Not able to format diskettes

[pHILIPS]

I am not able to read or format diskettes on my 2 PC's. I do have Windows Xp
PRO and HOme edition installed. If I try to read a diskette the program says
it is not formatted. If I try to format it says it can't format: disk
damaged.
The flppy drive unit is new, the diskettes work ok because I can read and
use them over a keyboard (they contain midi files). Does anyone know if Win
XP has some issue managing floppy drives? Or how can I solve this issue?

FYI I have also tested this on a Friend's PC : same result.

Thanks for your help.
Ciao.Giorgio

 

[Erwin Moller]

pHILIPS schreef:

I am not able to read or format diskettes on my 2 PC's. I do have Windows Xp
PRO and HOme edition installed. If I try to read a diskette the program says
it is not formatted. If I try to format it says it can't format: disk
damaged.
The flppy drive unit is new, the diskettes work ok because I can read and
use them over a keyboard (they contain midi files). Does anyone know if Win
XP has some issue managing floppy drives? Or how can I solve this issue?

FYI I have also tested this on a Friend's PC : same result.

Thanks for your help.
Ciao.Giorgio

Hi,

I can use my floppy drives just fine on all my XP machines.
Did that floppy unit ever read/write correctly?
My guess would be that the floppy unit is broken.
Maybe buy a new one?

Regards,
Erwin Moller

--
"There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to
make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the
other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious
deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult."
-- C.A.R. Hoare

 

[R. McCarty]

Floppy disk drives are sensitive to head alignment. Disks that work in
one Floppy drive may not work in others. I don't follow you comment
about "use them over a keyboard" -

There are several types of floppy diskettes and formats vary based on
the capacity of the blank/used disks.

If you tried to use the disks in another PC and they report as unusable
then it's likely they were originally formatted in a proprietary format that
the PC cannot mount and use. Unless you have the original formatting
device it's unlikely you'll be able to access them.

And No XP doesn't have issues with Floppy use.

 

[Rich Barry]

Look for a small square window on the lower left corner of diskette. If
opened the diskettes is write protected and you can't format or write on it.
Just close the window.

 

[John]

I am not able to read or format diskettes on my 2 PC's. I do have Windows
Xp
PRO and HOme edition installed. If I try to read a diskette the program
says
it is not formatted. If I try to format it says it can't format: disk
damaged.

I've seen that before. My solution is to replace the floppy drive.

The flppy drive unit is new,

New doesn't necessarily mean good. It may be faulty.

the diskettes work ok because I can read and

Sounds like you've isolated the problem. It's the floppy drive.

use them over a keyboard (they contain midi files).

I don't know what that means.

Does anyone know if Win
XP has some issue managing floppy drives? Or how can I solve this issue?

I have many XP machines with floppy drives. They all work fine
(read/write/format etc). How to solve it? Get another floppy drive.

FYI I have also tested this on a Friend's PC : same result.

You've tested the drive on a different PC and you got the same result?
That's another proof that the new floppy drive is bad.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I am not able to read or format diskettes on my 2 PC's. I do have Windows Xp
PRO and HOme edition installed. If I try to read a diskette the program says
it is not formatted. If I try to format it says it can't format: disk
damaged.
The flppy drive unit is new, the diskettes work ok because I can read and
use them over a keyboard (they contain midi files). Does anyone know if Win
XP has some issue managing floppy drives? Or how can I solve this issue?

FYI I have also tested this on a Friend's PC : same result.

Two points:

1. The reason you can't format them may be that the diskettes are
write-protected and you need to slide the cover of the
write-protection opening to close it.

2. If you can't read them, were the diskettes originally created on an
older computer (perhaps Windows 95)? If so the problem is probably
that they don't have a Media Descriptor Byte. Read here:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140060


Assuming that the problem is a Media Descriptor Byte one, and you need
to read the diskettes, format *other* diskettes on your XP computer,
then take the old diskettes and new ones to a Windows 95 computer a
friend has. Copy the old diskettes to the newly formatted ones there;
you'll then be able to read the new diskettes on your computer.

 

[sgopus]

Musical keyboard ie digital piano possibly.

