Error 0x800706F9 when trying to copy files off floppy disk

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I have some old files on 3.5" floppy disks (probably written on Windows 2000 or XP) that I need to copy over to my Windows 10 hard drive. Some of the files are MS Office documents, some pictures, and a few executable files.

I have a USB 2.0 external floppy drive that has worked fine in the past. I insert each disk and can browse the files, but when I attempt to copy them, only a few copy. With some of the files, I get the following error:

enter image description here

To attempt to remedy this, I ran a chkdsk on the floppy, but it returned no errors:

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Is there anything I can try other than attempting to spin up a Windows 2000 VM?

windows-10
file-transfer
floppy
asked on Super User May 2, 2017 by (unknown user) • edited Mar 21, 2018 by (unknown user)

2 Answers

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"Error 0x800706F9" usually means "The disk media is not recognized. It may not be formatted". There is a possibility that the floppy disk has been corrupted.

answered on Super User May 3, 2017 by Map
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Try opening the document from the floppy drive (usually A: for those who might not know how to access the drive). MS Office might be able to access the spreadsheet. I did this with a Word document. At first Word was "Not Responding" and when it said opening failed, I clicked Cancel instead of Try Again. Magically, it seems, the document appeared opened on my computer. I was able to save it as Rich Text and another format (latest Word 2016).

If Excel data is corrupted, try File > Open and choose Open and Repair. You may be able to extract the data.

On Word, if a corrupted message appears, try opening it from the File menu, choosing option Recover Text from Any File.

All it takes on these floppy disks is for some magnetic force to displace one bit/switch.

answered on Super User Mar 21, 2018 by motorbaby • edited Mar 21, 2018 by motorbaby

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