OT: Can't read a floppy disk

I'm "paying rent" at my mom/dad's place...

When you try to read a floppy disk in the A: drive you get the error, "Please insert a disk into drive A:"

So, I went to Best Buy and bought a new a new floppy disk drive. No help, same error. What else can I try?

Karl

Reply to
Lovilla Townsend
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Does the activity light come on? If not, probably you don't have power to the drive.

The drive cable may be damaged.

Reply to
Jim Stewart

The light comes on when you click on the drive in my computer. I have another cable, I'll try that right now.

Karl

Reply to
Lovilla Townsend

Just changed cables. No Joy

Karl

Reply to
Lovilla Townsend

In article , Lovilla Townsend writes

Doubtless a silly question, but you *have* tried more than one diskette in the drive, right?

Reply to
Nigel Eaton

If you originally wrote the disc contents in another drive, try the original drive if possible.

It seems that there are minute read/write head differences between "standard" floppy drives. The more 'promiscuous' the disk is with regard to how many drives it is used in, the sooner it will fail. I noticed this from using floppies in school PC labs. Often a disk written at home would not read in several of the pc's in the lab, while disks written in those same drives would read at home. Most of the time, the disk would still read fine at home.

hth

StaticsJason

Reply to
StaticsJason

and made sure the bios is set up for the correct disk drive type?

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Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

Worn out or dammaged floppy drives can write "off track" or read "off-track" Back in the days of the 5 1/4" drives I used to align a lot of drive heads, and calibrate a lot of spindle speeds. (back when a drive cost $60 and a dollar bought more than a coffee)

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Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

Oh, yeah. There are "floppy" cables and "hard drive" cables. They look almost identical, but the flip of the several wires is different on the two different types. The floppy cable has the flipped wires very close to the striped (pin 1) end. The hard drive cable has the flipped wires near the un-striped end. (This refers to the older MFM drives, pre IDE. But, the original poster could be trying an MFM cable by mistake.)

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

And the jumpers may not be set properly either. Was more critical on the 720, as it had more jumpers than the 1.44

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Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

Clean the drive with canned air. We have this problem at work quite often due to heavy dust and the canned air usually fixes it.

Shawn

Reply to
Shawn
  1. what OS, what computer? (presume a DOS/Windows machine from the A: notation, but as I recall, apple dos used that also)

  1. what desity drive? what density floppy

  2. does the drive motor run?

  1. if in windows, shell to DOS and try reading with a DOS command (like DIR A:) and report the error message, it's generally more useful

  2. note that windows XP lacks 720K support

Bill

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to contact me, do not reply to this message, instead correct this address and use it

will iam_ b_ No ble at msn daught com

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Reply to
William B Noble (don't reply t
1) A simple check for integrity of the system: reverse the conector on the FDD, if things are ok the LED should be lit continuously. 2) The correct positioning of the cable: red wire towards the mark on the motherboard(or pin no. 1) and towards the power connector on the FDD. 3) Floppy disks have a tendency to fail for not so obvious reasons. Cold might be one of the problems, the slightest grain of dust at the wrong place, etc. When I was using them, I was always making at least two copies every time. 4) Consindering that you're still using floppies, maybe you have also a copy of Norton Disk Doctor (the old one). Might be very helpful. 5) How do you feel about USB flash pens ? Or CD-RW ?
Reply to
Ioan Barladeanu

Probably won't be any joy with a new cable as the disk drive light did light up. First check the BIOS settings (most computers it is hitting the delete button while the computer is doing it's initial tests but that may be another key or key combination and Compaq has a special program that you run instead) and verify that the disk type is correct. Next is to boot to DOS and do the transfer in DOS rather than windoz Odds are that windoz is making a mess of things on it's own account. I've had perfectly good diskettes that windoz won't read but DOS does read.

-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?

Reply to
Bob May

On a box re-cycled from my neighbour, I found the problem by taking the cover off the drive after noticing that a disk wouldn't go all the way into the slot. It seems that four year old Liam had been helping Grand Dad assemble Nanna's new desk when one of the1/4" x ~3" quick assembly screws went missing. Once the extra hardware was extracted, the drive worked fine. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Reply to
Gerald Miller

Staples and various other office supply stores sell Disk Drive cleaners..which is nothing more than a pad that wipes the heads and generally comes with a small bottle of cleaner. I use them daily in smoggy machine shops that tend to get a mist of oil on everything.

However..if all else fails..replace the powersupply. I had an older OmniTurn the other day...replaced every board, mother board, IO card, cables, drive etc etc that failed to read.

It was the AT style powersupply. One of the - lines was dead.

Gunner

"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."

- Proverbs 22:3

Reply to
Gunner

The last pin in the cable (Pin 34)determines if the drive control hardware on your motherboard can detect if there is a floppy inserted, or not:

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If you have a DC voltmeter handy, you can measure between ground and pin 34 using pins taken from an old controller card on the "B" drive connector. When you insert a disk, the voltage on pin 34 should fall below 0.5V. With no disk inserted, you should see more than 3V on that pin.

If not, I would unplug the floppy cable at the motherboard and determine why there does not appear to be a connection between pin 34 and your motherboard.

Look carefully at the four pin power connection. Is it plugged in? Look carefully at pin 34 of the data cable. Corrosion or schmutz on that pin? That just might be the problem.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

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