Re: Cannot Read 3.5" High Density Diskette


allanc wrote:
I have a relatively new (6 months old) Dell PC with a built-in 3.5"
diskette.

About 6 years ago someone created several 2HD diskettes on a PC.
These diskettes can be read on a NT server (about 10 years old) but
not my new Dell PC.

Is there a setting that I have to adjust on my Dell?

Thank you in advance.

Floppy disks do degrade. If a floppy is currently readable on *some* machine, then you can get the data off. However, if it is a "license" disk, merely copying the data may not solve your problem. Back in the days when floppies were common, some copy protect schemes required the actual license disk to be used -- a copied floppy wouldn't work.

Here are 3 techniques, one or more of which may help:

1. Disable the write-protect feature on the floppy by blocking the hole with a piece of tape, get a disk hex editor, and change the media descriptor as described in the KB article cited by Ken Blake: http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=140060
This solution has the disadvantage of changing the license diskette, which may or may not (probably not) cause a problem with the application needing to use the "license diskette."

2. On the 10-year old NT server, copy the contents of the floppy to some other medium that can be read on the XP box. Again, having the contents of the floppy on a USB flash drive or a CD may or may not satisfy the application's need for the original floppy.

3. Get the driver described in the following 4-year old post. I know that there are good reasons why the description in the post doesn't make technical sense, but I also know that it works. Not all the links are still live, but the one for the driver still works.

From: rwehavnfunyet (rwehavnfunyetNO@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Subject: Floppy problems? Please read View: Complete Thread (3 articles)

Original Format

Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Date: 2002-11-05 20:08:05 PST At our school we are having all the floppy problems mentioned in this NG.
The only one that is 100% reproducable is this: take a floppy, format it in
Win9x, and put files on it. Stick it in an XP PC and select "Copy Disk"
from the A: drive context menu. We get errors nearly 100% of the time. I
found the following fix at:
http://discuss.extremetech.com/n/mb/display.asp?webtag=extremetech&msg=21301.1 posted by someone called cluberti. The drivers he mentions work, but
they leave a phantom B: 5.25 drive that needs to be disabled.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
I looked at everything I could find, and everything technically SHOULD be
the same in the way Windows 98 and Windows XP format and access floppy
diskettes (FAT12, 512bytes/sector, etc). And what did I find? As usual,
things have changed (and you wouldn't know it unless you dug deep). The
following is what I found (and how I fixed it - get this information OUT
THERE):

After beating my head against the wall for a few weeks and polling everyone
I knew personally that was running Windows XP, I found that quite a few of
us had this problem - format and/or use a floppy in XP, it doesn't work in
Win98 (and sometimes Windows 2000 too). Format and/or use a floppy in
Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, or 2000, it no longer works in XP (even if it worked
before). It seemed that the brand name PC's had this problem less
frequently than a white box machine, but they were not immune either -
especially Compaq PC's. So, I dug around google groups for a while, and
found LOTS of people complaining of this particular problem. However, quite
a few searches on Microsoft's site about floppies, corruption, and Windows
XP turned up absolutely nothing of value.

After LOTS of digging, I did find this interesting Microsoft Q article
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q309623) that I had
originally perused and thought of no use. I read it again, very CAREFULLY,
and read it over a few times more to make sure what I was reading was really
there. If you're interested, read it in all it's glory on the Microsoft
site and be amazed - then come back (open a new tab or window! :O) here for
the fix.

For those of you not inclined to visit Microsoft.com (and you know who you
are ;O), here's the interesting tidbit (and the root of the problem):

"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!

Pass this on!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
Microsoft needs to get this fixed.


--
Lem -- MS-MVP

Apollo 11 - 40 years ago this month: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/index.html
.

Quantcast