floppy disk problem

[Guest b11_]

Floppy disks which function just fine one day are becoming unreadable the

next day (a message appears on the screen indicating that the disk is not

formatted). Seeking help on how to get the files from the floppy or what to

do to make the floppies readable again.

[Guest Eric]

Re: floppy disk problem

 

b11_ wrote:

> Floppy disks which function just fine one day are becoming unreadable the

> next day (a message appears on the screen indicating that the disk is not

> formatted). Seeking help on how to get the files from the floppy or what to

> do to make the floppies readable again.

 

have you tried the disks in another computer with a known working disk

drive. Been lurking in here and in the old alt newsgroup for awhile

with the occasional response, and have found that it is usually the

drive and not the disks.

 

Eric

--

To Reply directly delete "removethis" from email address

[Guest Stanislaw Flatto]

Re: floppy disk problem

 

b11_ wrote:

> Floppy disks which function just fine one day are becoming unreadable the

> next day (a message appears on the screen indicating that the disk is not

> formatted). Seeking help on how to get the files from the floppy or what to

> do to make the floppies readable again.

Not unusual, one of best trials is to take this floppy back to the drive

that initialised it (formatted in DOS lingo). Usually it reads it properly.

Beware of the GUI version of format, had problems with its performance

till I returned to formatting in DOS prompt screen. No problems since.

 

Have fun.

 

Stanislaw

[Guest Rod]

Re: floppy disk problem

 

 

 

In my experience, this occurs when attempting to open

a file of a program from Floppy disc.

I am a fan of MSWorks, and <every> time, one attempts

to open a file of Works from floppy, will render the

floppy unreadable, and the file corrupted

One has to transfer the file from floppy

to HDD prior to opening.

HTH

 

 

"b11_" <b11@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:5089F7E8-A8C1-49F5-ACBA-648E368E7696@microsoft.com...

> Floppy disks which function just fine one day are becoming unreadable the

> next day (a message appears on the screen indicating that the disk is not

> formatted). Seeking help on how to get the files from the floppy or what

to

> do to make the floppies readable again.

[Guest Franc Zabkar]

Re: floppy disk problem

 

On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:30:05 -0700, b11_

<b11@discussions.microsoft.com> put finger to keyboard and composed:

>Floppy disks which function just fine one day are becoming unreadable the

>next day (a message appears on the screen indicating that the disk is not

>formatted). Seeking help on how to get the files from the floppy or what to

>do to make the floppies readable again.

 

Switch to an MS-DOS Prompt and type ...

 

dir a:\

 

This should produce a listing of the root directory.

 

You could also try ...

 

debug

-L 100 0 0 1

-d 100 2ff

-q

 

This will dump the boot sector of the diskette.

 

I don't know if this applies to you, but you might like to read this

MS article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/140060

 

It explains why some preformatted diskettes work fine with DOS and

Win95, but produce the "not formatted" error in Win98 and above.

 

Having said the above, I've just used Debug to zero the media

descriptor byte in the boot sector and in the first copy of the FAT.

Neither explorer.exe nor command.com complained, but scandisk did

detect a problem with this byte in the FAT.

 

- Franc Zabkar

--

Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.