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After a recent XP Home update, 3.5 floppy disks no longer are compatable with WIN 95. All text data backup from WIN 95 can not be accessed. How do I get XP Home to read WIN 95 formatted 3.5 floppy disks?
I doubt the update did that but you can try a system restore point if you want to return to a time when it worked. See help and support pages on system restore point.
"Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10
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I believe xp and 95 use different formats on floppy disk.
Haven't looked but I bet there is a free utility than will allow xp to open and read a 95 formatted floppy........
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RN4 & RN5:
XP & 95 "once upon a time" used the same floppy format. I regularly used the 3.5 [either size] to exchange ASCII or WordPerfect files between machines. Now XP won't read 95 formatted disks and 95 won't read XP disks.
I believe that MicroSoft "broke the XP-95 floppy link" with malice of forethought, as opposed to unintended consequences when a programer was adding "lace frills" to the XP system. That makes me not to happy with MS.
RN5 - I'm here looking for a lead to that utility. But as an "old guy" [mid seventies who started with FORTRAN IV on a GE 625] I search and move real slow.
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Trvlr [RN7] suggested "compatibility mode" but I thought that was designed to only run programs on systems not orginally designed for them. I never messed with that mode since my "old programs" are daughter of basic and I have DOS behind WIN95 and my output is in ASCII text formats.
Which gets us back to the 3.5 disk format. Will "compatibility mode" bridge disk format variations? I doubt it but don't have the capability to check it out.
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It has to do with the media descriptor on the floppy. If you do a Google search for "media descriptor" you will get lots of info on the subject. Unfortunately you may not get the answer you were looking for.
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mmm - Not sure re' compatablility mode; but as all you do is inert/select that option while the OS is running as per norm, I can't see as it would hurt to test/see? Either it duz wot U want or it duzn't...?
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The format of a floppy has not changed.
The only oddity would be that 95 used compression but xp would not have supported it by default that I know of.
Where the floppies saved with drivespace?
"Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10
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Problem RESOLVED. I did NOT try again after last weeks auto update of XP, but based on TRVLR's advise try ...
I discovered tha the XP would read the 3.5 floppy that it rejected last month as "not formatted." So, my guess is that what ever MS did the "undone" it. Thanks to the handfull of folks that gave me advise.
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