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XP Home will not format floppy disks in a 1.44 A drive and will only
intermittently recognise disks with data from a different machine. The
disks themselves are fine.
Knowledge Base Article 309623 says that Windows XP supports formatting
only the 1.44MB disk format. Three-mode floppy drives (drives that are
capable of reading/writing with 720KB, 1.2MB and 1.44MB 3.5" disks)
requires special driver support, and support for this feature is not
included in Windows XP.


So -how do I confirm if I have a 3 mode drive? And is there somewhere I
can get a driver to fix this problem?
--
John Dean
Oxford

If want to format only 1.44 mb floppies, I believe it will do it with any
drive, as long as it is commanded to format the 1.44 mb mode only. The
driver would be to allow XP to format disks in the other modes, providing
the floppy drive will support it as well.

I would suggest getting the driver from the manufacture of the floppy drive
you have, rather than downloading and installing something you are not sure
of. Some of the name brand machines may use a version of this driver that is
specific to their hardware interface, and this may not be good in a
different machine.

If I am correct, the floppy in my machine is a standard off-the-shelf 3.5
inch LG. I have never tried it in any other mode, but this would be
interesting.

If you do the command FORMAT /? , you should get the format instructions. By
default, XP performance with the floppy, is exactly what you say it is.



--

Jerry G. GLG Technologies GLG
==========================


"John Dean" <john-> wrote in message
news:cg60c1$no9$...
XP Home will not format floppy disks in a 1.44 A drive and will only
intermittently recognise disks with data from a different machine. The
disks themselves are fine.
Knowledge Base Article 309623 says that Windows XP supports formatting
only the 1.44MB disk format. Three-mode floppy drives (drives that are
capable of reading/writing with 720KB, 1.2MB and 1.44MB 3.5" disks)
requires special driver support, and support for this feature is not
included in Windows XP.


So -how do I confirm if I have a 3 mode drive? And is there somewhere I
can get a driver to fix this problem?
--
John Dean
Oxford

I had same problem. I tried formatting then it would fail, then I'd
try and read it and it would ask me to format it.

I bought a new cable and that worked, i think. The same day I blew it
up. I connected the power lead wrong and it started smokin. I then
had to buy a new floppy. So realy could be both. I'd go with new
cable though. it's about fifty pee cheeper, lol.

The disks that faild to format, formatted when new cable and floppy
were instaled. They work fine and still do.

Hope this has helped.

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