Re: Format 720k floppy

Charlie Bress wrote:
I am using XP Pro. Is there any way to format the old 720K floppies?

The format memo only shows the 1.44M diskettes.

Charlie


I stored the following away in a deep recess of my hard drive. Take it for what it's worth (assumes that your floppy drive is capable of all 3 modes):

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q309623 -- "Windows XP supports formatting only the 1.44MB disk format. Three-mode
floppy drives (drives that are capable of reading/writing with 720KB, 1.2MB and 1.44MB 3.5" disks) requires special driver support, and support for this feature is not included in Windows XP.

Some 3mode FD drivers may be installed on PCs with Windows XP by OEMs,
although Microsoft does not provide the end-user support for 3mode drivers. Please contact your OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) if you have any questions on 3mode drivers."

Why did they remove something that every other version of Windows has? I don't know either. Nonetheless, support is gone in the Microsoft floppy driver for Windows XP.

Now, I have two white box PC's - one with a Mitsumi floppy and one with a Sony floppy disk drive. Both drives support reading/writing/formatting of 720K, 1.2MB and 1.44MB floppies (hence "3mode" floppy). Notice in the Q article that if the drive supports formatting of anything more than 1.44MB floppies, it isn't supported! Since *most* floppy disk drives from Japanese vendors (Sony, Mitsumi, etc) are 3 mode, does this mean a lot of people will be in the same boat? It appears so.

It so happens that my 2 machines were running Windows XP Pro - as previously stated, one has a Mitsumi floppy, and one has a Sony floppy. Both were quad booting, running Debian Linux (Woody), Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000 (one has SP2, one has SP3), and Windows XP Professional (one has SP1, one does not). Both PC's were basically identical in software loads, and both PC's had the same problem; XP wouldn't read a floppy diskette formatted in Linux or Win98, and Linux and Win98 were running ON THE SAME MACHINE. I could format the floppy to 1.44MB in Windows XP, but then I couldn't read it in Win98 (Linux would read the floppy); swapping formatted floppies amongst machines produced the same results. This meant that it wasn't a hardware problem, it was an XP problem - more specifically, a driver problem.

So I went looking for a 3mode floppy driver. First, I tried the Windows
2000 stock floppy driver. No go. I tried the Windows ME floppy driver.
Again, no go. I tried the Windows 98 floppy driver. Nada.

It took me a day or two more, but I found one at http://www.viaarena.com.
This driver is for Windows XP Embedded, but works just fine in Windows XP. I had to force the driver in (Windows XP wouldn't take it using the normal driver update process), but I now have no problems with my floppy drive. I suggest you download this before they pull it in violation of the DMCA or something ;O)

Here's the link to the driver:
http://downloads.viaarena.com/WinXPE/Oct02/XPe_3mflp132_v10.zip

And here are the steps necessary to install it (make sure there isn't a
floppy disk in the drive!):

1. Download driver.

2. Unzip the driver somewhere (I keep all of my drivers in
C:\Drivers\<Driver>, so I extracted it to C:\Drivers\3mode).

3. Open Windows XP's Device Manager, expand the "Floppy disk controllers" heading, and double-click the listing for "Standard floppy disk controller".

4. Click the "Driver" tab, then click the "Update Driver" button.

5. Select the "Install from a list or specific location" radio button and click the "Next" button.

6. Select the "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install." radio button and click the "Next" button.

7. Click the "Have Disk" button; then, click the "Browse" button. Browse to the location that you extracted the files to in step 2 and double click the "VIA3MFPY.INF" file. Then, click the "OK" button.

8. You should now have "VIA 3-mode floppy controller" highlighted in the
drivers list. Click the "Next" button to begin the driver file copy. Once the file copy is complete, your floppy disk drive will access 3 times (checking all 3 "modes"). This is normal. Click the "Finish" button when the driver installation is complete.

9a. You may, or may not, have a device labeled "Unknown Device" in the
"Other Devices" heading in Device Manager. If so, continue with step 9a. If not, skip to step 9b. If you have a device labeled "Unknown Device" in the "Other Devices" heading in Device Manager, right-click on it and select "Update Driver". Follow steps 5 through 8 to complete the installation of "Floppy disk drive" (note that the naming of the driver in the drivers list in step 8 may be different during this step - this is normal). Once you've clicked the "Finish" button, continue on to step 10.

9b. If you do not have a device labeled "Unknown Device" in the "Other
Devices" heading in Device Manager, expand the "Floppy disk drives" heading in Device Manager and double-click the listing for "Floppy disk drive". Follow steps 4 through 8 to complete the installation of "Floppy disk drive" (note that the naming of the driver in the drivers list in step 8 may be different during this step - this is normal). Once you've clicked the "Finish" button, continue on to step 10.

10. Reboot your PC. This should let you know if all of your hard work
REALLY paid off. Check the Device Manager one last time to be sure that you now have the "VIA 3-mode floppy controller listed under the "Floppy disk controllers" heading. Put a file on a floppy in Win98 (or another non-XP OS) and you should now be able to access it in Windows XP (and vice-versa) without issue. You made it!



--
Lem MS MVP -- Networking

To the moon and back with 64 Kbits of RAM and 512 Kbits of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
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