unwrite disk?

[Dakota]

I moved the little box on the disk in both directions on
formatted disks and I still get the error to unwrite the
disc or use another. I've gone through two boxes and
installed a new floppy drive. It still wont allow me to
save anything to a floppy. Any ideas?

 

[John McGaw]

I moved the little box on the disk in both directions on
formatted disks and I still get the error to unwrite the
disc or use another. I've gone through two boxes and
installed a new floppy drive. It still wont allow me to
save anything to a floppy. Any ideas?

What do you mean by "the little box on the disk"? Are you referring to the
write-protect slider? If so, on a diskette drive which is operating normally
you can only write when the hole is blocked. If you have really gone through
two boxes of diskettes and have replaced the drive then you might have been
unlucky enough to have TWO bad drives. Or the controller might be bad. Or
the cable. Or the power leads. Or the BIOS settings might have been altered
unpredictably. Moving the drive and the cable to a different computer might
allow you to determine more closely where the problem lay. BTW diskette
drives have become more and more unreliable in my experience and I've found
something approaching 20% of new ones to be defective or miscalibrated.
--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]

Return address will not work. Please
reply in group or through my website:
http://johnmcgaw.com

 

[Guest]

What do you mean by "the little box on the disk"? Are you referring to the
write-protect slider?

yessir.

If so, on a diskette drive which is operating normally

you can only write when the hole is blocked.

yessir.

If you have really gone through

two boxes of diskettes and have replaced the drive then you might have been
unlucky enough to have TWO bad drives.

Or the controller might be bad.

what's a controller? duh?

Or

the cable. Or the power leads.

both are working properly.

Or the BIOS settings might have been altered

unpredictably.

What BIOS settings should they be on?


Moving the drive and the cable to a different computer
might

allow you to determine more closely where the problem

lay.

dont have access to another computer.

BTW diskette

drives have become more and more unreliable in my experience and I've found
something approaching 20% of new ones to be defective or

miscalibrated.

One more thing, I am able to send things from the
floppy's to my computer just unable to send things from
my computer to the floppys. What is the reason for that?

Many thanks John.

---Dakota.

 

[John McGaw]

snip...

what's a controller? duh?

The controller is the bit of electronics on the motherboard which interfaces
the CPU bus to the diskette drive. This used to be a substantial bit of
hardware in the old days but now is just a tiny section of one the system
chips.

Or

both are working properly.

Or the BIOS settings might have been altered

What BIOS settings should they be on?

BIOS settings are unpredictable since the major providers don't agree
completely and most MB manufacturers customize the basic BIOS somewhat so it
is impossible to say what might be available. Basically, look for all floppy
settings and make sure that there isn't one saying "don't allow writes" or
the equivalent. Since your system can read the diskettes this becomes less
of a possibility.

Moving the drive and the cable to a different computer
might
lay.

dont have access to another computer.

BTW diskette
miscalibrated.

One more thing, I am able to send things from the
floppy's to my computer just unable to send things from
my computer to the floppys. What is the reason for that?

Many thanks John.

---Dakota.

It could still be a defective diskette cable or connector on the MB. There
is a single conductor on the ribbon cable that enables writing vs. reading
and if that conductor just happened to be defective...

Can you beg/borrow/steal/buy a different cable to try out? I'd try
inspecting the connector on the MB that the cable connects to also, it
doesn't occur often but it can happen that a pin can be bent or broken.

Other than that, there are some really neat little USB diskette drives
available at reasonable cost...

Good luck.
--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]

Return address will not work. Please
reply in group or through my website:
http://johnmcgaw.com