File open cannot read floppy (XP SP1)

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I got a call last night which I hope someone can help me with.

Put a floppy disk in the PC and Windows Explorer can see what is on it. Double click any of the documents and they open in Word with no trouble. Go to File | Open and point to the A drive and no files are listed. Here’s the whacky bit. Go to File | Save As and there are all the documents!

A quick test with a text file and Notepad showed that File | Open works fine reading a floppy.

I have advised running Office repair but meantime I thought I would ask here if anyone has ever seen this problem before?

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You should NEVER try to open a Word document from a floppy disk, or save a document directly to a floppy disk. You will corrupt the document sooner or later that way.

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Hans

I accept that it is not good practice but the documents are not corrupt. They open fine from Windows Explorer and can be seen via File | Save As.

Or are you saying there is a degree of corruption which prevents File | Open from reading them?

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Do you have the Files of Type dropdown in the Open dialog box correctly set to “All Word Documents…”?

StuartR

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Thanks to everyone who has responded to this posting. I fully accept the issues about putting Word documents on a floppy for purposes other than moving the file.

Stuart, you identified the issue in this case. The user had inadvertently changed what was in the dropdown! He has asked me to pass on his very sincere thanks.

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Thanks to everyone who has responded to this posting. I fully accept the issues about putting Word documents on a floppy for purposes other than moving the file.

Stuart, you identified the issue in this case. The user had inadvertently changed what was in the dropdown! He has asked me to pass on his very sincere thanks.

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Do you have the Files of Type dropdown in the Open dialog box correctly set to “All Word Documents…”?

StuartR

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I don’t know why the File | Open dialog doesn’t display Word documents on a floppy disk – it should, and it does so on my PC. I just wanted to point out that it is dangerous to open documents on a floppy disk, so it shouldn’t matter whether the such documents are displayed or not.

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I don’t know why the File | Open dialog doesn’t display Word documents on a floppy disk – it should, and it does so on my PC. I just wanted to point out that it is dangerous to open documents on a floppy disk, so it shouldn’t matter whether the such documents are displayed or not.

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The most likely cause of corruption or file loss is a byproduct of Word’s creation and deletion of numerous temporary files and the speed at which one can run out of disk space on a floppy. Also, it’s painfully slow.

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The most likely cause of corruption or file loss is a byproduct of Word’s creation and deletion of numerous temporary files and the speed at which one can run out of disk space on a floppy. Also, it’s painfully slow.

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Hans

I accept that it is not good practice but the documents are not corrupt. They open fine from Windows Explorer and can be seen via File | Save As.

Or are you saying there is a degree of corruption which prevents File | Open from reading them?

Reply | Quote

You should NEVER try to open a Word document from a floppy disk, or save a document directly to a floppy disk. You will corrupt the document sooner or later that way.

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