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Thread ID: 41805	2004-01-22 17:18:00	Floppy Drive	JJJJJ (528)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
209347	2004-01-22 17:18:00	For 15 years I have believed that nothing ever goes wrong with a floppy drive. Silly me! My brand new floppy in my brand new computer won't work !!!!Curses!! Insert a disk ,click format, message "insert disk in drive A" or "disk in drive A can not be formatted". No reason given, On rare occasions it goes through the motions of formatting and reports "Format complete" THEN when I try to write to floppy, message. "Disk in drive A not formatted" The drive is mounted properly and the cables are secure and fitted properly. Checked and re-checked. I have tried several disks includeing brand new formatted disks. Will not recognise them or if it does it says they are not formatted and can not format them. I can't see what this has got to do with it, but my hard disk is NTFS and the floppys are FAT. As a point of interest, e-mails to the supplier, PC SALE are ignored. Any ideas. And I do know the way to the tip. Jack	JJJJJ (528)
209348	2004-01-22 18:05:00	I got similar messages on the Familys PC. I tried holding the cable into the back of the FDD (Careful not to touch anything that could send 230v through my body) and it worked... I replaced the FDD with a spare I had (Removed from my PC) and it's been working since. I guess there are just some Dud's out there?! Id suggest you just get a new FDD at PC Sale's expense if its under Warranty :-) Cheers Chill.	Chilling_Silently (228)
209349	2004-01-22 18:27:00	when you first start the puter check the screens you see and one will say something like .............hit del to enter setup......... do this this will take you into the bios setup screens...........when in there just make suere that the floppy is listed as 3&1/2" floppy drive 1.44Mb.......	drcspy (146)
209350	2004-01-23 04:06:00	JJJJJ - I think you might be onto something with the NTFS idea. I'm having the same problem with one PC out of three, all pretty much identical PC's. Swapping floppy drives and/or disks and cables etc. proves that there is nothing wrong with any of the hardware. The only difference between the PC's is that the one that fails to read floppy disks is formatted NTFS hard drive. I've been searching for a solution on many forums for ages, no answers yet. Does this trigger anything for anyone? If it is something to do with NTFS, what could a solution start to look like?	Eorr (2788)
209351	2004-01-23 04:10:00	And check for any other BIOS options ... though if you can Format" disks, it's probably not disabled in the BIOS. I would guess that it's a dud drive. It happens. It might have been dropped,which could misalign the heads enough to stop it working. In the old days, the seller would have tested the floppy by loading an OS.	Graham L (2)
209352	2004-01-23 07:16:00	> As a point of interest, e-mails to the supplier, PC SALE are ignored. If the floppy drive is indeed a dud (it sometimes happens) email them a couple more times then if they still don't reply WRITE them a letter explaining the problem and that your emails have been ignored and tell them you will be buying a replacement elsewhere and sending them the bill. That should move 'em. ;-) PS Don't forget to keep a copy of the letter you send them.	Fire-and-Ice (3910)
209353	2004-01-23 08:37:00	I had this once with a new floppy drive, and the cure was a cleaning disk kit. There is also a dos disk cleaning program that exercises the head in a floppy drive in conjunction with a cleaning disk, and it polishes and burnishes the read/write head. Cleaner2.zip from ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/diskutil/	Terry Porritt (14)
209354	2004-01-26 20:41:00	JJ - I'd be very interested in your solution. Can you please post a folow up when you've got a minute, it may be very helpful to others (me). If you've given up, what did you do? New floppy drive solve the problem? That would explain a lot even.	Eorr (2788)
209355	2004-01-26 22:45:00	I eventualy got a reply from PC Sale. Return the PC to Auckland and enclose $9 for return freight and they will fix or repair. Or take the PC to their Hamilton branch and they will repair it in 20 minutes. I hope you are not all Laughing !!! Solution: I removed the floppy drive and filed it away in the rubbish bag. I installed an old drive that has been sitting on my desk for at least five years. It works fine so it can come out of retirement and continue working. I trust PC Sale aren't waiting to sell me something else. Jack	JJJJJ (528)
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