Floppy disks are unreliable and easily damaged, which is why the best way to carry documents around nowadays is the USB key.

However, if you've still got important files on a floppy, it's important to take care that they're safe – for example, making regular backups.

Should you find that your disk is damaged, it is sometimes possible to recover files from it, a task Badcopy Pro is designed for. The software installed easily after downloading it from the Jufsoft site, and we were able to use the free trial version to scan a test disk to see what was on it.

The software picked up several files that had been deleted years ago, and did so fairly quickly. The first scan, called Rescue Corrupted Files, failed, but there are two more 'Rescue Lost Files' scans which physically inspect the disk for files, and which picked up all the files we were looking for. The scan took only around 40 seconds.

It will only work with certain file types, but the list is quite comprehensive. Most of the Word files recovered were readable in Word itself, although it had problems with some, which we had to open in Notepad, and then strip out the garbled data – this was still better than having lost the file altogether, however.

The program can also pick up files from CDs and DVDs, as well as pictures from dodgy camera memory cards. If you need to recover a file, it's definitely worth giving Badcopy a try, particularly as you can try it out for free first (although you'll need to pay to actually recover the file).

Vista compatible: Yes