Tech help needed: floppy drive problem

I need to format a hard drive and then reinstall my operating system (Win 98) and other essential applications. However, before doing this I need to be sure I have a working boot disk for the 3.5" floppy drive.

Unfortunately, I can't get this computer to make a boot disk for me. It keeps telling me that any blank disk I insert is not formatted properly or is the wrong size. However, I know the disks are identical in type to one that the drive does read.

I tried creating a boot disk on a different computer that is also running Win 98 but I get the same error message, as if the disk was not formatted.

Something is clearly wrong with the floppy drive in this computer but I am at a loss to determine what it might be.

Does anyone have any good suggestions for diagnosing the situation? Thanks.

midwestyankee said:

I tried creating a boot disk on a different computer that is also running Win 98 but I get the same error message, as if the disk was not formatted.

Something is clearly wrong with the floppy drive in this computer but I am at a loss to determine what it might be.

Does anyone have any good suggestions for diagnosing the situation? Thanks.

Click to expand...

First, I suspect you may have bought pre-formatted MAC floppies instead of pre-formatted PC floppies since you go the same error on two different machines.

The solution is to do an unconditional format before you try to make the boot disk.

Put a disk in the floppy drive and go to "My Computer" and right click on "Drive A:" Select Format and set it for a full format without system files and format the disk.

Once the format is complete, run Scandisk in "thorough mode" (surface check) on it to confirm that both the drive and disk are good and have no bad sectors.

If Scandisk finds errors on a freshly formatted disk, try again with another disk. If it finds problems on the second disk too, then the drive itself is probably the culprit and will need to be replaced.

Once you've got a fully formatted disk that Scandisk's surface check passes, then make your boot disk and you should be on your way.

Thanks for the response, WH.

I just took four diskettes that could be read by two other PCs in the house to the suspect computer and tried to format each one following your directions. In each case I got a message saying the diskette was not formatted; then after asking for a full format I was told that the device could not read the diskette. Just as a further test, I formatted one of the diskettes using another PC. Same result: error message saying the diskette was not formatted but the PC would then be unable to do so.

On this basis I am inclined to replace the floppy drive.

One other symptom I noticed is that Explorer takes a very long time to bring up a list of files on disks I place in this floppy drive.

Any lit women want to help this man with his floppy? I could not resist asking!

Sorry, repeat post.

Perhaps a bit archaic, but prior to replacing the drive (it may be related to drivers associated with it in Win 98, that you're planning on reinstalling), try the following:
-> start
-> programs
-> accessories

and see if Win 98 has a "Command Prompt" there. It has it somewhere, but I've never used 98.

In any event, if you start your command prompt (aka "DOS prompt"), your window will display a C:> or something similar.

At the 'c' prompt mentioned above, type "format a:/s", but don't include the quote marks. It may also require a space between the : and the /s, but you HAVE TO INCLUDE THE "A". This will force a system bootable disk onto drive A, and format it at the same time.

Like I said, a bit archaic, but this may work and save you a little time and a few dollars (3.5 drives are about $20, the last time I saw one).

Hope it helps.

FastFastr said:

Any lit women want to help this man with his floppy? I could not resist asking!

Click to expand...

Thanks, but I already tried this one in Personals. Nobody could explain the bad drivers over there either.

BramStroker said:

Perhaps a bit archaic, but prior to replacing the drive (it may be related to drivers associated with it in Win 98, that you're planning on reinstalling), try the following:
-> start
-> programs
-> accessories

and see if Win 98 has a "Command Prompt" there. It has it somewhere, but I've never used 98.

In any event, if you start your command prompt (aka "DOS prompt"), your window will display a C:> or something similar.

At the 'c' prompt mentioned above, type "format a:/s", but don't include the quote marks. It may also require a space between the : and the /s, but you HAVE TO INCLUDE THE "A". This will force a system bootable disk onto drive A, and format it at the same time.

Like I said, a bit archaic, but this may work and save you a little time and a few dollars (3.5 drives are about $20, the last time I saw one).

Hope it helps.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the help. Unfortunately, when I try to format using the DOS prompt I get a message that reads approximately: invalid media or bad track 0.

Guess I'll have to shake a few moths out of the wallet and spring for a new drive.

midwestyankee said:

Thanks for the response, WH.

I just took four diskettes that could be read by two other PCs in the house to the suspect computer and tried to format each one following your directions. In each case I got a message saying the diskette was not formatted; then after asking for a full format I was told that the device could not read the diskette. Just as a further test, I formatted one of the diskettes using another PC. Same result: error message saying the diskette was not formatted but the PC would then be unable to do so.

On this basis I am inclined to replace the floppy drive.

One other symptom I noticed is that Explorer takes a very long time to bring up a list of files on disks I place in this floppy drive.

Click to expand...

If 4 diskettes fail to format on two different PCs, and both PCs can read a know good diskette, then I'd suspect a bad batch of media.

When I buy cheap media, I throw away maybe 1 of ever 25 right out of the box.

OTOH, I replace floppy drives quite frequently because the get so dirty. Lots of air flows into the machine through the flopp depositing junk (dust) along the way.

If you are a smoker, then you're going to replace your floppy drive on a regular basis.

Floppy drives should be $15 or under.

midwestyankee said:

Just as a further test, I formatted one of the diskettes using another PC. Same result: error message saying the diskette was not formatted but the PC would then be unable to do so.

On this basis I am inclined to replace the floppy drive.

Click to expand...

If two different floppy drives give you the SAME error, then it is NOT the drive.

When you look at the disks, are both holes in the top corners open or is one closed? -- if there is only one hole in the top corners, then you're trying to format a 720KB disk as a 1.44MB disk.

If both holes are Open, then the disk is write protected and won't format -- close the hole with the slider on it to remove the write protection.

You can try restarting in MS DOS mode and using the DOS format command Format A: /U (Typing "Format ?" will give you full list of paramaters and syntax for the Format command.)

Weird Harold said:

If two different floppy drives give you the SAME error, then it is NOT the drive.

When you look at the disks, are both holes in the top corners open or is one closed? -- if there is only one hole in the top corners, then you're trying to format a 720KB disk as a 1.44MB disk.

If both holes are Open, then the disk is write protected and won't format -- close the hole with the slider on it to remove the write protection.

You can try restarting in MS DOS mode and using the DOS format command Format A: /U (Typing "Format ?" will give you full list of paramaters and syntax for the Format command.)

Click to expand...

I read it to mean that he formatted the floppy on the other pc, then inserted into the suspect one.

MWY, If that is indeed the case, you might try swapping out the bad floppy with one of the ones you know is good, just to be certain it's the drive and not something else with that PC. The good news is that floppies are very inexpensive, as little as 6 or 7 dollars if you are lucky enough to have a good hobbyist-type computer store in your area.

When you get a working disk

Here's the site My boss and I use when we need a boot disk to get a pc to run ghost. These boot disk images work pretty good.

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Or, I can't remember if it is or not, but is your copy of the win 98 CD bootable? If so you could just set your CMOS to boot from CD-ROM and ignore the whole need for a floppy alltogether.

Thanks for the additional thoughts.

I picked up a replacement drive last night and as soon as I can get it to mount in the PC I'll give it a try.

In the meantime, I may try to reset the CMOS to boot from the CD-ROM just in case.

Replaced the floppy drive and was able to make a sytem boot disk with no trouble. Fortatted the hard drive, reinstalled Win98 and essential applications and now everything runs beautifully.

Thanks for the help.