Drive problems after upgrade (long)

[Rad17]

This is long, but I do need some help, so if there's any experts able to
help:

I just upgraded "my" computer to WinXP/SP2 from Win98 (not 98SE). I also
purchased a new machine for my wife. She was using a Win98 system; her new
system has WinXP/SP1 already loaded on it.

My machine has a DVD/CD writer. My wife's new machine has a CD writer. Her
old machine has a CD-ROM only.


PROBLEMS:

1. Floppy disks, even ones that were made on my machine before the upgrade,
now can't be read by my machine or my wife's new machine. (The error message
is: "A:/ is not accessible. No ID address mark was found on the floppy
disk").

2. CD's burned on either my upgraded machine, or on my wife's new machine,
can't be read on other computers. (Whenever I try to verify the data on the
CD, the "Shortcut" tab comes up -- but I have to clear out the "Target" and
"Start In" windows before I can access the "General" tab). The data is on
the CD, it just can't be read by other computers, regardless of the
operating system being used by them.


So, the CD writers are useless, and I can't even format a floppy disk.

Both of these machines can *READ* CD's made on other machines, or commercial
CD's (programs). Neither one can read floppies.

Since this problem began when I upgraded my machine, I figured it was a
glitch with Windows XP -- especially since my wife's new machine does the
same thing, although her XP came pre-loaded.

Anyone familiar with this problem, and any possible fixes? ANY help would
be greatly appreciated!! Thanks....

Rick

 

[Rick S.]

Make sure you are using good quailty floppy disks. Windows XP seems to be
un-necessarily fussy about floppies.
As for the CD writing, sounds like you are burning just "shortcuts" on the
CD's instead of the whole files. Right click on one of the files on those
"unreadable" cd's in (Windows Explorer) and check the size on it. If it says
1k or shows an unreasonable file size then they are only shortcuts to the
files (which reside on the computer).

 

[Rodney Kelp]

Sometimes when you upgrade or install programs the default settings of other
programs change. Your CD's are probably not auto finalizing anymore and are
still open when you try to read them on other machines. And they can't
because they can only be read by your burner program.
You floppie problem is probably just bad floppies or viruses.
Make sure you clean your system of virus, trojans and malware /spyware. This
could also cause your burner problem.