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I get that message "Disk not formatted" on all my 3.5" floppy disks, even the ones that used to read just fine. In fact, I get this message each and every time no matter what disk I put in my floppy drive. Additionally, I get the same message when trying to access any zip disks on my zip drive (even when I know in fact they have data on them!). I use windows xp home edition service pack 2. Also, when I do try to format a floppy disk, I get a message saying windows cannot complete the format??... stupid f---ing windows! It's messin with me I tell yah!
I looked in the device manager and it says the drive is installed correctly / working fine. I also tried updating the driver, but windows said I already have the best driver.
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Hi sspamer.
I had a simmilar problem as yours, and it was as suggested above. The A:/ drive was stuffed!
Windows recognised that the drive was present but the drive did not recognise the disk when it was inserted.
Replaced it for a few a few dollars and now all is hunky dory. Can you lay your hands on another one to try that?
Regards
Thinking hurts my head that's why I live in West Australia
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Well, I have considered getting a new one, but what bothers me most is the fact my floppy drive & zip drive worked fine before, but now they just wont read the disks, it just gives the stupid messaged I mentioned. I didn't install any new programs or add any new hardware recently; no system changes, and the problem arose out of nowhere.
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The device manager report that the FDD is working only means the electronics is. It has no way of knowing whether the heads can read or write anything.
And I would lose the ZIP drive.
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
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Haha, I know most people don't use zip disks anymore (and they never really did), but I just have some old ones with important files on them.
OK! So most important update:
I got my zip drive to work. The solution?: install the latest "iomegaware" This took me a long time to find this solution, but it was pretty simple.. winxp wouldn't let me use the drive even though the computer recognized it's existence. Just go to iomega.com and look for the latest iomegaware for your devices!!
Lesson learned: upgrade often!
Regarding the floppy disk drive: still working on it...
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New question... why would a drive read a disk just fine when the disk is in the drive before & during the startup of the computer when it wont read that same disk if it's not in the drive at this time and when I can remove the exact same disk, after just looking at its contents, putting it back in the drive and getting that message "disk not formatted?" This is weird behaviour.
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did you try response #1 and uninstall the present driver in the device manager then reboot in safe mode and let windows redetect and reinstall the driver ?
An old used (but still working)floppy drive is pretty cheap at any comp. repair and sales shop just a couple of buck's so if it is screwed ...
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I just tried safe mode and magically everything works fine. What does safe mode do really? & why would normal boot mode not allow my disk drives to work properly?
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I can't tell you in any great detail, but my take on safe mode is that it loads fewer drivers.
One of the drivers that loads in normal mode is evidently clobbering the FDD interface.
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
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Go to device manager and see which IRQ the FDD uses; then see what other driver is using the same IRQ.
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
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I've tried looking at the IRQs and the only one that shares multiple devices is IRQ 11, which the floppy drive is not using (its IRQ is 06). I have also looked in safemode and it shows all devices working properly, no exclamation points next to anything, nor any other indicators of something wrong.
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" I have also looked in safemode and it shows all devices working properly, no exclamation points next to anything, nor any other indicators of something wrong."
I suppose you've done the same in normal mode.
I think you're down to Easter egging your way through everything that loads at startup.
Tedious, I know.
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
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Yeah, I looked over the device manager in normal mode too. Same thing - no obvious problems. Also, I've tried using the msconfig thing and doing selective startup. I didn't load anything but the critical stuff and chose not to load any programs at startup. I also disabled everything in the the win.ini and the system.ini. I am clueless what the problem is.
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You might try another FDD. It may simply be that the "timimg" of that FDD in that box with your particular drivers [video, NIC, etc] is close enough to get tripped up.
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
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Is there some kind of program that will show me all the drivers that start when I boot in normal mode, so I can try to pinpoint the problem? Also, do you think if I tried updating all the drivers on my computer, if that would help? (I can go down the list in the device manager and try to update whatever I can)
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One, there are several but I have not used them. Look at some of the links on this site. Belarc Advisor comes to mind.
Two; I doubt it.
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
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Hi, I think that program simply tells me about all the software installed, it doesn't seem to tell me what starts when windows does.
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I had an idea, tell me what you think: buy a new IDE controller on a PCI card and hook up my drives to that. Then problem would be solved right?
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Yet another idea: The drivers used in win xp is stored in the system32 folder right? Why not just overwrite it's contents with a fresh new system32 folder? I would think this could solve my problem, with the addition of having windows to re-detect other hardware.
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Update:
Okay, well, I ran several different virus scanners and adware/spyware removers on my computer and now magically the drives work fine in normal boot mode. I've tested it a few times to be sure and seems to be fine now! However, there's a new problem, I can't access the "services." I mean I try to start it and some error message flashes on the screen and the program just terminates, I can't see the problem. I think it said something about "explorer.exe"
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