floppy

[John]

hey my floppy drive dont read any floppy disks. the drive
is recognized by windows and is in the MY COMPUTER
section. but when i put a floppy disk in it tells me
insert floppy disk in drive A. also the light on it is
always on and never goes off.

 

[Guest]

Did you format that floppy it that drive ?? It it's a old
floppy that you formated on a older computer, no It won't
read it. Xp has it's own format for floppys.

 

[Epona]

hey my floppy drive dont read any floppy disks. the drive
is recognized by windows and is in the MY COMPUTER
section. but when i put a floppy disk in it tells me
insert floppy disk in drive A. also the light on it is
always on and never goes off.

If the LED is always lit then the cable is the wrong way round. Open up the
case and take a look at the wide grey cable going from the floppy to the
motherboard and note which side the red stripe is on - it should be on the
right - if it isn't, unplug it both ends and turn it 180°.

 

[David Candy]

Only unplug one end. If you unplug both it will still be wrong. It will work if both ends are back to front (the floppy doesn't care about the red stripe). Cheap floppy cables often aren't keyed.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

"Xp has it's own format for floppys"

No, it most certainly does not. It uses FAT12, same as most prior versions
of Windows. The problems with older floppies have several causes. Chief
among these is the inability to reconcile the media descriptor byte, however
that is not easily resolved. Do some reading here:

Floppy Disk is Not Accessible, Not Formatted, or Not Recognized by Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140060

WinXP is *really* touchy about these things, to a fault.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Ken Blake]

In (e-mail address removed)

Xp has it's own format for floppys.

No, this is not at all true. All versions of DOS and all versions
of Windows use the same format for standard floppies--FAT12.

 

[Epona]

Only unplug one end. If you unplug both it will still be wrong. It
will work if both ends are back to front (the floppy doesn't care
about the red stripe). Cheap floppy cables often aren't keyed.

Thanks for the correction David - I'd call myself a dumb blonde, but I'm er,
not, so I'll have to settle for 'retarded redhead" )

 

[Frank]

: hey my floppy drive dont read any floppy disks. the drive
: is recognized by windows and is in the MY COMPUTER
: section. but when i put a floppy disk in it tells me
: insert floppy disk in drive A. also the light on it is
: always on and never goes off.

If the light is always on, the flat data cable is inverted.