I am using XP. The (external) USB floppy was given to me, and I was told that any disk that he put in it, the "This disk is not formatted....would you like to format the disk" prompt comes up.

I tried it...and The computer reads it fine. Under My computer it reads the 2nd floppy drive (I have one in my tower). I put in a disk in the USB floppy and sure enough i get that same message. To test it I put the same disk into the floppy in my tower and it reads fine (I can open up a window that is of that disk).

I tried putting in a different disk into the USB floppy, and same thing happend--> i get the prompt.

Is it hooped, or is there something i can do...cleaner, an option.....help!

Seems pretty obvious the drive is bad.

Life is more painless for those who are brainless.

Ya, that is what i thought...I tried checking up the properties, and foolin around a little bit with it but to no avail...just wanted to make sure i left no stone unturned...thanks

It sounds like the heads on the External floppy have gotten knocked of of alignment. I personnally haven't seen an External floppy drive but I assume it is just like any other external drive in that there is an enclosure containing a standard 3 1/2" 1.44MB floppy disk drive. If this is the case you should be able to just buy a new floppy drive and fit it into the enclosure. Should cost $10/$12 with shipping. Try Newegg.com.

Ya I have never seen anything like it either....it is made by IBM and they call it a Portable Diskette drive. It is all one pice, so i do not know if you can take anything out of it...I'll try the site though...thanks!

For that matter, if you really wanted an external floppy drive, you could purchase another one - they are not that expensive. Check out the following at newegg.com.

-- 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

ok, so from what I understand:

- You recieved a usb IBM external floppy I have one at work, they are neat.
- you plugged it into the computer, and the computer recognizes it.
- You place a floppy into the external drive and it says that it wants to format it.
- you place the same floppy into your desktop floppy drive and it reads it fine.
- you place a floppy in the external drive and hit format and now the external drive reads the floppy fine.
- the formatted external floppy will not work in the desktop floppy drive without being reformatted.

please correct if any of the assumptions are incorrect.

From this, I would suggest looking at the density of the floppy disk, either being a single or double density disk. It is possible that the computer reader is a double and the external is a single density reader.

Also, although very unlikely to cause problems, is to make sure that bios is set to have two floppy disks. I remember there being a setting like that in my bios.

Hope that helps!
George

Please respond after you have solved your problem to notify who helped you and what solved the problem. Both sides benefit when you do.

The external would not be single density. This format hasn't been used in 10 years. USB floppies don't need BIOS settings unless you are attempting to boot to it and the BIOS allows that.

ok. I know that the digital camera that we have at work, which uses floppy disks, doesn't work with double density disks, which is why I thought of it.

Please respond after you have solved your problem to notify who helped you and what solved the problem. Both sides benefit when you do.

ssjheero

I used your terminology but in actuality there are no single density 3.5" floppy disks, to my knowledge. The 720KB capacity were called DD (double density). I believe this was done because at that time 5 1/4" disks were still in use and there were 360KB disks out there, so the 720KB would be double that. The current common 3 1/2" floppy is 1.44MB, which is HD (high density). There was a period when 2.88MB were pushed but never really caught on.

ok, thanks for clearing it up.

Please respond after you have solved your problem to notify who helped you and what solved the problem. Both sides benefit when you do.

Well..you got everything right up until
"- you place a floppy in the external drive and hit format and now the external drive reads the floppy fine."

I try and format the disk, and there is an error formatting. And for the most part, I do not want to format every disk that I pop into it, cause I might have some information on there that I do not want deleted...

ok. then I would agree with OtheHill and say that the headers are not working, or that the drive is not going to work.

Hope that helps.

Please respond after you have solved your problem to notify who helped you and what solved the problem. Both sides benefit when you do.

Thanks to all who responded...greatly appreciated!!!!