How do you format a demagnetized floppy in Vista?

[Guest]

I bulk-erased, degaussed a batch of floppies to get rid
of all the junk between tracks.
I stick it in my Vista Ultimate SP1 machine and try do do
a full format.
Vista comes back immediately with,
"windows was unable to complete the format."

Stick it in my XP machine and it formats fine.
Put the formatted diskette back in the Vista machine
and it now formats fine.

Same results with six different floppies.

Looking ahead to eventually decommissioning the XP
machine...I'd like to be able to format bulk-erased floppy diskettes
with vista.

Help???

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

I bulk-erased, degaussed a batch of floppies to get rid
of all the junk between tracks.
I stick it in my Vista Ultimate SP1 machine and try do do
a full format.
Vista comes back immediately with,
"windows was unable to complete the format."

Stick it in my XP machine and it formats fine.
Put the formatted diskette back in the Vista machine
and it now formats fine.

Same results with six different floppies.

Looking ahead to eventually decommissioning the XP
machine...I'd like to be able to format bulk-erased floppy diskettes
with vista.

Help???

It is not worth the trouble. You will not get a Vista machine fitted with a
floppy drive unless you specifically ask for one..

Get yourself a flash drive to replace the floppies..


--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

 

[V Green]

It is not worth the trouble. You will not get a Vista machine fitted with a
floppy drive unless you specifically ask for one..

Get yourself a flash drive to replace the floppies..

Mike, if the guy went to all the trouble to get a bulk
eraser and manually erase the floppies, chances are he
NEEDS this functionality for some reason. It is not our
place to fix his problem by just saying "don't do that..."

to the OP-

Does Vista read formatted floppies with data on them OK?

 

[Guest]

Mike, if the guy went to all the trouble to get a bulk
eraser and manually erase the floppies, chances are he
NEEDS this functionality for some reason. It is not our
place to fix his problem by just saying "don't do that..."

Thanks for defending me. Not everybody has modern hardware
exclusively. The main reason for this whole thing is that
the win2K usb drivers aren't working and I can't figure out a way to
get them loaded. Hardware works, cause Acronis can see the files
on the thumb drive that I'm gonna use to restore the OS...which
is why I need six boot floppies.

to the OP-

Does Vista read formatted floppies with data on them OK?

Yep, vista reads/writes floppies just fine. Reformats already formatted
floppies just fine. Didn't discover the problem until I had to make
a set of boot floppies for an OLD laptop. Bulk erased the floppies,
cause if there's slight misalignment if the heads, as there always is with
mechanically aligned floppy drives, you get noise. This is one of
those can't get there from here jump thru hoops to get The OS installed
on a laptop with no CD and usb drivers not working. I've only got one
shot at getting it right...if it aborts in the middle, I'll have to
disassemble the thing to get the hard drive out.

Bottom line is that there are still uses for floppies on old hardware.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

I bulk-erased, degaussed a batch of floppies to get rid
of all the junk between tracks.
I stick it in my Vista Ultimate SP1 machine and try do do
a full format.
Vista comes back immediately with,
"windows was unable to complete the format."

Stick it in my XP machine and it formats fine.
Put the formatted diskette back in the Vista machine
and it now formats fine.

Same results with six different floppies.

Looking ahead to eventually decommissioning the XP
machine...I'd like to be able to format bulk-erased floppy diskettes
with vista.

Help???

Locate the 'Command Prompt', open it and at the cursor, type

format a:

Vista doesn't cope with floppies to well from its GUI. How old is the floppy
drive? It may have dust in it, or maybe Vista doesn't consider that the
heads align well enough to be entrusted to format a floppy.

I have the same problem with my machine, but I have stopped using floppies
now..



--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

 

[V Green]

Thanks for defending me. Not everybody has modern hardware
exclusively. The main reason for this whole thing is that
the win2K usb drivers aren't working and I can't figure out a way to
get them loaded. Hardware works, cause Acronis can see the files
on the thumb drive that I'm gonna use to restore the OS...which
is why I need six boot floppies.

Yep, vista reads/writes floppies just fine. Reformats already formatted
floppies just fine. Didn't discover the problem until I had to make
a set of boot floppies for an OLD laptop. Bulk erased the floppies,
cause if there's slight misalignment if the heads, as there always is with
mechanically aligned floppy drives, you get noise. This is one of
those can't get there from here jump thru hoops to get The OS installed
on a laptop with no CD and usb drivers not working. I've only got one
shot at getting it right...if it aborts in the middle, I'll have to
disassemble the thing to get the hard drive out.

Bottom line is that there are still uses for floppies on old hardware.

OK, then.

Try Mike's idea of formatting from a command prompt.

If that doesn't work, do you still have a DOS bootable
floppy around? If you do, boot it and run FORMAT
from there.

 

[Guest]

Locate the 'Command Prompt', open it and at the cursor, type

format a:

Thanks,
That works...DOS, 1....Vista, 0...
Having a DOS workaround that doesn't require rebooting gets me there.

Vista doesn't cope with floppies to well from its GUI.

Just one more low priority bug that causes users grief.
I'm very annoyed when each version of M$OS renders much
of my existing software and hardware unusable. GRRRRR!!

How old is the

floppy drive?

5 years
It may have dust in it,
I'm sure it does, but dos and xp and linux don't care.
or maybe Vista doesn't consider

that the heads align well enough to be entrusted to format a floppy.

Interesting how we shoot from the hip and assign smarts where none exists.
I say Vista is busted.
You say, no, Vista is so smart that it prevents me from using my
hardware, for my own benefit, of course...

My 3.5" floppy drive uses a stepper motor and open-loop head positioning
when formatting. If the diskette has been degaussed, there are no tracks
to read, so the OS format command has no way to determine head alignment
goodness.

If I were on the OS evaluation team, my bug report would suggest that
if the Vista floppy format command can't read a header, it should time out
and proceed to a raw format...just like the dos command does.

I have the same problem with my machine, but I have stopped using
floppies now..

There are many reasons to use media other than floppy.
But there are still tasks where only floppies will do.
Not using floppies should be a personal choice, not because the
operating system is busted.