error to open a floppy disk (A:)

[Guest]

I wan to open a floppy disk and I'm getting this message "THE DISK IN DIVE A
IS NOT FORMATTED" and when I try to format it I get another message
"FORMATTING WILL ERASE ALL DATA ON THIS DISK"
What can I do to open my files without loosing them?

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

I wan to open a floppy disk and I'm getting this message "THE DISK IN DIVE
A
IS NOT FORMATTED" and when I try to format it I get another message
"FORMATTING WILL ERASE ALL DATA ON THIS DISK"
What can I do to open my files without loosing them?

There could be many reasons for the problem you are experiencing.
Floppy drives are notoriously unstable to begin with. A floppy written to
on one computer may not be read on another computer. The floppy disks
themselves are very unreliable, and always were.
The heads on your floppy drive may be dirty or out of alignment.
The disk may have been erased by coming into proximity of an electromagnetic
field, such as a microwave oven, computer speakers, etc.
A floppy recorded on a Mac computer cannot be read on a windows computer,
and vice-versa.

If you can access the computer that the disk was made on, see if the floppy
will read in that machine. If it will, email the files to yourself, or
record them to a CD-R. Do not copy them to another floppy, as you will
likely have the same problem.

Bobby

 

[Robbie]

i think the problem has more to do with your XP being formated to NTFS...the
floppy disk in FAT. One way to solve the problem is go to a computer with
Windows98 or an XP formatted in FAT32. Copy and email the DATA to your email
address...

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

i think the problem has more to do with your XP being formated to
NTFS...the floppy disk in FAT. One way to solve the problem is go to a
computer with Windows98 or an XP formatted in FAT32. Copy and email the
DATA to your email address...

The format of the floppy is immaterial...NTFS can see FAT32, FAT16 or FAT.
The floppy will be readable on Windows XP, regardless of whether the disk is
FAT or NTFS.

Bobby

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Floppy Disk is Not Accessible, Not Formatted, or Not Recognized by Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;140060

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Just as Bobby posted, it is not relevant how the hard drive is formatted.

FAT is the only choice for formatting a 3 1/2" floppy in Windows XP.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Admiral Q]

Actually it is FAT12, not FAT16 or 32.

 

[Admiral Q]

Actually Robbie, XP can read disks formatted FAT12 (Floppy Disks), FAT aka
FAT16 (MS, PC DOS, Win95a/b), FAT32 (Win95c/98/ME), FAT64(NT 4.0), NTFS (NT,
2k, XP, etc). It is most likely one of the issues NoNoBadDog stated, heads
dirty, out of align between the PC that made it, and the PC reading it, or
data is gone, either by it being too close to an electromagnetic field or
the magnetic bits just loosing polarity, as they won't store data forever.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

You are correct, but XP must assume the 12.

A:\>format a:
Insert new disk for drive A:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is FAT.
Verifying 1.44M

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Robbie]

Just to clarify why I thought it had to do with NTFS...and make things
interesting... I had made some floppies which were brand new on my system
that was Windows XP Pro FAT32. About a week later I purchased a new computer
(floppy drive brand new) with XP Pro formatted in NTFS. My new floppies
could not be read unless reformatted...none of them.
However, they worked on my old system in FAT32, other XP's in FAT32, and
any Win98 or 95 systems I tried. Nothing wrong with the floppy drive I don't
think, cos if i reformatted a disk, put my data on it, it worked fine.
I read the microsoft description of the problem and cause...about the
media descriptor byte etc...but for me, it was easier to use an old system
and email my data to myself.