Please help me recover important files from floppy

[BehindEnemyLines]

It's a friend floppy disk. She saved important files on it, and now it doesn't read at all with Windows XP. Error: The disk in drive A: is not formatted. Would you like to format now? I tried using the following recovery programs:

Active@ File Recovery
Active@ UNDELETE
Active@ UNERASER
BadCopy Professional
VirtualLab Client 5
EasyRecovery Professional
Flobo Floppy Bad Sector Repair (couldn't analyze)
PC Inspector File Recovery
GetDataBack for FAT

They all have the following error when accessing the A drive: Unknown Disk Format : The disk in drive A: is not formatted properly. Please check the disk, and reformat if necessary.

I also tried the following programs in MS-DOS:
Active@ UNERASER -- DRIVE NOT READY (unaccessible)
Spinrite v6.00 -- DRIVE NOT READY (unaccessible)

Is it hopeless (short of professional recovery -- files aren't THAT important)??

 

[RebateMonger]

Presumably, you've already tried the floppy disk in a couple of other floppy drives.

Floppy disks and drives have a dismal reliability record.

 

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, Floppies have had a nearly 100% reliablity record here. If none of the programs you mention had no luck it's possible that there was never anything on that disk, format or otherwise. Luck, Jim

 

[Blain]

I've used File Scavenger with good results on corrupted HDs.
I think the Demo will only show what files it found. To extract them you must pony up the $$.
The information I needed was worth the $40 fee (older 2.1 version).

 

[Eddieo]

Checkdisk usually gets back some or all your files, however your disk will probably be toast if it fails.

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

I forgot to add, I tried the same disk using same programs on my old laptop (has the floppy in it) and also another home pc. So I'm just thinking the floppy is toast...

 

[Slowlearner]

Try it out on a older PC running Win98 - I frequently come across this problem at work where I have some older equipment that are not networked - do make sure the the protective metal slider slides freely.