on this site is for word documents - I think it's for audio or graphic applications - thanks for the suggestion, though - it was definitely worth a shot.

[brad]

Can you view the contents of the Floppy in Window Explorer?
brad

[lakotawind13]

I have AOL - can I open the file through this? If so, do I just go to File, Open, 3 1/2 floppy (A:) like I normally would?

Thank you.

[brad]

Right Click "My Computer" / Select "Explore" / Select "A" drive / Do you see the contents of the Floppy?
brad

[lakotawind13]

No, nothing showed up on the A: - I right clicked, chose explore, clicked A: (with said disk in there), and the little window that popped up said that the disk in drive A: wasn't formatted and asked if I wanted to format it. Now, I know I don't want to do this because formatting esases info. on the disk, correct?

Again, I appreciate any and all help given.

Thank you for your time.

[brad]

I hate to be a bearor of bad news........
Take the Floppy to someone else's computer and see if it reads it's contents.
Let us know.
brad

[lakotawind13]

Yup, I figured this was coming - It was worth a shot to ask all you pros, though. Thank you for all your help with this situation. If I were computer literate, I'd help you out if you had problems (yeah, right, huh?), but alas, I'm a measly English major who writes screenplays and saves them to floppy disks. Again, thank you for your time and suggestions - it is greatly appreciated.

-JTF

[badpolarbear]

brad: I think this is something that needs to be look into a little deeper because when I was at a clients house the other day they had a floppy that they wanted to use and it came up with the exact same messages word for word what lakotawind said. Im wondering if if there isnt something out there that is going undetected?

[lakotawind13]

Would there be anything I could do if it WAS a virus? I do have AOL's Norton Anti-Virus scan. However, now that I think about it, I received an email today from an administrator warning of an email that had a ZIP virus attached to it. I did get the email, but I never opened the attachment. Could/Would it maybe have something to do with my disk problems? My disk wasn't in the drive when I opened the email, but is it possible? Again, can I do anything about it if this is the culprit?

[badpolarbear]

maybe you can do some reading here.\
http://www.macdisk.com/prospen.php3

[lakotawind13]

Thanks, Polarbear, for all your help and assistance.

[badpolarbear]

try this one too.

http://www.cd.gov.ab.ca/building_commun ... kit/15.pdf

If you want to look for info on how to do this do a search for " convert Mac format to Pc Format" Lots of sites to investigate. Daniel