[Water and Trees]

In 1994 I prepared documents saving them to 3 1/2" discs. Recently found the
discs (there's a whole box) and would like to access them. No slot on my
current computer for them, but have a friend whose computer does still allow
discs. My problem is wanting to by-pass the passwords I set for myself back
in 1994.

These are basic Word documents and there may be a few WordPerfect documents
on these discs as well. I just want to get by the passwords and get to the
documents.

Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks,
--
WaterandTrees

[Scott M.[_2_]]

http://www.google.com/search?q=word+...x=&startPage=1



"Water and Trees" wrote in message
...
In 1994 I prepared documents saving them to 3 1/2" discs. Recently found
the
discs (there's a whole box) and would like to access them. No slot on my
current computer for them, but have a friend whose computer does still
allow
discs. My problem is wanting to by-pass the passwords I set for myself
back
in 1994.

These are basic Word documents and there may be a few WordPerfect
documents
on these discs as well. I just want to get by the passwords and get to
the
documents.

Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks,
--
WaterandTrees

[Greg Maxey]

On Aug 24, 5:48*pm, "Scott M." wrote:
http://www.google.com/search?q=word+...rls=com.micros....

"Water and Trees" wrote in ...



In 1994 I prepared documents saving them to 3 1/2" discs. *Recently found
the
discs (there's a whole box) and would like to access them. *No slot on my
current computer for them, but have a friend whose computer does still
allow
discs. My problem is wanting to by-pass the passwords I set for myself
back
in 1994.

These are basic Word documents and there may be a few WordPerfect
documents
on these discs as well. *I just want to get by the passwords and get to
the
documents.

Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks,
--
WaterandTrees- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Scott, I have no interest in becoming involved in this brouhaha. I
am interested in discussing a related matter privately. I am easy
enough to reach. It is up to you.

[Graham Mayor]

There are two issues here - accessing the files and accessing the protected
documents. The first can be overcome by copying the discs to flash memory
and then you can copy them to the hard drive to access them (DON'T access
then from the flash memory).

If you don't know the passwords to open the documents, the chances of
opening them are slim to non-existent. The documents are encrypted and you
need the password to break the encryption. - see
http://www.gmayor.com/Remove_Password.htm

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



Water and Trees wrote:
In 1994 I prepared documents saving them to 3 1/2" discs. Recently
found the discs (there's a whole box) and would like to access them.
No slot on my current computer for them, but have a friend whose
computer does still allow discs. My problem is wanting to by-pass the
passwords I set for myself back in 1994.

These are basic Word documents and there may be a few WordPerfect
documents on these discs as well. I just want to get by the
passwords and get to the documents.

Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks,

[Scott M.[_2_]]

I hardly think that Word documents saved in 1994 had XML metadata stored
along with them. And so, the information on your page would not be useful.

Secondly, why do the disk files need to be copied to flash memory before
being put on to a hard drive? And for that matter, why can't the files be
opened from a flash drive?

Thirdly, there are MANY tools out there that use different techniques to
open a Word document that is password protected, here is just one example of
a very good tool:
http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/d...sword_14353_p/

I'm sorry Graham, but your information is just either wrong or not
applicable in this circumstance.

-Scott

"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
There are two issues here - accessing the files and accessing the
protected documents. The first can be overcome by copying the discs to
flash memory and then you can copy them to the hard drive to access them
(DON'T access then from the flash memory).

If you don't know the passwords to open the documents, the chances of
opening them are slim to non-existent. The documents are encrypted and you
need the password to break the encryption. - see
http://www.gmayor.com/Remove_Password.htm

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



Water and Trees wrote:
In 1994 I prepared documents saving them to 3 1/2" discs. Recently
found the discs (there's a whole box) and would like to access them.
No slot on my current computer for them, but have a friend whose
computer does still allow discs. My problem is wanting to by-pass the
passwords I set for myself back in 1994.

These are basic Word documents and there may be a few WordPerfect
documents on these discs as well. I just want to get by the
passwords and get to the documents.

Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks,

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Aug 25, 4:34*pm, "Scott M." wrote:
I hardly think that Word documents saved in 1994 had XML metadata stored
along with them. *And so, the information on your page would not be useful.

Secondly, why do the disk files need to be copied to flash memory before
being put on to a hard drive? *And for that matter, why can't the files be
opened from a flash drive?

2a. Because, as OP noted, the computer doesn't have a diskette drive.

2b. Because Word needs lots of space for creating the temporary files
it uses, and flash drives may not have adequate free space, and
corruption or loss of the file is a frequent result.

Thirdly, there are MANY tools out there that use different techniques to
open a Word document that is password protected, here is just one example of
a very good tool:http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/d...sword_14353_p/

I'm sorry Graham, but your information is just either wrong or not
applicable in this circumstance.

-Scott

"Graham Mayor" wrote in message

...



There are two issues here - accessing the files and accessing the
protected documents. The first can be overcome by copying the discs to
flash memory and then you can copy them to the hard drive to access them
(DON'T access then from the flash memory).

If you don't know the passwords to open the documents, the chances of
opening them are slim to non-existent. The documents are encrypted and you
need the password to break the encryption. - see
http://www.gmayor.com/Remove_Password.htm

--

Graham Mayor - *Word MVP

My web sitewww.gmayor.com
Word MVP web sitehttp://word.mvps.org


Water and Trees wrote:
In 1994 I prepared documents saving them to 3 1/2" discs. *Recently
found the discs (there's a whole box) and would like to access them.
No slot on my current computer for them, but have a friend whose
computer does still allow discs. My problem is wanting to by-pass the
passwords I set for myself back in 1994.

These are basic Word documents and there may be a few WordPerfect
documents on these discs as well. *I just want to get by the
passwords and get to the documents.

Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks,-

[Scott M.[_2_]]

"Peter T. Daniels" wrote in message
...
On Aug 25, 4:34 pm, "Scott M." wrote:
I hardly think that Word documents saved in 1994 had XML metadata stored
along with them. And so, the information on your page would not be useful.

Secondly, why do the disk files need to be copied to flash memory before
being put on to a hard drive? And for that matter, why can't the files be
opened from a flash drive?

2a. Because, as OP noted, the computer doesn't have a diskette drive.

2C: The OP indicated that a friend has a machine that will take the disks
and transfer them to a hard drive--No flash needed.

2b. Because Word needs lots of space for creating the temporary files
it uses, and flash drives may not have adequate free space, and
corruption or loss of the file is a frequent result.

2C: You'll have a tough time finding a flash drive sold today that is less
than 2GB -- more than enough space for Word docs that were stored on a 1.44
MB floppy. Corruption is only frequent if you pull the flash card from the
USB slot while data is still being read/written. With most modern flash
drives, you don't even have to go through the Windows XP "Saftely remove
hardware" procedure.

2C-A - Why are we talking about flash drives again?

-Scott

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Aug 25, 6:15*pm, "Scott M." wrote:
"Peter T. Daniels" wrote in ...
On Aug 25, 4:34 pm, "Scott M." wrote:

I hardly think that Word documents saved in 1994 had XML metadata stored
along with them. And so, the information on your page would not be useful.

Secondly, why do the disk files need to be copied to flash memory before
being put on to a hard drive? And for that matter, why can't the files be
opened from a flash drive?

2a. Because, as OP noted, the computer doesn't have a diskette drive.

2C: *The OP indicated that a friend has a machine that will take the disks
and transfer them to a hard drive--No flash needed.

And how does that get them from friend's computer to OP's computer?

2b. Because Word needs lots of space for creating the temporary files
it uses, and flash drives may not have adequate free space, and
corruption or loss of the file is a frequent result.

2C: You'll have a tough time finding a flash drive sold today that is less
than 2GB -- more than enough space for Word docs that were stored on a 1.44
MB floppy. *Corruption is only frequent if you pull the flash card from the
USB slot while data is still being read/written. With most modern flash
drives, you don't even have to go through the Windows XP "Saftely remove
hardware" procedure.

