I am totally unfamiliar with W3.1 but was given some 5.25 inch floppies. I have a machine with a 5.25 inch drive and W3.1 but I can't get it to read the files on the disks. I used the "properties" feature to see drive "B" and select "all files" but when I select a file to read I get a message that there is no common point for that file. Exactly how do I access/read files from a 5.25 inch floppy? Thanx

"no common point" That's a new one on me. Try this: chkdsk b: /v ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

Sure the floppies are even formatted for DOS?... At the height of the boom of 5.25" floppies there were a lot of different operating systems still around...

Sure - they weren't proprietary to Win31, that was 'state of the art' so anything from a Commodore, Mac, PC etc used them. "No common point"? Did you make that up? Try the Windows file manager (instead of 'properties'?) As well, those disks came in different densities, as did the drives I'm not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn't need an interpreter

As the previous posters have mentioned, the first thing is what is the source of the floppy, did it even come from an IBM compatible system? Early floppy disks came in many configurations, First sides, single or double, next density, standard, double, quad, high, then sectoring, soft or hard; if hard, number of sectors. Is your drive capable of reading/writing the floppy? Is you system capable of reading the floppy? Besides IBM, some possible systems are Apple, Commodore, Radio Shack, CP/M, Atari. Then some machines used different formats over it's life span. We are back to the first hurdle. Where did the floppies come from, and what is supposedly on them?

There are 2 types of 5.25 floppies: 360K and 1.2M. The 1.2M ones will not work on a 360K drive. The way to tell is the notches on the floppies. The 1.2M ones have one notch on each side. The only way to tell with a drive is to open up your box and have a look at it. It should bewritten down as to whether it is 1.2 or 360K. Another question is whether you have a 3.5" and a 5.25" or just a 5.25" floppy.

... which has been covered repeatedly prior to your posting (but thanks for playing) I've yet to see one where it was "bewritten down", but nearly always the low density drives were black. "Another question is... Gosh, yes, enquiring minds need to know Another abandoned post, and fair game for the 'peanut gallery' I'm not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn't need an interpreter