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cannot read floppies made with w98

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ghawthorn

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Mar 5, 2005, 10:57:36 PM3/5/05
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cannot read floppies made with w98 on my wXP home. Anyone else have that
problem?


--
ghawthorn

no one

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Mar 6, 2005, 12:52:00 AM3/6/05
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Xp and Floppy Drives Donnot Get along.

XP Didnot like any of the 20 Floppy drives I have tried to use
(Different Makes) . I have even tried Know working drives out of
win/me/98/95 Machines.
Work Now But not later , Then Work again..
I think XP has a FLAW in it

Just to clarify, XP on Different Machines and NOT the SAME MAKE or
MODEL motherboards .
NEVER trust XP to Save your Data on Floppies !!! U WILL LOOSE that data

I think this is why HP, Dell, Compaq.E-machine Donnot put a floppy drive
in their new XP machines, It Cuts Down on their TECH SUPPORT PEOPLE
trying to solve it

Colin Barnhorst

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Mar 6, 2005, 1:22:57 AM3/6/05
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Floppies should read OK regardless of the version of Windows they are made
on or read on. There are not different file system formats for floppies
among Windows editions. If I remember right, they are all FAT16. (Maybe
FAT12 even).

Floppy drives generally do not get so far out of alignment that a floppy
drive can only read floppies it has made itself and no others, but I suppose
that can happen.

Just to prove to yourself that XP has no problem reading or writing to a
floppy disk made for Win98, download a Win98 setup floppy from
bootdisk.com.
Save the download floppy file to your desktop. Put a blank floppy in A:
Double click the boot disk icon you downloaded to start the floppy writer
program and the program will write a Windows 98 setup disk in A:. Finally,
open My Computer, right click on the floppy drive icon and select Explore.
You should see items on the floppy. Now take the floppy to the Win98
computer and see if My Computer there can see the same thing.

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Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
"ghawthorn" <ghawthor...@pcbanter.net> wrote in message
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Colin Barnhorst

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Mar 6, 2005, 1:24:55 AM3/6/05
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It sounds to me more like a hardware problem with your computer than with
the operating system. There is no logical reason why Windows XP cannot
handle a floppy drive if the underlying hardware is right. I suspect you
may have a bad floppy controller on your motherboard.

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Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

"no one" <no...@lost.cat> wrote in message
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Rick "Nutcase" Rogers

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Mar 6, 2005, 8:00:16 AM3/6/05
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Floppies use FAT12, regardless of the iteration of Windows.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"Colin Barnhorst" <colinbarharst(nojunk)@msn.com> wrote in message
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Colin Barnhorst

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Mar 6, 2005, 11:33:08 AM3/6/05
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Thanks. It's been awhile since I even thought about it.

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Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
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"Rick "Nutcase" Rogers" <ri...@mvps.org> wrote in message
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Ken Blake

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Mar 6, 2005, 1:23:42 PM3/6/05
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In news:ghawthor...@pcbanter.net,
ghawthorn <ghawthor...@pcbanter.net> typed:

> cannot read floppies made with w98 on my wXP home. Anyone else
> have
> that problem?


Many people do.

Try formatting the floppy under Windows XP then bringing it to
the Windows 98 computer and copying whatever data you want to it.
Then read it on the XP computer. That will likely work.

Also read http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140060 and
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q309623


--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup


Ken Blake

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Mar 6, 2005, 1:31:43 PM3/6/05
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In news:uKm5yxk...@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl,
Rick "Nutcase" Rogers <ri...@mvps.org> typed:

> Floppies use FAT12, regardless of the iteration of Windows.


Yes, but let me add a footnote:

All disks, or partitions smaller than 16MB, use FAT12. Since
standard floppies are smaller than 16MB, they use FAT12, but so
did the old 10MB hard drives found on early PCs.

But the non-standard very large floppies (for example, the LS120
superdisks) that are larger than 16MB use FAT16.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

Colin Barnhorst

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Mar 6, 2005, 1:45:07 PM3/6/05
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Thanks. My first 10mb hard drive is just a vague memory.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
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"Ken Blake" <kbl...@this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in message
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Ken Blake

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Mar 6, 2005, 2:46:01 PM3/6/05
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In news:eA7ulynI...@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl,
Colin Barnhorst <colinbarharst(nojunk)@msn.com> typed:

> Thanks. My first 10mb hard drive is just a vague memory.