2C-A - Why are we talking about flash drives again?

"Again"?

Because many people read this newsgroup and, from the number of
complaints about corrupted files that were saved directly to or opened
directly from flash drives, it's a major problem that needs to be
pointed out probably several times a day.

[Beth Melton]

I think there may be some confusion on the type of password that was set on
the documents. The information on Graham's page is for recovering a
passwords used to protect Word documents for forms/read only/tracked changes
which are all collaborative tools and aren't intended to be used for
security. When a document has been protected for collaboration then it can
be opened in Word and they can be easily bypassed. If a password is required
to open the document then Graham's page isn't applicable.

~Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

"Scott M." wrote in message
...
I hardly think that Word documents saved in 1994 had XML metadata stored
along with them. And so, the information on your page would not be
useful.

Thirdly, there are MANY tools out there that use different techniques to
open a Word document that is password protected, here is just one example
of a very good tool:
http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/d...sword_14353_p/

I'm sorry Graham, but your information is just either wrong or not
applicable in this circumstance.

[Scott M.[_2_]]

I was proceeding under the assumption that the docs have a password required
to open the file. Otherwise, the OP could open the file and simply save it
under a new name.

I found Graham's page not to be relevant because the OP is talking about
Word docs made in 1994, long before Word stored any meta information in XML
along with the document.

-Scott


"Beth Melton" wrote in message
...
I think there may be some confusion on the type of password that was set on
the documents. The information on Graham's page is for recovering a
passwords used to protect Word documents for forms/read only/tracked
changes which are all collaborative tools and aren't intended to be used
for security. When a document has been protected for collaboration then it
can be opened in Word and they can be easily bypassed. If a password is
required to open the document then Graham's page isn't applicable.

~Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

"Scott M." wrote in message
...
I hardly think that Word documents saved in 1994 had XML metadata stored
along with them. And so, the information on your page would not be
useful.

Thirdly, there are MANY tools out there that use different techniques to
open a Word document that is password protected, here is just one example
of a very good tool:
http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/d...sword_14353_p/

I'm sorry Graham, but your information is just either wrong or not
applicable in this circumstance.

[Beth Melton]

I believe Graham was referring to the first paragraph of his page which
reads:

"There are lots of people out there who purport to be able to crack
passwords, but Word's protection is pretty good and does not come with any
back doors, so while you can break the password eventually by trial and
error using software that will try all possible examples, a suitably strong
password will take a seriously long time to break. There is an example of
such software listed on the favourites (http://www.gmayor.com/favorite.htm)
page of this site."

The rest applies to documents protected for collaboration with a password
and saving them with a new name doesn't strip the password. I wasn't
disagreeing, I think they're they're likely protected with a file access
password too and other than the first paragraph it's probably not relevant
to this specific situation.

~Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

"Scott M." wrote in message
...
I was proceeding under the assumption that the docs have a password
required to open the file. Otherwise, the OP could open the file and
simply save it under a new name.

I found Graham's page not to be relevant because the OP is talking about
Word docs made in 1994, long before Word stored any meta information in
XML along with the document.

-Scott


"Beth Melton" wrote in message
...
I think there may be some confusion on the type of password that was set
on the documents. The information on Graham's page is for recovering a
passwords used to protect Word documents for forms/read only/tracked
changes which are all collaborative tools and aren't intended to be used
for security. When a document has been protected for collaboration then
it can be opened in Word and they can be easily bypassed. If a password is
required to open the document then Graham's page isn't applicable.

~Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

"Scott M." wrote in message
...
I hardly think that Word documents saved in 1994 had XML metadata stored
along with them. And so, the information on your page would not be
useful.

Thirdly, there are MANY tools out there that use different techniques to
open a Word document that is password protected, here is just one
example of a very good tool:
http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/d...sword_14353_p/

I'm sorry Graham, but your information is just either wrong or not
applicable in this circumstance.

