cannot read/write from/to floppy disk

[Tricia]

Hi I posted a while back that I could not read/write to floppy disks in
windows xp but could readwrite to them in dos or even boot from them using
a windows 98 boot disk and was given various answers that did not solve the
problem and made out that I did not know what I was doing and that the disks
and or drive was faulty. I have found the answer and explanation.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;140060

 

[Locke]

How do you still have floppy disks that are that old? They are about as
reliable as rain in the desert.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi I posted a while back that I could not read/write to floppy disks in
windows xp but could readwrite to them in dos or even boot from them using
a windows 98 boot disk and was given various answers that did not solve the
problem and made out that I did not know what I was doing and that the disks
and or drive was faulty. I have found the answer and explanation.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;140060

Thanks for the feedback. This is fascinating stuff . . . The moral
is: If a floppy disk is not recognised under Win2000/XP then it
needs formatting under DOS or Win9x.

Keep in mind that you should use floppy disks sparingly,
and certainly not for backing up data. My experience is that
out of 10 floppy disks, 5 exhibit serious flaws after spending
three years in the box.

 

[HeyBub]

Thanks for the feedback. This is fascinating stuff . . . The moral
is: If a floppy disk is not recognised under Win2000/XP then it
needs formatting under DOS or Win9x.

Backwards? If it's not recognized under XP, it needs formatting by XP.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Backwards? If it's not recognized under XP, it needs formatting by XP.

I suggest you read the KB article quoted by the OP.

 

[andy smart]

Thanks for the feedback. This is fascinating stuff . . . The moral
is: If a floppy disk is not recognised under Win2000/XP then it
needs formatting under DOS or Win9x.

Keep in mind that you should use floppy disks sparingly,
and certainly not for backing up data. My experience is that
out of 10 floppy disks, 5 exhibit serious flaws after spending
three years in the box.

I don't think that they make either disks or drives as well as they once
did; I used nothing but disks in my old Atari ST and never had a faulty
one - and stuff I wrote for my degree 12 years ago is still on the
original disks, which I can open on my PC to access files without any
issues (apart from converting the files from Protext for ST of course).
They're standard DS/DD disks, but when you handle them they are much
more solidly built than modern ones a lot of the time.

Here we get faulty diskettes all the time,

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Pegasus (MVP) wrote:

Backwards? If it's not recognized under XP, it needs formatting
by XP.

No, the point is that if it came pre-formatted, it was probably
lacking the media descriptor byte. Reformatting it under any
version of Windows (any recent version, anyway) will put the
media descriptor byte in place and make it usable. So it can be
Windows 9X *or* Windows XP.

 

[Plato]

Thanks for the feedback. This is fascinating stuff . . . The moral
is: If a floppy disk is not recognised under Win2000/XP then it
needs formatting under DOS or Win9x.

Nope. If XP has trouble with a floppy disk then format it using XP. It
will make it also compatible with win9X systems.

 

[Bill Sharpe]

Nope. If XP has trouble with a floppy disk then format it using XP. It
will make it also compatible with win9X systems.

-----
Formatting with XP is fine unless there's data that you want to retrieve
on the floppy. Then you need to resort to the fix mentioned in the KB
article.

Bill