Re: XP FDD Problems Ever Fixed?

Chris wrote:
Does anybody know if XP's problems reading/writing 3.5 inch FDDs
were ever fixed (or if anybody ever found/developed a reliable work
around)? This is one where XP reports that the disk isn't formated
or that the drive is empty, etc.

It's been around since at least 2002 and has been variously blamed
on bad media, Media Descriptor Byte, dirty/worn out/misaligned
drives, etc. My theory is that at least one of the 1000's of XP
update packages was responsible since I have floppies that were
written on my current XP machine that it will no longer read (but
are still readable on NT, 98, etc).

I've tried pretty much every voodoo solution I've come across - new
cables, different physical FDD, FDD driver from Embedded Windows,
turning off anti-virus, etc. Nothing seems to help - I even bought
a USB floppy, but that exhibits the same symptoms (cameras,
printers and USB Harddrives work fine, though).

It isn't the end of the world, since my various rescue floppies
(BIOS flash, Ghost, Partition Magic, etc) will still boot the
machine into a DOS (or DOS like) state and allow those utililities
to function. It is a bit irritating to have to use an entire CD to
back up a 100k file though. I fire up an old NT machine on the
network if I absolutely have to create a floppy.

If anybody has had better luck Googling than I have, I'd appreciate
hearing about it.

Drop the floppy.
Start using bootable CD/DVDs...
Images even...
Start using thumb drives - a 2GB one will cost you less than a floppy drive
and a pack of 1.44MB floppy diskettes.

I still make bootable FDDs myself - but I have been weening myself since
Windows XP came out.
It was a dying thing then - it's still dying - kind twitching - not sure it
is actually still alive. heh

When you say the FDs are still readable in Windows 98/NT - are you using the
same hardware?
(Dual boot? VMWare?)

Have you tried taking the drive out of the one that reads and using it in
the XP machine - cable and all?

I have had the same frustration, once or twice. Heck - I have had diskettes
only macintosh computers could read - and they were not macintosh
diskettes/formatted with macitosh information even. Diskettes are
unreliable as a media type. I have had floppy diskettes that worked in a
machine one week not work the next. Diskettes that have done nothing but
sit in a drawer - away from any electromagnetic influence, etc - not work
two months later having never been touched - in the same machine.

Sometimes you have to accept change. I keep a USB floppy drive around -
just in case. I still make the occasional one to boot some old machine I
need to wipe to send off to a surplus pile...

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: installation problems
    ... RH 9 had trashed my Linux partition and rendered my PC unbootable. ... >you can create the floppy from and can be created on a differnet ... >on the CD as the floppy boot image. ... and since flash drives seem to be listed in /proc as scsi devices, ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)
  • Re: RedHat Linux 7.2 needed.
    ... drives replaced with current stuff, ... Unfortunately, it has a few problems, including a fan ... If you mean floppy only, I don't remember the last distribution that was ... Red Hat Linux 9 uses a different boot diskette layout than ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)
  • Re: How can I flash the Bios with out a flopy drive?
    ... so buy a floppy drive cheapskate. ... absolute minimum of code to boot from a floppy and, maybe, display ... That whole area of USB bootability is somewhat fraught, ... but there are several approaches as to how you make such drives ...
    (uk.comp.homebuilt)
  • Re: Registry Failure - c0000218
    ... boot floppy, but the situation with my shuttle machine was that it did not ... I wish to create a bootable disk for my winXP setup for future ... normally useless for repairs since they cannot access NTFS drives, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Registry Failure - c0000218
    ... boot floppy, but the situation with my shuttle machine was that it did not ... I wish to create a bootable disk for my winXP setup for future ... normally useless for repairs since they cannot access NTFS drives, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)