Formatting diskettes

There's two types of formatted diskettes. One for IBM type of computers; one for Apple computers. Usually you will see 2 MB on the Mac floppies.

If your computer says reads they are not formattable, then there may be a problem with your floppy drive. Try one of them in another computer.

If they work in another computer, then replace your floppy drive.

Preformatted diskettes would normally work on your system, however there are some things that you should check. First do you know for sure that your diskette drive works? try a know working floppy in the drive to see if you can read it. If you cannot, there may be something wrong with the drive or cable. Try to format one of the new floppies and see if it works. if it does then your drive may be a bit touchy and you will have better success if the floppy is formatted in your drive then on another computer. Floppy drives are relatively inexpensive > $30.00 should you need to replace it. Hope this helps.

One other thing to check is the bios setting, if the floppy is listed as a 1.2 meg (5 1/4) drive it will cause the described error.

See the following site for reference
http://floppyutil.sourceforge.net/net/man/floppy.html

Using the DOS command prompt,insert floppy and use command format A:\

Check the Floppy drive with another disk to see if it is working properly
OpenMy Computer on the desk top
Insert floppy in A:drive
Richt-click on the floppy drive and select format from the list,if this gives an error,then open Device Manager and see if their is a Exclamation mark besides the Floppy drive controller,then proceed to troubleshoot,if working properly

Check the label on the floppies itself and make sure it is IBM compatible and not MAC,to which you may have gotten the wrong disk rather than a box would be defective,if you got them from a computer store then return the box of diskettes to store.

It could be your floppy drive. Go back to the store and ask them to try to use the disks. Put them into one of their computers and try to read them and copy info to it and back. If it is your floppy drive you can buy one for less then 5 bucks on line so dont buy one from them unless you need it now. Because they will charge you $15 to $25 for a new one.

Your floppy drive's going out. As the other person said try the disks in another computer.

Replace the floppy drive. If you buy online you'll have to use your credit card and pay for shipping. Go to a computer store and buy a drive, not that big of a deal.

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