Is it possible to format floppies...(more) (1 Viewer)

gthang

Ford Focus Fanatic: mmmmmm... 3.1415926535.....

• Nov 23, 2005

• #1

...that WinXP labeled "cannot be formatted"?

I've just gone through 2 dozen floppy disks (3.5-inch size) and some of them I've tried to format but for some reason I can't.

Is there a way I can format these few "unformattable" floppies?

What about a third-party shareware program?

My boss really needs these disks. They are used to load an "image" for the company's computer (all computers have the same image, which contains hardware and software information)

 

B

Bluetail

Senior Moment

• Nov 23, 2005

• #2

Excuse me if you know this(you probably do), but are you sure they're not write-protected? To unprotect, slide the catch in the top corner so that it covers the small, square hole.

 

gthang

Ford Focus Fanatic: mmmmmm... 3.1415926535.....

• Nov 23, 2005

• #3

I checked that but still can't format them.

I tried downloading a formating program (hoping it'd fix whatever was preventing the format and then format it.)... still not formating... oh well, if it's not possible to format these disks, then no big deal, but if you have any advice, it'd be greatly appreciated.

 

stuartlawrie

Well-known member

• Nov 23, 2005

• #4

gthang said:

...that WinXP labeled "cannot be formatted"?

I've just gone through 2 dozen floppy disks (3.5-inch size) and some of them I've tried to format but for some reason I can't.

Is there a way I can format these few "unformattable" floppies?

What about a third-party shareware program?

My boss really needs these disks. They are used to load an "image" for the company's computer (all computers have the same image, which contains hardware and software information)

Click to expand...

Have you tried formatting them from a DOS prompt?
Forgive me if I am teaching my granny to suck eggs, but in XP from start choose Run and in the dialogue type CMD to open a dos command prompt, from here just type format a:
To leave the DOS window just type Exit
If that don't work you could always try them on a non XP machine.

 

alan_rymer

Well-known member

• Nov 23, 2005

• #5

gthang said:

...that WinXP labeled "cannot be formatted"?

I've just gone through 2 dozen floppy disks (3.5-inch size) and some of them I've tried to format but for some reason I can't.

Is there a way I can format these few "unformattable" floppies?

What about a third-party shareware program?

My boss really needs these disks. They are used to load an "image" for the company's computer (all computers have the same image, which contains hardware and software information)

Click to expand...

Its possible that they are just worn out or damaged. The head on a floppy disk drive actually touches the media of a floppy disk when it reads/writes/formats, and just like your VHS tapes at home they deteriorate until the cannot be formatted.
Even if you did eventually manage to format them, its possible that data may not be written to or read from these diskettes.

Its always possible its the FD drive itself that needs cleaning. You can get floppy cleaning kits like you can get VHS head cleaning kits.

Personally, I'd throw the diskettes away and buy a couple of boxes of new ones. If those fail then its the FD drive itself!.

HTH

 

Andrew Rowlands

Well-known member

• Nov 23, 2005

• #6

!'ve come across pre-loaded floppies that have not been created using PC standards or formattable by normal methods - Maxblast (Maxtor hard disk) drive overlay disks were one.

If your disks are of different brands then I suggest they have been damaged in storage - or your drive needs replacing.

Try them in a old Mac - make sure they're fomatted as PC compatible.

Andy.

 

gthang

Ford Focus Fanatic: mmmmmm... 3.1415926535.....

• Nov 23, 2005

• #7

OK, when I attempt to Change Directory (CD [dir] or [drive]) to A:, I get several error messages:

Disk 1: "The drive cannot find the sector requested."
Disk 2: "The volume does not contain a recognized file system. Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted."
Disk 3 and Disk 4 say the same thing as Disk 2.

These disks were all IBM formatted from the factory, and several disks from the same box (and same amount of wear) work great.

 

E

Egret

Well-known member

• Nov 23, 2005

• #8

I suspect that your drive may be the problem and would suggest that it's time to bin the floppies and use CDs; they must be about the same price these days.

If you weren't across the pond you could have the floppy drive out of my PC; it has never been used!

Andy

 

Tero

Retired

• Nov 23, 2005

• #9

We've had some trouble with floppies formatted on old versions on Windows, then trying to read a file with XP. XP is not compatible with everything. Then when you decide to reformat the old floppies using XP, these same discs are useless forever.

 

K

Klant

Well-known member

• Dec 8, 2005

• #10

Floppy drives usually die the dust death pretty fast these days, when they aren't used as much. Anyway, a trick for reformatting old floppy discs is to expose them to a different strenght magnetic field, i.e. any magnet you've got laying around. Then try it again

 

nirofo

Well-known member

• Dec 10, 2005

• #11

Just out of interest, can you read any other floppies with the drive, if not it may be that you need to enable the floppy drive in the bios. Windows XP has a known problem with floppy drives, sometimes deleting the drive in device manager then restarting the computer can make all the difference, it automatically re-installs the floppy driver.

nirofo.