XP say floppy not formatted

[RealGomer]

I have around 100 floppy discs with data I need to keep. I've been copying
them to my hard drive and then I plan to burn them to CD. A number of the
floppys get an error message saying there are not formatted. The strange
thing is I had no problems with discs up to 15 years old being copied but
these newer ones keep returning the error. Suggestions on how to work around,
such as Linux, OS/2, or somehting else?

 

[nass]

I have around 100 floppy discs with data I need to keep. I've been copying
them to my hard drive and then I plan to burn them to CD. A number of the
floppys get an error message saying there are not formatted. The strange
thing is I had no problems with discs up to 15 years old being copied but
these newer ones keep returning the error. Suggestions on how to work around,
such as Linux, OS/2, or somehting else?

That mean only one thing with fllopies <Bingo> they are corrupt/damaged. It
doesn't matter how old they are they can go banana!
Try to Give it a rest then try again or try on another PC and be quick if it
given you a window of hope to copy this data to HDD and from HDD to a
removable storage like USB Stick/CD/DVD or Ex HDD.
If you searched the internet using Yahoo.com for software data recovery from
damaged floppies like so:
http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?p=software+data+recovery+from+damaged+floppies&ei=UTF-8&fr=moz2
FREE Freeware Data Recovery Software :
http://www.dtidata.com/free_data_recovery_software/

HTH,
nass

 

[Anna]

I have around 100 floppy discs with data I need to keep. I've been copying
them to my hard drive and then I plan to burn them to CD. A number of the
floppys get an error message saying there are not formatted. The strange
thing is I had no problems with discs up to 15 years old being copied but
these newer ones keep returning the error. Suggestions on how to work
around,
such as Linux, OS/2, or somehting else?

RealGomer...
Take a look at this MS article at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;140060

These floppy disk/floppy disk drive non-recognition problems have been,
unfortunately, endemic in the WinXP environment.

If at all possible, if you have available to you a system with Win9x or ME
try accessing the problem floppies in those machines. I'd venture to guess a
large percentage of them will be readable under those circumstances.
Anna

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have around 100 floppy discs with data I need to keep. I've been
copying them to my hard drive and then I plan to burn them to CD.
A number of the floppys get an error message saying there are not
formatted. The strange thing is I had no problems with discs up to
15 years old being copied but these newer ones keep returning the
error. Suggestions on how to work around, such as Linux, OS/2, or
somehting else?

Words that should never be used together in modern computing...
"Floppy diskettes" and "data I need to keep"...

Floppy diskettes - from their very inception - have been flakey at best.

If you have a friend (or if you do) with a macintosh *with a floppy disk
drive* - USB or otherwise - you may want to try and copy the data off using
OS X - or even older versions of the Macintosh OS. Sometimes you can get
lucky. I have even seen diskettes unreadable in Win NT/2000/XP/etc work on
the same computer booted with Win 9x - although that is less likely.

My suggestion - for the future - stop using floppy diskettes and invest some
of that money you have spent on numerous small floppy disketts on 1GB-16GB
USB thumb drives. Hundreds of floppies worth of space, compact area, more
reliable.

 

[philo]

I have around 100 floppy discs with data I need to keep. I've been copying
them to my hard drive and then I plan to burn them to CD. A number of the
floppys get an error message saying there are not formatted. The strange
thing is I had no problems with discs up to 15 years old being copied but
these newer ones keep returning the error. Suggestions on how to work around,
such as Linux, OS/2, or somehting else?

Yes...
I too work with old computers and old software.

Some of those old floppies I have are still good...
some of those old OS/2 distributions were put on some very high quality
floppies...
even some of the Microsoft floppies I have are still good.

OTOH: Some floppies I've purchased rather recently are all dead already,
some started dying within days....I think the quality has just gone down.

What I'd do is try the floppies in another machine
or try another drive...
but unfortunately the floppies themselves may just plain be bad


here is a utility that could possible be of help


http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Utilities/Disk_Maintenance_and_Repair_Utilities/FlopShow.html

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have around 100 floppy discs with data I need to keep. I've been copying
them to my hard drive and then I plan to burn them to CD. A number of the
floppys get an error message saying there are not formatted. The strange
thing is I had no problems with discs up to 15 years old being copied but
these newer ones keep returning the error. Suggestions on how to work around,
such as Linux, OS/2, or somehting else?

Almost certainly you have the media descriptor byte problem described
here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140060

To get around it for each floppy with the problem, format another
floppy on your Windows XP computer, then take it and the unreadable
one to an older computer, one running Windows 98 for example. On the
older computer, copy the floppy to the one you formatted, then read
the result of copying on your XP machine.

 

[Xandros]

try these drivers http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/tools/3modefloppy.zip


They might enable your system to read the disks. No guarantee though

 

[M.I.5¾]

Yes...
I too work with old computers and old software.

Some of those old floppies I have are still good...
some of those old OS/2 distributions were put on some very high quality
floppies...
even some of the Microsoft floppies I have are still good.