You're welcome. My first was 20MB.

Gordon

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Mar 6, 2005, 2:51:05 PM3/6/05
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Ken Blake wrote:
|| In news:eA7ulynI...@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl,
|| Colin Barnhorst <colinbarharst(nojunk)@msn.com> typed:
||
||| Thanks. My first 10mb hard drive is just a vague memory.
||
||
|| You're welcome. My first was 20MB.

The first PC's I used had an A and B drive - no HDD at all!


--
Interim Systems and Management Accounting
Gordon Burgess-Parker
Director
www.gbpcomputing.co.uk


Quaoar

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Mar 6, 2005, 3:03:33 PM3/6/05
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ghawthorn wrote:
> cannot read floppies made with w98 on my wXP home. Anyone else have
> that problem?

Can you read *any* floppies with the drive? If not, it suggests that
the drive has difficulties in XP that is much more precise in what it
expects from a floppy than was Win9x and a new drive is indicated. If
you can read floppies, it suggests that the Win98 floppies are old and
degraded. When did you last access these? If more that one or two
years, they are likely to be degraded.

Q


Colin Barnhorst

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Mar 6, 2005, 3:30:36 PM3/6/05
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I had CP/M machines that came with two 5.25" drives also. Single drive CP/M
machines were...well...an adventure. My Atari 400 came without a floppy
drive at all. It used a cassette player. I added the external floppy drive
(for $400.00) and was amazed at the 88kb storage. I felt the surge of
freedom from having all that space.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

"Gordon" <gord...@yahoo.co.uk.invalid> wrote in message
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Gordon

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Mar 6, 2005, 3:45:07 PM3/6/05
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Colin Barnhorst wrote:
|| I had CP/M machines that came with two 5.25" drives also. Single
|| drive CP/M machines were...well...an adventure. My Atari 400 came
|| without a floppy drive at all. It used a cassette player.

So did the Commodore 64 IIRC!

Colin Barnhorst

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Mar 6, 2005, 4:26:33 PM3/6/05
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I think the C64 floppies were 128kb. The 1541 drive was the only floppy
drive slower than constipation. :)

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Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
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"Gordon" <gord...@yahoo.co.uk.invalid> wrote in message

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Rick "Nutcase" Rogers

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Mar 6, 2005, 5:09:13 PM3/6/05
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Somehow, I just knew that those comments were going to spark a "remember
when" thread.

Me, a Radio Shack T-100 with just a tape drive, keyboard, and monitor. I
spent hours coding in basic just to play 2 minutes worth of a game. Didn't
have blank tapes or anything like a hard drive, so I had to recode everytime
I wanted to do something. As it had speakers and simple sound capabilities,
I spent hours converting rock songs into digital code for electronic
playback (I could read music, and figured out the timing necessary for
converting the various note lengths). You haven't lived until you heard
Judas Priest (the early stuff, before they went mainstream) played back in a
nauseating electronic synthesizer.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"Colin Barnhorst" <colinbarharst(nojunk)@msn.com> wrote in message
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Colin Barnhorst

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Mar 6, 2005, 5:16:20 PM3/6/05
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I was a principal of a school that ran a computer lab network on a TRS 80
based system with a 3mb hard drive. We were in the second half of the year
when the math teacher who ran it asked if I thought it was OK to delete some
of the student files to make more room.

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Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

"Rick "Nutcase" Rogers" <ri...@mvps.org> wrote in message

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Gordon

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Mar 6, 2005, 5:25:37 PM3/6/05
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Colin Barnhorst wrote:
|| I was a principal of a school that ran a computer lab network on a
|| TRS 80 based system with a 3mb hard drive. We were in the second
|| half of the year when the math teacher who ran it asked if I thought
|| it was OK to delete some of the student files to make more room.

We used to run the Bonus scheme at a UK subsidiary of TRW Inc (and very
complicated it was too...) on a Commodore PET........

Colin Barnhorst

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Mar 6, 2005, 6:21:15 PM3/6/05
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The Pet was Commodore's classroom computer before the C64 came along. I
never used one, but the tombstone design facinated me.

