Unable to read diskette drive and CD

[Pat Jennings]

Recently, my computer's diskette and CD drives and USB port attachments are
not recognized properly. That is to say that when a formatted, data-bearing
diskette is placed in the A drive, or a flash drive is attached with known
data on it, a message is displayed indicating that the diskette is not
formatted and should that be done now? Obviously, not. Having spent about
two hours with the computer vendor, attempting to resolve this, we arrived
at the conclusion that it must be a software, not hardware problem.
Incidentally, I am able to write to the CD and access the data on another
computer. I am not able to access the data when the CD is reloaded on the
"failed" computer.

The vendor is not able to provide diagnostic support on the operating system
(XP). The understanding I have from the vendor is that Microsoft would
refer any problem resolution to the vendor. John Updike, don't you think?

So, is there anyone who can offer a solution that does not include
reformatting the hard drive? That' a totally preposterous alternative.

 

[Guest]

Sorry I don't have a fix, but I am having the same trouble, and was wondering
if you installed the XP service pack 2 recently, because that is the last
thing I changed before my drives stopped working.

 

[Pat Jennings]

Service Pack 2 was installed a long, long time ago and does not seem to be
the cause of the problem. The most recent installation that took place near
the time that the problem emerged was Norton Internet Security, to which I
upgraded after having been running Norton Anti-Virus. It appeared to offer
greater protection. Discussing this with the technicians who were trying to
restore my system, it was stated that it was not likely a culprit. Perhaps,
we'll discover that to be true or false.

 

[Tony Norman]

I am not sure if this will help, or not but you can give it a try I suppose.
1. Click "Start"
2. Right-Click "My Computer", and click "Properties"
3. On the "Hardware" tab, click "Device Manager"
4. Click the little plus sign next to "Floppy disk controllers", and then
Right Click on "Standard floppy disk controller"
5. Click on "Uninstall", and then click "OK"
6. Re-start the computer.. it should find the floppy disk controller, and
re-install itself again, then try to see if it will read the diskette(s)