OTOH: Some floppies I've purchased rather recently are all dead already,
some started dying within days....I think the quality has just gone down.

Even in their heyday there were only four manufacturers of the floppy
magnetic material. Unfortunately there were two different grades, one for
low density and one for high density* (they had different magnetic
characteristics). Some of the lower end suppliers often used the wrong
material in their discs giving rise to discs that suffered from amnesia.

IBM also briefly commisioned a third grade for their 2.88Mb quad density
floppy discs.

 

[omarjandes]

Even in their heyday there were only four manufacturers of the floppy
magnetic material.  Unfortunately there were two different grades, one for
low density and one for high density* (they had different magnetic
characteristics).  Some of the lower end suppliers often used the wrong
material in their discs giving rise to discs that suffered from amnesia.

IBM also briefly commisioned a third grade for their 2.88Mb quad density
floppy discs.

and if you're looking for completely FREE CD/DVD & Blu-Ray/HD-DVD
burning application you're welcomed to give a try to from Rocket Division Software. Just in case here's
an URL: http://www.rocketdivision.com/starburn.html

Thanks!
Omar Jandes

 

[a_nonymous]

Almost certainly you have the media descriptor byte problem described
here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140060

To get around it for each floppy with the problem, format another
floppy on your Windows XP computer, then take it and the unreadable
one to an older computer, one running Windows 98 for example. On the
older computer, copy the floppy to the one you formatted, then read
the result of copying on your XP machine.

Ken,
If it is the media descriptor byte problem, an easier way is
to do it on the PC with XP:

1. Open a CMD console window (e.g. Start > Run > CMD [Enter] )

2. In that window, type COMMAND.EXE [Enter]

3. Then use DOS commands to COPY folders\files from the diskettes.

4. When finished, type EXIT [Enter] to return to the CMD console.

The above procedure allowed me to copy diskettes with a null
media descriptor byte to C:. This way is easier (and safer) than
using DEBUG.EXE to edit that byte on the diskette.

 

[philo]

Almost certainly you have the media descriptor byte problem described
here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140060

To get around it for each floppy with the problem, format another
floppy on your Windows XP computer, then take it and the unreadable
one to an older computer, one running Windows 98 for example. On the
older computer, copy the floppy to the one you formatted, then read
the result of copying on your XP machine.

Ken,
If it is the media descriptor byte problem, an easier way is
to do it on the PC with XP:

1. Open a CMD console window (e.g. Start > Run > CMD [Enter] )

2. In that window, type COMMAND.EXE [Enter]

3. Then use DOS commands to COPY folders\files from the diskettes.

4. When finished, type EXIT [Enter] to return to the CMD console.

The above procedure allowed me to copy diskettes with a null
media descriptor byte to C:. This way is easier (and safer) than
using DEBUG.EXE to edit that byte on the diskette.

Don't know if that works or not
but you can save a step by just doing


start run command

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Almost certainly you have the media descriptor byte problem described
here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140060

To get around it for each floppy with the problem, format another
floppy on your Windows XP computer, then take it and the unreadable
one to an older computer, one running Windows 98 for example. On the
older computer, copy the floppy to the one you formatted, then read
the result of copying on your XP machine.

Ken,
If it is the media descriptor byte problem, an easier way is
to do it on the PC with XP:

1. Open a CMD console window (e.g. Start > Run > CMD [Enter] )

2. In that window, type COMMAND.EXE [Enter]

3. Then use DOS commands to COPY folders\files from the diskettes.

4. When finished, type EXIT [Enter] to return to the CMD console.

The above procedure allowed me to copy diskettes with a null
media descriptor byte to C:. This way is easier (and safer) than
using DEBUG.EXE to edit that byte on the diskette.

It's certainly easier than what I suggested. But my guess is that it
won't work. When I get a chance, however, I'll try to find such a
diskette here and give your suggestion a try myself.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have around 100 floppy discs with data I need to keep. I've been
copying them to my hard drive and then I plan to burn them to CD.
A number of the floppys get an error message saying there are not
formatted. The strange thing is I had no problems with discs up to
15 years old being copied but these newer ones keep returning the
error. Suggestions on how to work around, such as Linux, OS/2, or
somehting else?

Almost certainly you have the media descriptor byte problem described
here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140060

To get around it for each floppy with the problem, format another
floppy on your Windows XP computer, then take it and the unreadable
one to an older computer, one running Windows 98 for example. On the
older computer, copy the floppy to the one you formatted, then read
the result of copying on your XP machine.

Ken,
If it is the media descriptor byte problem, an easier way is
to do it on the PC with XP:

1. Open a CMD console window (e.g. Start > Run > CMD [Enter] )

2. In that window, type COMMAND.EXE [Enter]

3. Then use DOS commands to COPY folders\files from the diskettes.

4. When finished, type EXIT [Enter] to return to the CMD console.

The above procedure allowed me to copy diskettes with a null
media descriptor byte to C:. This way is easier (and safer) than
using DEBUG.EXE to edit that byte on the diskette.

