floppy disks

[Katherine]

When I upgraded my Windows ME to XP, I cannot open my
floppy disks now. It tells me the disks do not have the
correct address and that they need to be formatted. These
disks have data on them, so I cannot re-format them. I
cannot read my floppy disks, nor can I save anything on
them. Can anyone help me? Thank-you.

[Jim Macklin]

Older floppy drives seem to have a problem with XP. You
might do one of several things,

1. Take your floppies to a friend who has both a CD burner
and a floppy drive and copy each floppy into a folder on his
hard drive (create a folder for this) and then once all the
floppies are copied to the hard drive (1 CD worth = to ~450
floppies), copy the folder to a CD and delete the folder.
2. Spend about $15-20 and buy a new floppy drive, floppy
drives are mechanical and do go out of tolerance. XP seems
to be more critical in this respect.


"Katherine" > wrote in message
...
| When I upgraded my Windows ME to XP, I cannot open my
| floppy disks now. It tells me the disks do not have the
| correct address and that they need to be formatted. These
| disks have data on them, so I cannot re-format them. I
| cannot read my floppy disks, nor can I save anything on
| them. Can anyone help me? Thank-you.

[Jim Macklin]

Older floppy drives seem to have a problem with XP. You
might do one of several things,

1. Take your floppies to a friend who has both a CD burner
and a floppy drive and copy each floppy into a folder on his
hard drive (create a folder for this) and then once all the
floppies are copied to the hard drive (1 CD worth = to ~450
floppies), copy the folder to a CD and delete the folder.
2. Spend about $15-20 and buy a new floppy drive, floppy
drives are mechanical and do go out of tolerance. XP seems
to be more critical in this respect.


"Katherine" > wrote in message
...
| When I upgraded my Windows ME to XP, I cannot open my
| floppy disks now. It tells me the disks do not have the
| correct address and that they need to be formatted. These
| disks have data on them, so I cannot re-format them. I
| cannot read my floppy disks, nor can I save anything on
| them. Can anyone help me? Thank-you.

[E.P. van Westendorp]

There are that many Windows XP users having a problem with floppies that
I think there is a problem with the way Windows XP handles floppies.

Sometimes indeed a new drive seems to cure a problem.
But it's strange when people run Windows XP on the same computer with
the same floppy drive they used to run an older Windows version on
suddenly get problems.

Apart from the fact XP does support less floppy formats (KB Article
309623) XP also seems to require the presence of the "Media Descriptor
Byte" in the bootsector like Windows NT (KB Article 140060).

I think MS rewrote the floppy driver and introduced that way the
problems some people have.

--

Eric P. van Westendorp Tel: +31(0252)210579
Reigerslaan 22 2215NN Voorhout Netherlands

Jim Macklin wrote:
> Older floppy drives seem to have a problem with XP. You
> might do one of several things,
>
> 1. Take your floppies to a friend who has both a CD burner
> and a floppy drive and copy each floppy into a folder on his
> hard drive (create a folder for this) and then once all the
> floppies are copied to the hard drive (1 CD worth = to ~450
> floppies), copy the folder to a CD and delete the folder.
> 2. Spend about $15-20 and buy a new floppy drive, floppy
> drives are mechanical and do go out of tolerance. XP seems
> to be more critical in this respect.
>
>
> "Katherine" > wrote in message
> ...
> | When I upgraded my Windows ME to XP, I cannot open my
> | floppy disks now. It tells me the disks do not have the
> | correct address and that they need to be formatted. These
> | disks have data on them, so I cannot re-format them. I
> | cannot read my floppy disks, nor can I save anything on
> | them. Can anyone help me? Thank-you.
>
>

[E.P. van Westendorp]

There are that many Windows XP users having a problem with floppies that
I think there is a problem with the way Windows XP handles floppies.

Sometimes indeed a new drive seems to cure a problem.
But it's strange when people run Windows XP on the same computer with
the same floppy drive they used to run an older Windows version on
suddenly get problems.

Apart from the fact XP does support less floppy formats (KB Article
309623) XP also seems to require the presence of the "Media Descriptor
Byte" in the bootsector like Windows NT (KB Article 140060).

I think MS rewrote the floppy driver and introduced that way the
problems some people have.