[Graham Mayor]

There are lots of password crackers available - including the example I
referred to from my web site which does all that the one you referred to can
manage. Password crackers have one thing in common. The demos can easily
crack a password that comprises four characters. They do not work so
remarkably when you try to crack a password of 8 or more random characters -
and you only discover that after you have paid your money. A decent password
can be cracked eventually, but it will take a seriously long time of
continuous processing to do so. We have no idea what sort of password
strength the OP may have used.

As Beth has pointed out, I referred to my web page primarily for its first
paragraph that merely emphasises the point that passwords against opening a
document are not easy to get around - and refer to software that I have
tried and know works ... eventually ... should the OP need such an approach.

As others have reminded you - the OP does not have a floppy drive. He needs
a means of getting the data from floppy to his PC. The PC will almost
certainly have a USB port, which makes flash a simple means of data
transfer, provided he can get access to a floppy drive or can get someone
copy the floppy discs for him.

Despite your protestations elsewhere in this thread, opening documents from
removable media is a frequent source of data corruption, and there is more
than enough evidence to show that this is the case - we see it in this forum
every week. We have no idea how large the flash media the OP may have
available (I have one piece with 8mb capacity), nor any idea how many files
are involved. Accessing data directly from flash media *may* not result in a
problem, but equally it might, so as I don't know what we are dealing with
any more than you do, suggesting the safest course is the best approach. The
safest course is to copy the files to the hard drive and open them from
there.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



Scott M. wrote:
I hardly think that Word documents saved in 1994 had XML metadata
stored along with them. And so, the information on your page would
not be useful.
Secondly, why do the disk files need to be copied to flash memory
before being put on to a hard drive? And for that matter, why can't
the files be opened from a flash drive?

Thirdly, there are MANY tools out there that use different techniques
to open a Word document that is password protected, here is just one
example of a very good tool:
http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/d...sword_14353_p/

I'm sorry Graham, but your information is just either wrong or not
applicable in this circumstance.

-Scott

"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
There are two issues here - accessing the files and accessing the
protected documents. The first can be overcome by copying the discs
to flash memory and then you can copy them to the hard drive to
access them (DON'T access then from the flash memory).

If you don't know the passwords to open the documents, the chances of
opening them are slim to non-existent. The documents are encrypted
and you need the password to break the encryption. - see
http://www.gmayor.com/Remove_Password.htm

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



Water and Trees wrote:
In 1994 I prepared documents saving them to 3 1/2" discs. Recently
found the discs (there's a whole box) and would like to access them.
No slot on my current computer for them, but have a friend whose
computer does still allow discs. My problem is wanting to by-pass
the passwords I set for myself back in 1994.

These are basic Word documents and there may be a few WordPerfect
documents on these discs as well. I just want to get by the
passwords and get to the documents.

Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks,

[Scott M.[_2_]]

"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
There are lots of password crackers available - including the example I
referred to from my web site which does all that the one you referred to
can manage. Password crackers have one thing in common. The demos can
easily crack a password that comprises four characters. They do not work
so remarkably when you try to crack a password of 8 or more random
characters - and you only discover that after you have paid your money. A
decent password can be cracked eventually, but it will take a seriously
long time of continuous processing to do so. We have no idea what sort of
password strength the OP may have used.

I don't really get what your point here is. There IS software available to
crack passwords or use brute force and they do work. Your post sounded like
you were telling the OP that a password protected file cannot ever be opened
without the password. Despite your assertions to the contrary, software
does exist (like the one I pointed out) that can unlock a file regardless of
the password length in a relatively short time. The bottom line is that if
you need to access a password protected file, you CAN do it.

As others have reminded you - the OP does not have a floppy drive. He
needs a means of getting the data from floppy to his PC. The PC will
almost certainly have a USB port, which makes flash a simple means of data
transfer, provided he can get access to a floppy drive or can get someone
copy the floppy discs for him.

It's hard to "remind" someone of something that was never brought up. The
OP said nothing about flash drives. He did however, mention that the
original data was on a 1.44 MB floppy drive. I am not aware of ANY flash
drive ever made commercially that wasn't at least 5 times bigger than that
and those aren't even sold anymore. Such a small amount of data could
simply be emailed from the friend's machine to the OP's machine. No one
brought up flash drives but you and that's why I questioned it.

Despite your protestations elsewhere in this thread, opening documents
from removable media is a frequent source of data corruption, and there is
more than enough evidence to show that this is the case - we see it in
this forum every week. We have no idea how large the flash media the OP
may have available (I have one piece with 8mb capacity), nor any idea how
many files are involved. Accessing data directly from flash media *may*
not result in a problem, but equally it might, so as I don't know what we
are dealing with any more than you do, suggesting the safest course is the
best approach. The safest course is to copy the files to the hard drive
and open them from there.

As I've mentioned in another response in this thread, there is no
technilogical reason whatsoever for any more corruption with flash memory
than HDD memory. I agree that you may hear many more people talking about
corruption with flash memory than HDD memory, but in a NG, you will always
hear about the problems people have. People don't post to tell you that
everything worked as it should.

Flash memory can get corrupted in exactly the same manner than HDD memory
would get corrupted. But, with flash memory the most likely reason would be
that the drive was pulled while still being written to or read from. Your
brief "Don't do it!" message does not *inform* the newsgroup as to why you
are saying what you are saying. It leaves someone who doesn't know better
to believe that there is an inherent flaw with flash memory, which there is
not. It would have been more appropriate for you to say something like "Be
sure that the drive is no longer being accessed (by either checking the
access light on the drive or using the Hardware removal wizard in the system
tray) before you pull it out.

I have been a looooong time contributor to the MS NG's and I been seeing an
increasing amount of replies from MVP's that innacurately blame a technology
when the technology is fine, but the use of that technology is flawed or
incompletely recommend a solution, without indicating why that solution
should be used.

My goal in "nitpicking" your posts is to help newbies understand that, in
reality, flash memory is just as stable as HDD memory, but because it's
portable, the danger *potentially* lies in pulling the drive while it's
being accessed. If you don't do that, you'll hardly ever encounter any
corruption of files on flash media.

-Scott







--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



Scott M. wrote:
I hardly think that Word documents saved in 1994 had XML metadata
stored along with them. And so, the information on your page would
not be useful.
Secondly, why do the disk files need to be copied to flash memory
before being put on to a hard drive? And for that matter, why can't
the files be opened from a flash drive?

Thirdly, there are MANY tools out there that use different techniques
to open a Word document that is password protected, here is just one
example of a very good tool:
http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/d...sword_14353_p/

I'm sorry Graham, but your information is just either wrong or not
applicable in this circumstance.

-Scott

"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
There are two issues here - accessing the files and accessing the
protected documents. The first can be overcome by copying the discs
to flash memory and then you can copy them to the hard drive to
access them (DON'T access then from the flash memory).

If you don't know the passwords to open the documents, the chances of
opening them are slim to non-existent. The documents are encrypted
and you need the password to break the encryption. - see
http://www.gmayor.com/Remove_Password.htm

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



Water and Trees wrote:
In 1994 I prepared documents saving them to 3 1/2" discs. Recently
found the discs (there's a whole box) and would like to access them.
No slot on my current computer for them, but have a friend whose
computer does still allow discs. My problem is wanting to by-pass
the passwords I set for myself back in 1994.

These are basic Word documents and there may be a few WordPerfect
documents on these discs as well. I just want to get by the
passwords and get to the documents.

Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks,

[Graham Mayor]

I really don't know why I am wasting my time responding to your attempts at
trolling, in a thread that was done and dusted from the first reply, and I
don't mean by your supercilious reply with a link to a search engine.

