Cleaning up our old computer running Windows 95 with Word 97 files, I put files I wanted to keep on to a floppy to transfer them to our current computer with Windows xp Home Edition on. (It has an A: drive for just this purpose). But I can't load them as a message reads: the disk needs formatting. Obviously I don't want to reformat the floppy because I'd lose all the files. If I do reformat it for Windows xp, will I then be able to use it as a vehicle to transfer the files, or will the old Windows 95 computer in turn not recognise it! I'm stuck. I want to end up with the files on a CD. Is the only way to print them out from the old computer (assuming my old printer still works!) and then scan in each page into our current computer and so to the hard drive and on to CD?

One of the two floppy drives is not working correctly. That or the floppy disk has issues. A little spec of dust on either drive or the floppy could cause the problem.

Do you have a spare floppy you could use to copy files on the XP machine to test the drive? If it copies ok, see if the 95 machine can see it.

Hi Carol:

This started happening to me occasionally with Windows 2000 (he says, brushing the cobwebs from his brain), and I vaguely remember reading something about a compatibility problem years ago when I first encountered the problem, but a quick Google search didn't lead me to anything specific today.

As I recall, if I formatted the floppies in real DOS ("Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode"), I had no problems with them in Win2k -- it was always a floppy I'd formatted using the Win95 formatter that had the playback problems in Win2K.

If you still have your Win95 computer, format a few floppies with "real" DOS and use them to transfer your files.

Jerry

please use this link and read http://support.microsoft.com/kb/248263
i hope it is helpful for solving your problems

Am I missing something, or is that Microsoft link in the previous post all about CDROMs? I couldn't find anything about floppy drive compatibility problems.