XP wants to write on write protect disk

[Gerhard]

Hi,
Stupid XP Software
If I want to read from a floppy (with write protection)
I hear some noise from the floppy drive and then after a
while I get the message:
<<disk cannot be written to because it is write protected.
Please remove the wrinte protection from the volume in
drive A:>>
If I remove the write protection, I can read my floppy!
XP nothing has written to the floppy!

Also cannot format my disk in drive in A:
I only can format to a DOS bootable disk.
<<create an MS-DOS startup disk>>
So I format like this and then I delete these files.

No trouble on the same machine with Win98(second OS)

Is there anyone who knows the trick to solve this problem?

Gerhard

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

My guess is you have some other software, most possibly antivirus software
that is the source of the problem. I have no trouble reading write
protected disk in my floppy drive and there is nothing in XP's default setup
that would invoke a write command upon trying to access a write protected
floppy disk. However, some antivirus software might need unprotected access
depending upon the options setup in that software.

Also, if you have any kind of automated backup software running in the
background, it might need to change an attribute of the file which also
might trigger such an issue. Whatever the case, this is likely an issue
being caused by some other software on your system.

As to the formatting, not sure what you are doing or how you are doing it.
Are these 1.44mb floppy disks, are you trying to format the disk using the
Quick Format option on properties when you right click the floppy drive in
Windows Explorer?

 

[Gerhard]

Hi Michael,

Thank you for your response.

I did not mention it, it's FAT 32

To get rid of all the background programs, I started in
safe mode.
Same result.
I get the same message.
I now I click <<cancel>> a couple of times, suddenly I can
see the files on the floppy.
If I do the same with <<continue>> or <<Try again>> I can
do this a hundred times, without any result.
It seems to be, that XP is reading every time only a bit,
but not all.
The access sound to the floppy drive is different if I
hit <<cancel>> or <<Continue, Try again>>

As I mentioned before
If I close the write protection from the floppy I can read
the content without any trouble.
Only write protect floppies are causing this trouble.
It seems to be that this happens only with those floppies
NOT written or formatted with XP.

I haven't checked this fully.

Formatting:
(surely without write protection)
There are 3 possibilities.
Normal, Quick and DOS
With Normal (no box marked)or "Quick" I get the message
"Windows cannot format this drive. Quit any disk utility
or programs that are using this drive ...."
If I mark "DOS startup disk" XP is starting doing his job.
No different trick found.

You have any suggestions?

Gerhard

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

With regard to the reading of files on the disk, I can tell you that XP is
very unforgiving of even the slightest problems with a floppy disk,
something that was not the case for previous versions of XP. Instead of bad
disks, it may be a problem with the floppy drive. These are fairly
inexpensive and even on a new machine, they can be problematic. It might
also be a problem with the cable to the floppy drive.

If it's not a hardware problem, then again, I'm suspicious that some other
application on your system may be taking control of the drive.

Also, to play safe, you may want to be sure your antivirus software is up to
date and run a virus scan. Also, download, install and run Ad Aware to
check for any spyware that might have gotten hold of your system:
www.lavasoftusa.com

 

[Gerhard]

Hi Michael,

I would agree to to your explanation, but ...

XP can read everything if the floppy is NOT write
protected.
This clearly shows, that the floppy AND the drive are OK.
The same hardware with the some cofiguration works fine on
WIN98 on the SAME machine (2.OS)

In safe mode, same problem.
Here no virus program is running.
(Virus program updated weekly, as well as Adaware.)

Why I cant format in standard mode, only in "DOS mode"?
This shows as well, that the hardware is OK.
If I try to format WITH write protect floppy the hard AND
software shows me, that this detection is working correct.
What difference is in formatting
"DOS startup disk" and "Quick" or "normal"?
If another program will have access to the drive, why this
will not happen if I format in "DOS mode"?
This is quite strange to me.

regards

Gerhard

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Quite strange to me too. Do you have a firewall? If yes, try turning it
off and see if that clears it up.

 

[Gerhard]

Hi Michael,

I have a hardware firewall only.
I off it, same procedure, also in safe mode.
I just found out:
I must hit "cancel" as often as quantity of files there
are on the floppy.
With 10 files on, I must hit cancel 10 times!
(Empty ones do not cause this trouble... very strange!)
Then I get the content displayed.
XP is already updated with SR1 and all other fixes
available on the microsoft server.

Then I can do with this files what I want, open, alter,
change, delete etc.


Once formatted in DOS mode and the deleted all files I can
write on and read onlso in write protect mode.
So there must be on or more bytes on the floppy confusing
XP.

As my software is an OS version, I do not get ANY support
from microsoft.
The company I got the machine and software from is not
able to give any qualified support related to this problem.

Do you have some more good ideas?

Have nice day

Gerhard

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

I'm with you, it's reading something on the disks created previously that
appears to be the source of the issue. Since, you're setup is FAT32 and not
NTFS I don't think it's security related. It might be an attribute or just
how the disk was previously formatted that is given XP trouble. The format
tool in Windows 9x is somewhat different from the tool in XP.

For example, if you format your partition or hard drive using a 9x boot disk
and then run XP setup, even though the hard drive or partition is formatted,
XP setup will usually produce a message that the partition or hard drive is
unrecognized. Hence, even if you're going to use FAT32, you still have to
format using XP setup instead of the 9x floppy. In other words, even though
the drive was previously formatted, XP still might not recognize it. Since
you don't have the problem after you format the floppies in XP, my guess is
the problem is related to these differences in the format tool and XP's
ability to recognize the format.

 

[Gerhard]

Hi Michael,

I cannot aggree,

Before installing XP, my hd partitions had bee formatted
in DOS mode with WIN98 startup disk(first with fdisk and
then format c. The I installed WIN98
Later there was no trouble with installing XP on this DOS-
Win98 formatted hd.
And then, this problem with not reading my old flppies was
not all the times.
Sometimes I had problems, sometimes not.
Sometimes after trying a couple of times, XP suddenly was
able to read these floppies even after power off the
system for a couple of days.
Now I have this problems continiously.
I'm not shure, but it seems to be that I have this problem
after updating to SR1, but really not shure.

This also does not explain why I must format my floppy
first in "DOS" mode and THEN I'm able to format in normal
mode.
XP is a very tricky system.
As Microsoft is not able to fix this I now must reformat
all my relevant floppies just to to get access to them.

Really a tricky system!

regards

Gerhard

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

First, the format tool does not come into play on an upgrade install. It
only seems to make a difference on a freshly formatted drive. Sometimes,
people will use a 9x boot floppy to format their hard drive then try running
XP setup and receive a message during setup that the drive, format or file
system is unrecognized. Hence, we recommend on a new install that users
format during XP setup.

I can tell you, problems with floppy disks have been quite an issue with XP.
Some people have problems, others don't and they really haven't nailed down
why this is happening. In some cases, it's just a bad floppy drive, perhaps
a misaligned head or sometimes it was a problem with the drive on which the
floppy was first created or bad floppy disks. Many can't get their systems
to read floppies at all, even disks created on their current setup and there
several such posts in these newsgroups about such issues.

I'm sorry, I just don't have an answer at this time.