cannot format floppy disk

[Tricia]

Hi I have a friend who cannot read or write or format a floppy disk from
windows xp pro. The computer will boot from a windows 98 boot disk so the
drive is not broken, but no matter what she tries she cannot copy files to a
floppy disk. Even sendto does not work. The computer starts to format the
disk but after a lot of noise from the disk drive it says that the disk
cannot be formated. Also trying to send a file to the floppy it either says
there is no disk in the drive or the disk is faulty. Any suggestions?
Thanks Tricia

 

[Guest]

Have you tried another diskette?
If this fails too, try formatting it in SafeMode and report back what happens.

 

[RJ]

Have you tried different floppy disks? Maybe she got
a bad batch of floppy disks.

Also, get some compressed air and blow out the floppy drive.

And sometimes when a floppy drive is going bad, it will read one disk,
but not another. She might need to replace it... they are very cheap.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Tricia.

HOW is she trying to format the floppy?

In WinXP, in My Computer, right-click on the icon for Drive A:, then click
Format... From the next screen, pick the details, then click Start.

This IS a 3.5" floppy, right? WinXP doesn't know how to format the older
5.25" floppies, but Win98 can, as I recall.

If you need to post back, please tell us the make and model of the computer.
If the floppy drive was not a part of the original computer, please tell us
about that, too.

RC

 

[frodo]

XP's floppy formatting ability SUCKS! (Explorer's I should say).
if the disk is not already formatted, or it is "unreadable" for some other
reason, XP just flounders for MINUTES. Very annoying!

format it from the command line:

press winkey-R (shortcut for "Start | Run"), type "format a:" (without
the quotes) into the prompt, hit enter, and follow instructions in black
command window, ie...

insert the floppy
let it format
give it a volume label, or none
insert another floppy to format, or quit

 

[Steve N.]

Hi I have a friend who cannot read or write or format a floppy disk from
windows xp pro. The computer will boot from a windows 98 boot disk so the
drive is not broken, but no matter what she tries she cannot copy files to a
floppy disk. Even sendto does not work. The computer starts to format the
disk but after a lot of noise from the disk drive it says that the disk
cannot be formated. Also trying to send a file to the floppy it either says
there is no disk in the drive or the disk is faulty. Any suggestions?
Thanks Tricia

Booting a Win98 disk involves only reading from the disk, formatting
requires ability to write to the disk, so that's not a thorough test.
The drive can't write, replace it.

Steve

 

[Tricia]

Hi I have a friend who cannot read or write or format a floppy disk from
windows xp pro. The computer will boot from a windows 98 boot disk so the
drive is not broken, but no matter what she tries she cannot copy files to
a floppy disk. Even sendto does not work. The computer starts to format
the disk but after a lot of noise from the disk drive it says that the
disk cannot be formated. Also trying to send a file to the floppy it
either says there is no disk in the drive or the disk is faulty. Any
suggestions?
Thanks Tricia

To clarify my friend's problem

I have a friend who cannot read FROM or write TO or format a floppy disk in
windows xp pro. I.E. a disk with files already on it cannot be read. Nor can
files be added to the disk. Nor can it be formatted. If the same or any
other disk is put in the drive after it is booted from a windows 98 boot
disk they can be written to, formated and the files on it can be read.
Because the hard drive is formatted in NTFS files cannot be saved from the
hard drive or saved to the hard drive. The floppy drive works perfectly well
in MSDOS, it does not work in Windows XP Pro.
Tricia