I have a problem where if a floppy or cdr is formatted,
it later loses the format. This is being used under WinXP
Professional. It uses NTFS.They will read however on a
WIN98 system where the WINXP system says the disk needs
to be formatted. Is this possibly an NTFS vs FAT problem?
Thanks ----Ed
Not an NTFS vs FAT problem. More likely an inconsistency between hardware
from one system to the next. Try formatting the floppy disks on the XP
machine before use.
The CDR situation will be a little trickier as there are a few possible
reasons for the problem. (There is no formal "format" of a CDR. Most
operating systems can read disks of this type.)
--Some of the older burning programs (ones from the Win98 era) did not
create disks that were easily interchangeable from one system to the next.
If the option is available in the burning software, elect to burn a CD that
is readable on all computers.
- When burning CDRWs, the newer burning programs are more compatible:
chances for an InCD burned disk to be read on another machine that has the
full Roxio package installed are reasonably good. A few years ago, the
chances of this scenario succeeding were very slim.
--Not all drives are capable of reading "multisession" disks. Finalizing
CDRs will make them usable on a wider variety of hardware. Finalizing a CDR
blocks out any further writes. You may want to wait until the disk is full
before taking this step but it's possible the data on the disk will not be
available on other hardware until the finalizing takes place.
--Media: May need to experiment a bit to find a brand of media that works
with the drives on both systems.