Floppy disk drives are sensitive to head alignment. Disks that work in
one Floppy drive may not work in others. I don't follow you comment
about "use them over a keyboard" -

There are several types of floppy diskettes and formats vary based on
the capacity of the blank/used disks.

If you tried to use the disks in another PC and they report as unusable
then it's likely they were originally formatted in a proprietary format that
the PC cannot mount and use. Unless you have the original formatting
device it's unlikely you'll be able to access them.

And No XP doesn't have issues with Floppy use.

 

[Chuck]

My older Yamaha Keyboard has a floppy drive mounted over the keys. It
formats floppys in a "dos" format that is quite old. Further, the number of
songs are limited, due to limits on the old format. XP will read the disks,
and possibly write to them (It did before SP3 anyway)
The drive in the keyboard may be the real source of the trouble. Some of the
older drives evidently produced disks that are readable on the newer drives,
but cannot be written to or formatted successfuly. The "floppy" drives are
not what they used to be, and the oxide coating on the disks changes with
age.

 

[M.I.5¾]

I am not able to read or format diskettes on my 2 PC's. I do have Windows
Xp
PRO and HOme edition installed. If I try to read a diskette the program
says
it is not formatted. If I try to format it says it can't format: disk
damaged.
The flppy drive unit is new, the diskettes work ok because I can read and
use them over a keyboard (they contain midi files). Does anyone know if
Win
XP has some issue managing floppy drives? Or how can I solve this issue?

FYI I have also tested this on a Friend's PC : same result.

When you say, "I can read and use them over a keyboard", do you menat that
they work in some musical keyboard?

Is so then I would suggest that they have been formatted in a format that
windows can't identify.

 

[Twayne]

I am not able to read or format diskettes on my 2 PC's. I do have
Windows Xp PRO and HOme edition installed.

If I try to read a

diskette the program says it is not formatted.

That message means they are not formatted in any system that XP can
recognize. They -might- have been formatted, but not in a systm that XP
recognizes, so XP wants to indicate they need to be formatted in order
to use them.

If I try to format it

says it can't format: disk damaged.

That would indicate the floppy is indeed damaged somehow. XP is smart
enough to know when a floppy is write-protected and would tell you that
is the problem.
The most likely way it's damaged is it has aged to the point that the
magnetic sector/track marks cannot be set on the disk because the
magnetic properties have more or less disappeared. Whatever it writes
to the disk does not "take" or stay there; so it's "damaged" in the
error report.
If the floppy is very old, say more than a year, it's likely that is
the problem. Floppies were not made to be permanent storage and needed
"refreshing" on a periodic basis. Between 6 months and a year are the
longest magnetic retention time any disks had, and even less for some of
the cheapies that used to be available. The better ones might last a
year or so; it depends on how well the magnetic surface was made.
It's also possible for a disk to be read to but not formatted if the
data retention problem is just beginning to show; certain areas of the
floppy will go first.

The flppy drive unit is new, the diskettes work ok because I can read
and use them over a keyboard (they contain midi files).

I don't know how keyboards format floppies, but I have come across
previously formatted floppies that could not be formatted because of
something done during the first format. It's unusual but I have seen it
happen. Then again, it could be that the two drives you're mentioning
are aligned differently. In most cases the "damaged" drives I did
bother to investigate turned out to be an alignment problem with the
heads of one or the other. It's entirely possible they are OK for the
keyboard and nothing else, especially if they are very old.

Does anyone

know if Win XP has some issue managing floppy drives? Or how can I
solve this issue?

Win XP has no problems with floppies. It's also possible of course that
the new drive you have is bad. Can it format a fresh, never-formatted
floppy and one formatted on another XP or win9x machine?

FYI I have also tested this on a Friend's PC : same result.

If that means it won't format there either, then the floppies aren't
usable.
If that means they did/will format, then the new drive is bad.

Try formatting a new floppy and copy the data to the hard drive and then
to the floppy. Or you could just copy from drive A: to drive B: and
it'll work, telling you when to switch the floppies, but it can get
tedious.

HTH,

Twayne`