Floppy disks not working at all since SP2

External Since: Mar 02, 2005 Posts: 1

Hello.

The following is true for three systems that I use - one is mine, the
other two belong to a friend, but I do the admin for them. Please read
this information thoroughly to avoid asking me questions to which I've
already provided the answers:

- O.S. is XP-Home (yes...all three are legal)
- Floppy disks worked BEFORE installing SP2
- Floppy disks have not worked at all SINCE installing SP2
- Everything else works fine
- In my recent testing, I have tried:

- Floppies that have worked before
- Floppies that are brand new from a box from which I had used
disks before
- Floppies that are brand new from a previously unopened box
- Reading old floppies (XP says the disks are not formatted and
asks if I wish to format them
- Writing to old floppies (same as above)
- Formatting old or new floppies (the progress bar never proceeds,
but after a short wait, Windows says it is unable to complete the
format)

- It has been several weeks since the SP2 installation, but we hadn't
needed to try the floppies until now (ironically, we're trying to
create a boot disk for someone else's damaged NT system)
- The drives have been cleaned, etc.
- The Device Manager does not show any problems with the hardware or
the drivers (which are all up-to-date).
- No viruses or spyware are detected on any of the systems, and all
are running the latest versions of ZoneAlarm-Pro, Ad-Aware, and
SpyBot, and are fully updated.

Thanks!
--Rob

--
labradors

External Since: Feb 11, 2005 Posts: 63

labradors wrote:
> Hello.
>
> The following is true for three systems that I use - one is mine, the
> other two belong to a friend, but I do the admin for them. Please
> read this information thoroughly to avoid asking me questions to
> which I've already provided the answers:
>
>
> - O.S. is XP-Home (yes...all three are legal)
> - Floppy disks worked BEFORE installing SP2
> - Floppy disks have not worked at all SINCE installing SP2
> - Everything else works fine
> - In my recent testing, I have tried:
>
> - Floppies that have worked before
> - Floppies that are brand new from a box from which I had used
> disks before
> - Floppies that are brand new from a previously unopened box
> - Reading old floppies (XP says the disks are not formatted and
> asks if I wish to format them
> - Writing to old floppies (same as above)
> - Formatting old or new floppies (the progress bar never proceeds,
> but after a short wait, Windows says it is unable to complete the
> format)
>
> - It has been several weeks since the SP2 installation, but we hadn't
> needed to try the floppies until now (ironically, we're trying to
> create a boot disk for someone else's damaged NT system)
> - The drives have been cleaned, etc.
> - The Device Manager does not show any problems with the hardware or
> the drivers (which are all up-to-date).
> - No viruses or spyware are detected on any of the systems, and all
> are running the latest versions of ZoneAlarm-Pro, Ad-Aware, and
> SpyBot, and are fully updated.
>
> Thanks!
> --Rob

SP2's irrelevant. The floppy drive is probably shot. I gave up using one
years ago - buy a pen drive. 1GB for £50 - that's 730 floppies' worth of
storage in a unit smaller than a highlighter - and a helluva lot cheaper!
Allowing 20p per floppy (not out of the way) that's £146 (nearly three times
as much). I've even bought pen drives for my parents - and they're
technosaurs! Now they can't manage without them! There are many good reasons
to ditch the floppy: -

- Price
- Reliability (those things are tough! PC Format, here in the UK, boiled,
whacked with golf clubs, drove over, gave them to the Editor's dog (GSDs
aren't gentle!) sent them through the washer (40°C long spin) and dryer
(80°C high for an hour) and of the five - and, astonishingly, three were
still read/writable at the end!) You couldn't do that with a floppy! It
wouldn't get past the first hurdle).
- Capacity
- Size (where would you store all those floppies?)
- Portability
- Truly plug and play
The floppy is dead! Long live the pen drive!

--
Facon - the artificial bacon bits you get in Pizza Hut for sprinkling
on salads.