--

Eric P. van Westendorp Tel: +31(0252)210579
Reigerslaan 22 2215NN Voorhout Netherlands

Jim Macklin wrote:
> Older floppy drives seem to have a problem with XP. You
> might do one of several things,
>
> 1. Take your floppies to a friend who has both a CD burner
> and a floppy drive and copy each floppy into a folder on his
> hard drive (create a folder for this) and then once all the
> floppies are copied to the hard drive (1 CD worth = to ~450
> floppies), copy the folder to a CD and delete the folder.
> 2. Spend about $15-20 and buy a new floppy drive, floppy
> drives are mechanical and do go out of tolerance. XP seems
> to be more critical in this respect.
>
>
> "Katherine" > wrote in message
> ...
> | When I upgraded my Windows ME to XP, I cannot open my
> | floppy disks now. It tells me the disks do not have the
> | correct address and that they need to be formatted. These
> | disks have data on them, so I cannot re-format them. I
> | cannot read my floppy disks, nor can I save anything on
> | them. Can anyone help me? Thank-you.
>
>

[Liam Devlin]

E.P. van Westendorp wrote:
> There are that many Windows XP users having a problem with floppies that
> I think there is a problem with the way Windows XP handles floppies.
>
> Sometimes indeed a new drive seems to cure a problem.
> But it's strange when people run Windows XP on the same computer with
> the same floppy drive they used to run an older Windows version on
> suddenly get problems.
>
> Apart from the fact XP does support less floppy formats (KB Article
> 309623) XP also seems to require the presence of the "Media Descriptor
> Byte" in the bootsector like Windows NT (KB Article 140060).

Win XP *is* Win NT, so no surprise there.

[Liam Devlin]

E.P. van Westendorp wrote:
> There are that many Windows XP users having a problem with floppies that
> I think there is a problem with the way Windows XP handles floppies.
>
> Sometimes indeed a new drive seems to cure a problem.
> But it's strange when people run Windows XP on the same computer with
> the same floppy drive they used to run an older Windows version on
> suddenly get problems.
>
> Apart from the fact XP does support less floppy formats (KB Article
> 309623) XP also seems to require the presence of the "Media Descriptor
> Byte" in the bootsector like Windows NT (KB Article 140060).

Win XP *is* Win NT, so no surprise there.

[E.P. van Westendorp]

Yes, but I think people didn't have much trouble with a floppy in NT.
Maybe when more people do some real trouble shooting we will know why XP
so many times fails when using a floppy that works on another computer
or in another O/S.
I'm sure it's often not a defective drive or wrong connected cable some
people suggest is the reason.

--

Eric P. van Westendorp Tel: +31(0252)210579
Reigerslaan 22 2215NN Voorhout Netherlands

Liam Devlin wrote:
> E.P. van Westendorp wrote:
>
>> There are that many Windows XP users having a problem with floppies
>> that I think there is a problem with the way Windows XP handles floppies.
>>
>> Sometimes indeed a new drive seems to cure a problem.
>> But it's strange when people run Windows XP on the same computer with
>> the same floppy drive they used to run an older Windows version on
>> suddenly get problems.
>>
>> Apart from the fact XP does support less floppy formats (KB Article
>> 309623) XP also seems to require the presence of the "Media Descriptor
>> Byte" in the bootsector like Windows NT (KB Article 140060).
>
>
> Win XP *is* Win NT, so no surprise there.
>

[E.P. van Westendorp]

Yes, but I think people didn't have much trouble with a floppy in NT.
Maybe when more people do some real trouble shooting we will know why XP
so many times fails when using a floppy that works on another computer
or in another O/S.
I'm sure it's often not a defective drive or wrong connected cable some
people suggest is the reason.

--

Eric P. van Westendorp Tel: +31(0252)210579
Reigerslaan 22 2215NN Voorhout Netherlands

Liam Devlin wrote:
> E.P. van Westendorp wrote:
>
>> There are that many Windows XP users having a problem with floppies
>> that I think there is a problem with the way Windows XP handles floppies.
>>
>> Sometimes indeed a new drive seems to cure a problem.
>> But it's strange when people run Windows XP on the same computer with
>> the same floppy drive they used to run an older Windows version on
>> suddenly get problems.
>>
>> Apart from the fact XP does support less floppy formats (KB Article
>> 309623) XP also seems to require the presence of the "Media Descriptor
>> Byte" in the bootsector like Windows NT (KB Article 140060).
>
>
> Win XP *is* Win NT, so no surprise there.
>