It's certainly easier than what I suggested. But my guess is that it
won't work. When I get a chance, however, I'll try to find such a
diskette here and give your suggestion a try myself.

I've been playing with this a little. Unfortunately I don't have
anywhere the number of floppies I used to have, and I've been unable
to locate one with the media descriptor byte problem.

 

[Guest]

:
I have around 100 floppy discs with data I need to keep. I've been
copying them to my hard drive and then I plan to burn them to CD.
A number of the floppys get an error message saying there are not
formatted. The strange thing is I had no problems with discs up to
15 years old being copied but these newer ones keep returning the
error. Suggestions on how to work around, such as Linux, OS/2, or
somehting else?
:
Almost certainly you have the media descriptor byte problem described
here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140060

To get around it for each floppy with the problem, format another
floppy on your Windows XP computer, then take it and the unreadable
one to an older computer, one running Windows 98 for example. On the
older computer, copy the floppy to the one you formatted, then read
the result of copying on your XP machine.
Ken,
If it is the media descriptor byte problem, an easier way is
to do it on the PC with XP:

1. Open a CMD console window (e.g. Start > Run > CMD [Enter] )

2. In that window, type COMMAND.EXE [Enter]

3. Then use DOS commands to COPY folders\files from the diskettes.

4. When finished, type EXIT [Enter] to return to the CMD console.

The above procedure allowed me to copy diskettes with a null
media descriptor byte to C:. This way is easier (and safer) than
using DEBUG.EXE to edit that byte on the diskette.

It's certainly easier than what I suggested. But my guess is that it
won't work. When I get a chance, however, I'll try to find such a
diskette here and give your suggestion a try myself.

I've been playing with this a little. Unfortunately I don't have
anywhere the number of floppies I used to have, and I've been unable
to locate one with the media descriptor byte problem.

It's easy to create a disk with no media descriptor.
Just bulk erase it with a tape demagnetizer.
Windows Vista can't format a bulk-erased floppy,
but you can format it from the command console
using dos commands. That suggests that the previous
workaround might just workaround...

 

[a_nonymous]

Ken,
If it is the media descriptor byte problem, an easier way is
to do it on the PC with XP:
1. Open a CMD console window (e.g. Start > Run > CMD [Enter] )
2. In that window, type COMMAND.EXE [Enter]

-=-
Note: Step 2 should read, "type COMMAND.COM [Enter]"
-=-

3. Then use DOS commands to COPY folders\files from the diskettes.
4. When finished, type EXIT [Enter] to return to the CMD console.
The above procedure allowed me to copy diskettes with a null
media descriptor byte to C:. This way is easier (and safer) than
using DEBUG.EXE to edit that byte on the diskette.

I've been playing with this a little. Unfortunately I don't have
anywhere the number of floppies I used to have, and I've been unable
to locate one with the media descriptor byte problem.

Ken,

Windows Explorer demands a valid (non-zero) MD byte.

CMD.exe ignores the MD byte, but gives up on a full disk copy after
so many files or bytes have been copied.

COMMAND.COM also ignores the MD byte, but copies a full diskette
without any problems for me.


Step 2 above should read, "type COMMAND.COM [Enter]"
or just "type COMMAND [Enter]".
Or replace steps 1 and 2 with Start > Run > COMMAND [Enter]


If you had a spare floppy, you could simulate the condition
by using DEBUG.EXE to edit the MD byte to 0.

 

[Fred Jackson]

R.G. I had this same problem sometime ago and it turned out to be my actual
floppy drive very slightly out of alignment. I recovered all my files when I
canged my Drive .. cost me £7 for new replacement. Try recovering your data
on another computer drive first.
Regards
Fred

 

[Twayne]

R.G. I had this same problem sometime ago and it

turned
out to be my actual floppy drive very slightly
out of
alignment. I recovered all my files when I
canged my
Drive .. cost me £7 for new replacement. Try
recovering
your data on another computer drive first.
Regards
Fred

As someone else mentioned, it could be a drive
head alignment, so it would be worth trying to
read the floppies on another machine if possible.

I'm going to guess though that it's an age issue
with the floppies. 15 year old disks still being
readable is a surprise, but I suppose with quality
media and proper storage it might be possible with
today's more sensitive floppy drives.

If you can find it, there is an old DOS program
called recover.com I thin k it was. It's made to
try to recover floppies whose media has lost
magnetic strength and is disappearing. What it
does is make ten successive reads of an area of
the floppy at once, compare them, make another ten
reads, compare them, for I think 50 reads, and
then if there are enough identical reads, it
"recovers" that piece of data by writing it back
to the same location on the floppy. If it's
successful and gets the MBR and tables right, it
can usually recover the whole floppy.
This phrase:
floppy recover old
gets quite a few hits on Google that look similar.
I can't locate the archive my own copy is in right
now.

Good luck,

Twayne