floppy-disk are only formattting 642kb

Are these new disks?

Ultimately, you can try /a:512 <-- this is the allocation size command and sets it to the default of 512.

Make sure the disks weren't used in Mac Classic systems, and that they are not the original 3.5" floppy disks with a 720KB capacity. Or that they haven't been formatted under unix or some other file system format. Make sure they have not been used in a digital camera either...

You might ask her to do a chkdsk a: and report the specifications it returns. It may be that they floppies have bad sectors on them as well.

Try and check if you can read an 1.44MB floppy disk which is known to be good.

Also look for the bios settings of the floppy drive. Is it configured as 1.44MB? Or is it another value? To get into the bios of the system depends on the hardware you got, but you should see it when you boot the system. It's DEL, F1, F2, F10 or something.

But my guess it's a rotten floppy drive. So, if you can, put another floppy drive in the system and try again to format

as you know, 1.44MB disks have two holes, one in each corner and 640MB disks have one hole only.
trying to read a known good 1.44mb disk is a great idea. maybe her system has or 'thinks' it has a lo-density 640MB floppy drive. check the bios settings to make sure it is set to 1.44MB for the floppy drive...

sorry i forgot to tell: she exchanged the drive, checked bios. will update soon.

Hi Michael,

Has she tried from both Windows and DOS?

If the problem exists in full DOS mode (floppy boot) then there is a hardware problem.

If it only happens when booting from the hard drive, check for the chip-set drivers for the motherboard, and for any unusual lines in Autoexec, or config.sys

Another possibility, is a virus that is infecting the floppies as they are formatted.

Chas

client tried to save 150 files of 1 to 4kb. problem solved. dont know yet how.