You're not going to believe this!

[RubyRose]

Hell even I don't and that's saying something.

Okay for those of you who may remember. A little while ago, I discovered I lost of disk box containing 4 floppy disks, containing about 120 short stories, about 6 years worth. Now most of the stories weren't worth anything as they weren't very good but I'd say there were a few they were decent. I managed to save about 11 stories all up.

But guess what? I found them today, all the disks including the disk box. So, I should be happy, right? Wrong.

See, back about 8 months ago when my mother was sick. Paranoid actually, along with her excessive drinking, she took to hiding things. One of the things she hid, were my disks. In the dishwasher of all places. Don't worry it didn't work, until today, when it got fixed and the disks were found, and are now wet. So I'm really hoping they'll dry out, but I have my doubts.

My mother reckons its not her fault, cause she told me, to get whatever was in the dishwasher out ... well yeah, I would have, but who in their right mind puts computer floppy disks into a dishwasher?

I'm being pessimistic, in thinking I'll be able to salvage anything off them. Really, I'm wondering if I should bin them now, and be done with it.

<sigh>
Bendithion,
RubyRose

[WynterWynd]

Yor talking about the cute little 'A' drive disks right? Not those huge old floppy disks?

I would let them dry out and give them a try. It was only water right? No detergent? As long as there not warpped from the dry cycle:eek: I would give it a try.

If I can rescue keyboards from FruitLoops and milk, CD players from entire mugs off coffee, I say go for it!:p

[Laisrean]

If you do manage to salvage the data, be sure to transfer them to more reliable storage media. CD-R(W)s are impervious to water, and hold quite alot. Floppy disks are notorious for losing data... even in the best conditions they sometimes mess up. So either put your data on CD or memory card, or something else besides floppy.

[RubyRose]

The floppy disks are the 3" floppy disks. Computer 'A' drive type ones.
Yeah it was only water. Thank goodness.

And don't worry, I'm kicking myself. One day, I sat staring at those disks, just after we got the CD Burner and thought to myself, yeah I should copy those over to a CD.

Do I have to let them dry out by natural means? Or can I speed things up, with a hairdrier on a cool setting (cool air instead of hot).

This time round though, I'm leaving my short stories on the C drive of my computer.

[bbnflpn]

i would let them dry naturaly, i think the dryer might be alittle much even on a cool setting. hopefully they are not to damaged. if they are salvageable i would take the info and put it on another medium. unfortunatly people with addiction problems (i work in the addiction feild) have trouble takeing the blame for things and will often pass it on to others. its something they have to work on.

[trippingdaisy]

ooh, I remember that. I hope you manage to salvage them all, RubyRose, good luck!

[Scarlettvixen]

Ruby yr c drive isnt a good storage space either
hard drives fail with annoying regularity

[RubyRose]

Thanks guys, but somehow I think that all that work is gone. 6 years worth of irreplacable stories. All because of my mother's stupidity. Sorry, I know she was sick and all. But those disks didn't belong to her. Of all the places to hide something, not to mention today of all days, for repairing the damn dishwasher. (I'll stop now :D )

As for my C drive, its safe for now. I've never had any trouble with it crashing or anything before.

[WitchJezebel]

If I can rescue keyboards from FruitLoops and milk, CD players from entire mugs off coffee, I say go for it!:p

:lol: You're my hero!

[phoenix1010]

Thanks guys, but somehow I think that all that work is gone. 6 years worth of irreplacable stories. All because of my mother's stupidity. Sorry, I know she was sick and all. But those disks didn't belong to her. Of all the places to hide something, not to mention today of all days, for repairing the damn dishwasher. (I'll stop now :D )

As for my C drive, its safe for now. I've never had any trouble with it crashing or anything before.

Honestly, if these stories mean something to you, you should make a few copies on disks just in case. I do that with my genealogy files. It only takes one time for your C drive to dump on you.

Good luck with your writing!!

[RubyRose]

Well the disks are dry, and absolutely useless. I even tried using a recovery software thing, but that didn't help. Though the funny thing is, I ony have 4 out of 5 disks that contain short stories, the 5 disks had graphics on it, and was the only one, which I could recover files from. So somewhere around here, is the very first disk, with the oldest of my short stories.

As for now, I'm planning on copying everything to CD.

[WynterWynd]

:lol: You're my hero!

:rollingla

I have to be prepared around here, with two boys and a husband.....I'm never afraid to take apart anything to try to rescue it:lol:

Beware...woman with a screwdriver:rotfl: