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Starwriter text conversion

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by jerremy

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I have a lot of info on 1990's-era Canon Starwriter 70 disks that needs to be converted to text I can work with. The SW70 works, and I have the DOS conversion disk to use with it. The trouble is there are no instructions & Canon evidentially doesn't doesn't support old word processors or save documentation on how they once worked. I've tried open office, winconv. and a dozen other programs to try and read these old disks, but all I get it a request to format the disk. This is important info, but way too extensive to copy off the Canon screen by hand. (and of course, the printer function no longer works) Is there any program that can read these files? Or some info on how the Canon DOS converter works?

7 replies

by jerremy

Guess I came to the wrong place...ace...ace... I'll look elsewhere...ere...ere...ere.

by jaygleave

hey did u get any help regarding this? re. canon starwriter

by wizard-09

I think that he got this sorted if he really needed to the data its from last year lol.

by bpeeren

regarding Canon Starwriter....

My neighbour used an old Starwriter 350C for exam work.
It "broke down" & it could'nt read what she had saved anymore.
I bought a used 550C for her on Ebay.
The `new` machine was OK for typing and printing but, like the 350C, it gave `disk error` when she wanted to print from the old disks. These disks ought to be fully compatible between those two machines.

A reputable outfit in the UK replied to my query as follows....
....This does sound very much like the disk drive is faulty as they should be interchangeable between machines, we could supply and fit a new disk drive but it would be ?39.50 labour + ?106 for the disk drive +VAT & Postage......

That would be about 200 at least for a machine bought for 32 at Ebay!!!!

Anyone with a better solution, please, tell me!

Bart.

by jerremy

Nope. Never did. Had to rewrite the whole thing from scratch. Just finished this week and it made me curious if anyone had ever solved this. Canon's website is worthless, by the way. Too bad--it was a decent machine before it became obsolete.

by older mycroft

http://www.luxsoft.demon.co.uk/lux/cconv-k.html

Also interesting that you originally posted with:

"[i]..important info, but way too extensive to copy off the Canon screen by hand.[/i]"

Yet, that's just what you did. :D

[i]BTW - when you run a search engine, try to avoid using the little button that says[/i] -
[b][u]Pages from the US[/b][/u]

It might surprise you what is available in the rest of the world. ;)

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