Formatting Diskette in XP Pro

[Nick Oshana]

I get an error message when simply trying to format a
used or even new 1.4 Meg Diskette. The last message just
states "unable to complete formatting" How do I diagnose
this? Is my drive failing? This is a generic PC w/ pII
chip. Thanks.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I get an error message when simply trying to format a
used or even new 1.4 Meg Diskette. The last message just
states "unable to complete formatting" How do I diagnose
this? Is my drive failing?

I have recently had this start on one machine. It appears that *some*
element of the windows drivers is making a check on a signal from the
drive that it is not any longer providing - in ME it reports 'Door open'
which may be relevant to 5 1/4 drives but not to 3 1/2 ones. I find
that I can format the disks entirely satisfactorily from a Win98 startup
floppy boot though, so have not yet explored further