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Floppy Drive problem with XP Pro

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6 replies

by jshelton444

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Every time I insert a floppy disk into drive A: to read a disk, XP wants to format the disk and not read it. Even when I put in a blank formatted floppy disk XP still wants to format the disk. How can I correct this problem so I can read my floppydisks?

6 replies

by ann777

Sounds like you have a bad floppy drive. It's obviously powered, but it's not "seeing" data on the floppy for whatever reason.

Have you tried cleaning the floppy drive with one of those floppy cleaners? Maybe the heads are dirty.

Have you tried the same floppy in another IBM clone computer? Apple-based floppies will not automatically read or be recognized in an IBM type of computer. Which would explain why it tries to format the floppy.

by ann777

If the floppies work in other similar computer, but not in yours, then your floppy drive is bad or the software is not working properly with the floppy drive.

Did it work before now? Did anything happen recently to change this?

by jshelton444

The problem has recently started, it hasn't always done this. My friend also has XP Pro and he cannot read floppies either, it wants to format the disks and not read them. I've swapped out the floppy drive so it isn't a hardware problem it is an XP problem. I've also checked to make sure the floppy drive is set to 1.44 in the BIOS, so that not the problem either.

by thechas

Every time that I have had floppy drive problems in Windows, it turns out to be a driver problem.

Find or create a bootable floppy.
Can you boot from the floppy drive?
This is the simplest way to check all of the hardware in the system.

If you cannot boot from a floppy, replace the cable, and then check ALL the BIOS settings.

If you can boot, then the hardware works.

Start by installing the latest drivers for your motherboard.

If you are still having problems, delete the floppydrive, and controller from device manager.
Shut down, reboot (make sure that the switch to report new floppy drives to windows is enabled in BIOS settings)

Chas

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