help with a floppy disk

[namdoolb]

I've been tasked by my mother with retrieving some files from a floppy disk of hers that has become unusable.
I've got access to two floppy disk drives at the moment, the one on my parents computer insists that the disk is unformatted and refuses to acknowledge the prescence of any data whatsoever on it.
The laptop comes up a bit better, recognising that there are files on there, but I can't get it to read from the device. Scandisk on the laptop tells me there's multiple bad sectors on the disk, incuding some in the file system area.

Now, I've already told her she should have kept copies of these files on the Hard disk as well, so don't come down on me for her lack of foresight.

So, anyway.. Is there any freeware or shareware programs out there that might be able to get at least some of this data back? Or is it as I fear; unretrievable?

[TheBlackCat]

If the files are critical, you might be better off taking it to a professional data-recovery expert. I think even places like compusa might be able to do it pretty inexepensively if things aren't screwed up too badly. It is worth calling and checking up on. My philosophy is if anything is really badly screwed up, you are better off getting help from someone who really knows what he or she is doing instead of trying to fix it yourself and possibly making matters worse.