Hi. I'm very ignorant about computers, so I'm calling out to the experts. I have two computers with Windows XP and Word 2000. I've always been able to transfer data through disks in drive A. Lately, either computer is likely to say that there is no disk in the drive, that the disk is not formatted, or that it can't be read and I should contact the system administrator. I'm using Staples IBM formatted disks--the Staples salesman suggested they were formatted for Macs and not for my computer's specifications. I tried formatting them on my computer, but it has made no difference. Any suggestions?
Drive A won't read disk
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Have you tried cleaning the heads? If you use your floppies quite a bit and don't clean the heads occasionally they eventually stop working. You can get head cleaner disks at most places which carry floppies. You just put a drop of cleaning solution on the disk and then insert it in the drive and have the computer try to read from it. It cleans the gunk off of the heads. If the drives have serious problems then you can always replace the floppy drive. They only cost $10 at the right places so they're only a few bucks more expensive than the head cleaner disks.
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Hello and welcome to TSF
If you are getting the same response from two different computers I would think the most likely issue is one of faulty disks.
Have you tried some of your older disks that were recorded and in use when everything worked well?
Also, do a right click on My Computer then select Properties>Hardware tab>Device manager ... see if you have any yellow alerts showing.
If you double click on the line that refers to 'floppy drives' you can check out whether things seem ok - it might be worth just running through the driver update procedure - it will probably say something like 'the current driver is the most suitable available', but that's ok.
If the computer(s) have been dismantled recently, make sure the floppy cables are connected the right way around.
Try the above and let us know how things are.
Peter
If you are getting the same response from two different computers I would think the most likely issue is one of faulty disks.
Have you tried some of your older disks that were recorded and in use when everything worked well?
Also, do a right click on My Computer then select Properties>Hardware tab>Device manager ... see if you have any yellow alerts showing.
If you double click on the line that refers to 'floppy drives' you can check out whether things seem ok - it might be worth just running through the driver update procedure - it will probably say something like 'the current driver is the most suitable available', but that's ok.
If the computer(s) have been dismantled recently, make sure the floppy cables are connected the right way around.
Try the above and let us know how things are.
Peter
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You can buy a 128MB USB memory key for as little as $10.
Buy one and you will never have to worry about floppy disks ever again. They are also a more stable medium than floppys to store data, and the copy speed is faster too.
128MB USB key = 88 Floppy disks
Note: Make sure your win 2000 machine has USB. It should do, but you never know.
Buy one and you will never have to worry about floppy disks ever again. They are also a more stable medium than floppys to store data, and the copy speed is faster too.
128MB USB key = 88 Floppy disks
Note: Make sure your win 2000 machine has USB. It should do, but you never know.
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