To sum up for anyone who can be bothered wading through your last diatribe.
You assert that passwords can easily be cracked if only you have the right
software. This is simply nonsense. However they can be cracked if you have
sufficient time - which was covered in my web page.

You also try and assert that it is somehow better to subsitute a means of
transferring data that *might* be safe with one that *is* safe - for no good
reason. 'Hardly ever' is fine until you lose the data, and if you spent as
much time in these newsgroups as the MVPs who service them, you would know
that hardly a week goes by when someone loses data by writing to or reading
from flash media. So what is the point of your post other than to raise
argument where none is required?

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




Scott M. wrote:
"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
There are lots of password crackers available - including the
example I referred to from my web site which does all that the one
you referred to can manage. Password crackers have one thing in
common. The demos can easily crack a password that comprises four
characters. They do not work so remarkably when you try to crack a
password of 8 or more random characters - and you only discover that
after you have paid your money. A decent password can be cracked
eventually, but it will take a seriously long time of continuous
processing to do so. We have no idea what sort of password strength
the OP may have used.

I don't really get what your point here is. There IS software
available to crack passwords or use brute force and they do work. Your
post sounded like you were telling the OP that a password
protected file cannot ever be opened without the password. Despite
your assertions to the contrary, software does exist (like the one I
pointed out) that can unlock a file regardless of the password length
in a relatively short time. The bottom line is that if you need to
access a password protected file, you CAN do it.
As others have reminded you - the OP does not have a floppy drive. He
needs a means of getting the data from floppy to his PC. The PC will
almost certainly have a USB port, which makes flash a simple means
of data transfer, provided he can get access to a floppy drive or
can get someone copy the floppy discs for him.

It's hard to "remind" someone of something that was never brought up.
The OP said nothing about flash drives. He did however, mention that
the original data was on a 1.44 MB floppy drive. I am not aware of
ANY flash drive ever made commercially that wasn't at least 5 times
bigger than that and those aren't even sold anymore. Such a small
amount of data could simply be emailed from the friend's machine to
the OP's machine. No one brought up flash drives but you and that's
why I questioned it.
Despite your protestations elsewhere in this thread, opening
documents from removable media is a frequent source of data
corruption, and there is more than enough evidence to show that this
is the case - we see it in this forum every week. We have no idea
how large the flash media the OP may have available (I have one
piece with 8mb capacity), nor any idea how many files are involved.
Accessing data directly from flash media *may* not result in a
problem, but equally it might, so as I don't know what we are
dealing with any more than you do, suggesting the safest course is
the best approach. The safest course is to copy the files to the
hard drive and open them from there.

As I've mentioned in another response in this thread, there is no
technilogical reason whatsoever for any more corruption with flash
memory than HDD memory. I agree that you may hear many more people
talking about corruption with flash memory than HDD memory, but in a
NG, you will always hear about the problems people have. People
don't post to tell you that everything worked as it should.

Flash memory can get corrupted in exactly the same manner than HDD
memory would get corrupted. But, with flash memory the most likely
reason would be that the drive was pulled while still being written
to or read from. Your brief "Don't do it!" message does not *inform*
the newsgroup as to why you are saying what you are saying. It
leaves someone who doesn't know better to believe that there is an
inherent flaw with flash memory, which there is not. It would have
been more appropriate for you to say something like "Be sure that the
drive is no longer being accessed (by either checking the access
light on the drive or using the Hardware removal wizard in the system
tray) before you pull it out.
I have been a looooong time contributor to the MS NG's and I been
seeing an increasing amount of replies from MVP's that innacurately
blame a technology when the technology is fine, but the use of that
technology is flawed or incompletely recommend a solution, without
indicating why that solution should be used.

My goal in "nitpicking" your posts is to help newbies understand
that, in reality, flash memory is just as stable as HDD memory, but
because it's portable, the danger *potentially* lies in pulling the
drive while it's being accessed. If you don't do that, you'll hardly
ever encounter any corruption of files on flash media.