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Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
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"Gordon" <gord...@yahoo.co.uk.invalid> wrote in message

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Gene Hora

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Mar 6, 2005, 7:35:03 PM3/6/05
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I had the same problem with 2 XP systems, different floppy manufacturers. I
read a long-time back on this NG a long history of the problem. Essentially
Microsoft KB 309623 says WinXP supports only 1.44MB disk format. 3-mode FD's
capable of reading/writing 720KB, 1.2MB and 1.44MB require special driver
support and support for this feature is not included in Windows XP. See
following:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309623

The writer (and I can't recall who that was) did some exhaustive research
and found a place for a driver. I downloaded that driver and it cured my
no-format problem on the PC that was giving trouble. Now both PCs can format
and read the floppy disks. Driver link (this is a download only):

http://downloads.viaarena.com/WinXPE/Oct02/XPe_3mflp132_v10.zip

Instructions as outlined in the writer's article:

1. Download driver

2. Unzip the driver - extract the file to a folder.

3. Open Windows XP's Device Manager, expand the "Floppy disk controllers"
heading, and double-click the listing for "Standard floppy disk controller."

4. Click the "Driver" tab, then click the "Update Driver" button.

5. Select the "Install from a list or specific location" radio button and
click the "Next" button.

6. Select the"Don't search. I will choose the driver to install." radio
button and click the "Next" button.

7. Click the"Have Disk" button; then, click the"Browse" button. Browse to
the location that you extracted the files to in Step 2 and double-click the
"VIA3MFPY.INF" file. The, click the"OK" button.

8. You should now have "VIA 3-mode floppy controller" highlighted in the
drivers list. Click the "Next" button to begin the driver file copy. Once
the file copy is complete, your floppy disk drive will access 3 times
(checking all 3 "modes"). This is normal. Click the "Finish" button when the
driver installation is complete.

9a. You may, or may not , have a device labeled "Unknown Device" in
the"Other Devices" heading in Device Manager. If so, continue with step 9a.
If not, skip to step 9b. If you have a device labeled "Unknown Device" in
the "Other Devices" heading in Device Manager, right-click on it and select
"Update Driver." Follow steps 5 through 8 to complete the installation of
"Floppy disk drive" (note that the naming of the driver in the drivers list
in step 8 may be different during this step - this is normal). Once you've
click the "Finish" button, continue on to step 10.

9b. If you do not have a device labeled "Unknown Device" in the "Other
Devices" heading in Device Manager, expand the "Floppy disk drives" heading
in Device Manager and double-click the listing for "floppy disk drive."
Follow steps 4 through 8 to complete the installation of "Floppy disk drive"
(note that the naming of the driver in the drivers list in step 8 may be
different during this step - this is normal). Once you've clicked the
"finish" button, continue on to step 10.

10. Reboot your PC. This should let you know if all of your hard work
REALLY paid off. Check the Device Manager one last time to be sure that you
now have the"VIA 3-mode floppy controller listed under the "Floppy disk
controllers" heading. Put a file on a floppy in Win98 (or another non-SP OS)
and you should now be able to access it in Windows XP (and vice-versa)
without issue. You made it!

If this helps anyone, the credit isn't mine -- I wish I could recall the
originator. There was much more background given about his research
including another web site. Unfortunately I only have the printed out
document. If there is any further interest in the entire article I would be
willing to scan and post it.

"ghawthorn" <ghawthor...@pcbanter.net> wrote in message
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>

Sharon F

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Mar 6, 2005, 8:07:46 PM3/6/05
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On Sun, 6 Mar 2005 17:09:13 -0500, Rick "Nutcase" Rogers wrote:

> You haven't lived until you heard
> Judas Priest (the early stuff, before they went mainstream) played back in a
> nauseating electronic synthesizer.

This is just so... "Rick." :)
--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User

Rick "Nutcase" Rogers

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Mar 6, 2005, 9:11:36 PM3/6/05
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<g>

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"Sharon F" <sharo...@ETEmvps.org> wrote in message
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Colin Barnhorst

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Mar 6, 2005, 9:50:49 PM3/6/05
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Great input to the NG!

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

"Gene Hora" <am...@san.rr.com> wrote in message
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Gene Hora

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Mar 7, 2005, 2:38:29 PM3/7/05
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"Colin Barnhorst" <colinbarharst(nojunk)@msn.com> wrote in message
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I managed to find the URL for a message group on which part of the writer's
research was based:

http://discuss.extremetech.com/n/mb/display.asp?webtag=extremetech&msg=21301.1

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