About 10 years ago I was using a Canon Starwriter for word processing. Now I'd like to see what's on some old Star writer-formatted disks, but I can't get into them when I put them into the floppy drive on my modern PC: I'm just told the disk is unformatted. Adrian Chapman
You could try WinConv, a "text conversion tool" from Pierre Duhem. This can read more than 20 "incompatible" floppy disk formats on a PC, and the Starwriter is listed. There is a limited trial version of the program so you can see if it works with your disks.
There are also a few companies that might attempt to do the job for you. Examples include eMag Solutions, which used to be called InterMedia, and Pivar Computing Services in Illinois.
Alternatively, you could try to find someone else with a Starwriter, or even buy one on eBay. Usually, the simplest way to rescue data from an obsolete system is to load it up and see if you can re-save it in text format, ideally on a DOS (PC format) floppy disk. Your chances of doing this fall every year, as old machines are dumped in skips, so don't put it off. The 8in, 5.25in and 720K 3.5in format disks that were once ubiquitous are now becoming museum pieces.