-Scott







--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



Scott M. wrote:
I hardly think that Word documents saved in 1994 had XML metadata
stored along with them. And so, the information on your page would
not be useful.
Secondly, why do the disk files need to be copied to flash memory
before being put on to a hard drive? And for that matter, why can't
the files be opened from a flash drive?

Thirdly, there are MANY tools out there that use different
techniques to open a Word document that is password protected, here
is just one example of a very good tool:
http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/d...sword_14353_p/

I'm sorry Graham, but your information is just either wrong or not
applicable in this circumstance.

-Scott

"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
There are two issues here - accessing the files and accessing the
protected documents. The first can be overcome by copying the discs
to flash memory and then you can copy them to the hard drive to
access them (DON'T access then from the flash memory).

If you don't know the passwords to open the documents, the chances
of opening them are slim to non-existent. The documents are
encrypted and you need the password to break the encryption. - see
http://www.gmayor.com/Remove_Password.htm

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



Water and Trees wrote:
In 1994 I prepared documents saving them to 3 1/2" discs. Recently
found the discs (there's a whole box) and would like to
access them. No slot on my current computer for them, but have a
friend whose computer does still allow discs. My problem is
wanting to by-pass the passwords I set for myself back in 1994.

These are basic Word documents and there may be a few WordPerfect
documents on these discs as well. I just want to get by the
passwords and get to the documents.

Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks,

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Aug 26, 9:40*am, "Scott M." wrote:
"Graham Mayor" wrote in message

As others have reminded you - the OP does not have a floppy drive. He
needs a means of getting the data from floppy to his PC. The PC will
almost certainly have a USB port, which makes flash a simple means of data
transfer, provided he can get access to a floppy drive or can get someone
copy the floppy discs for him.

It's hard to "remind" someone of something that was never brought up. *The

It was "brought up" in OP's message. "No slot on my current computer
for them, but have a friend whose computer does still allow discs."

[Tony Jollans]

I hesitate to enter a thread full of silly arguments, but if the Word
documents were created, and password-protected by Word, in 1994 they were
obfuscated, using XOR, rather than really encrypted and, although I don't
personally know of any software that can break this, I have no doubt some is
available, and that it is a trivial task for modern PCs. I would imagine a
web search would turn up something helpful.

You may, though, have other problems with such old documents (depending what
version of Word you are currently using).

--
Enjoy,
Tony

www.WordArticles.com

"Water and Trees" wrote in message
...
In 1994 I prepared documents saving them to 3 1/2" discs. Recently found
the
discs (there's a whole box) and would like to access them. No slot on my
current computer for them, but have a friend whose computer does still
allow
discs. My problem is wanting to by-pass the passwords I set for myself
back
in 1994.

These are basic Word documents and there may be a few WordPerfect
documents
on these discs as well. I just want to get by the passwords and get to
the
documents.

Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks,
--
WaterandTrees

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

One additional problem that is more than likely is that the disk itself is
hopelessly corrupted and unusable. Magnetic disks do degrade over time.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

"Tony Jollans" My forename at my surname dot com wrote in message
...
I hesitate to enter a thread full of silly arguments, but if the Word
documents were created, and password-protected by Word, in 1994 they were
obfuscated, using XOR, rather than really encrypted and, although I don't
personally know of any software that can break this, I have no doubt some
is available, and that it is a trivial task for modern PCs. I would imagine
a web search would turn up something helpful.

You may, though, have other problems with such old documents (depending
what version of Word you are currently using).

--
Enjoy,
Tony

www.WordArticles.com

"Water and Trees" wrote in
message ...
In 1994 I prepared documents saving them to 3 1/2" discs. Recently found
the
discs (there's a whole box) and would like to access them. No slot on my
current computer for them, but have a friend whose computer does still
allow
discs. My problem is wanting to by-pass the passwords I set for myself
back
in 1994.

These are basic Word documents and there may be a few WordPerfect
documents
on these discs as well. I just want to get by the passwords and get to
the
documents.

Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks,
--
WaterandTrees