how do i recover a bad file on a good disk?

on my floppy disk i have 5 files on it but only one cannot be copied or opened. is there a freeware program out there that can help retrieve that bad file so i can transfer it onto a different floppy?

the disk is fine just the one file that is bad.

Have you tried running scandisk on the floppy to repair the errors ?

Double click My Computer

Right Click Floppy Drive (A:)

Properties > Tools > Scandisk

What type of file is it?
There are file repair utilities available but are application specific.
An example here, though this particular one is not free.
Keep in mind that it is still possible that the particular portion of the floppy the file is stored in could be bad. Just because you can open the other four files doesn't mean the "whole" floppy is good.

Try PC Inspector [freeware] works quite well for a free tool.
As has already been stated you may have a corrupted file/s or bad sectors so 100% recovery may not be an option.

i did scandisk and it corrected the disk errors but now when i try to open the file the program crashes! it was a pagemaker file.

it starts to open but halfway thru pagemaker crashes.

whats wrong with it?

I wouldn't hold out much hope on recovering that file.
There is one thing that may work but you need access to a mac with an equal or greater version of pagemaker installed.
A mac with pagemaker installed will open a pagemaker file that was created in windows. It does a bit of conversion during the process and may "rebuild" it. Usually you will get a font warning, then a message an internal problem has been fixed. You just need to get the file over on the macs HD. (i.e. copy, e-mail, etc.)
I never store anything on a floppy I want to keep for any length of time. Even boot disks I recreate every couple of months.
Floppies are notoriously unreliable.