Format Failure

[Chris Fearon]

I am using Windows XP Pro and cannot re-use (read or
format) certain 3 1/2" 1.44 meg floppy disks. The ones
that seem to fail are ones that Norton Anti-virus back-up
definitions and Maxtor PowerMax data are on. I have
about 12 of these disks. I'd like to reuse the disks but
XP keeps saying that the disks need formatting when I try
to read what's on there and then give a failed message
when that format choice is made. Is there a way around
this or do these disks go into the trash? As a check, I
replaced the floppy drive with a new one and the same
problem occurs. Thanks.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Can you read the floppies on another computer entirely?

 

[Lem]

I am using Windows XP Pro and cannot re-use (read or
format) certain 3 1/2" 1.44 meg floppy disks. The ones
that seem to fail are ones that Norton Anti-virus back-up
definitions and Maxtor PowerMax data are on. I have
about 12 of these disks. I'd like to reuse the disks but
XP keeps saying that the disks need formatting when I try
to read what's on there and then give a failed message
when that format choice is made. Is there a way around
this or do these disks go into the trash? As a check, I
replaced the floppy drive with a new one and the same
problem occurs. Thanks.

If these are disks that have been previously formatted by or written to
in a non-WinXP machine, see http://tinyurl.com/li4a

 

[Rick Merrill]

I am using Windows XP Pro and cannot re-use (read or
format) certain 3 1/2" 1.44 meg floppy disks. The ones
that seem to fail are ones that Norton Anti-virus back-up
definitions and Maxtor PowerMax data are on. I have
about 12 of these disks. I'd like to reuse the disks but
XP keeps saying that the disks need formatting when I try
to read what's on there and then give a failed message
when that format choice is made. Is there a way around
this or do these disks go into the trash? As a check, I
replaced the floppy drive with a new one and the same
problem occurs. Thanks.

Go ahead and format them - they'll work better in your drive.

 

[Chris Fearon]

Yes, they read (and format!) fine in a Windows 98 OS.
Why won't XP format them?

 

[Chris Fearon]

That's the problem. XP doesn't even recognize that a
valid disk is present! Take it to a Win 98 OS and it can
be read and formatted, no problem. Must be a glitch in
this particular XP process.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Don't know. Floppies are cheap - I'd just go buy new ones, frankly....