Floppy identified but not recognized

[TECsBrain]

My floppy drive is quirky, as was the last drive I put in this computer. Yet I am doubtful it is anything related to my motherboard. Read on...

I should first point out that I'm using a Gateway Profile 3 -- this means that I have a laptop floppy drive, a Teac FD-05HG "slim jim".

Now, in My Computer, my A: drive is listed. That means that Windows sees the drive. Device Manager reports that the device is working properly. That is perceived to mean that there isn't a problem with the device, but we know how smart Device Manager is.

I will admit that the drive is not being read in Mandrake Linux or at boot either, but I still want to blame Windows because when I bought a replacement drive (after I thought damage I had done had caused a problem with the old one) and installed it, it worked fine for awhile.

Any insight from anyone?

 

[Pyg]

Have you checked the drive in the BIOS? Turn off any PNP options in the BIOS (since you are using Linux).

Make sure the drive is the first boot device in the BIOS and try a known good floppy boot disk.

You said that Windows reports the drive as being ready and working. Is this true? Have you attempted to read a floppy in Windows?

Is this a dual boot system?

 

[TECsBrain]

You misunderstood, probably because I didn't make it all too easy to understand

I use Windows XP Pro as my primary OS, on an HD shared with Mandrake Linux in another partition (dual-boot system). I have attempted to read floppies in Windows -- the drive "makes noise" but then I get "Please insert disk into drive A". I have gone through four floppies that have all been used at some point or another, but just got a hunch to try some from another part of the house in case these all hit a magnet somewhere.

Update: I have opened the "chassis" of the system, looked around, did absolutely nothing, put the cover back on, and now I get a bit more functionality from the system. Now I get "The disk in drive A is not formatted", then when I go to Quick Format, I get "This disk cannot be quick formatted". When I deselect this option, I get "The disk is write-protected", which it isn't (this is what convinced me to try floppies from the other side of the house, as I said above).

 

[TECsBrain]

Ok, I tried another disk -- no go. Same problem, same frustration. I hope this doesn't turn out to be a hardware problem, because I already fixed a hardware problem by replacing the drive...unless it's something on the motherboard, which, being in a Gateway Profile 3, ain't real easy to replace.

 

[diogenes10]

I dont know enough about laptop floppies to know if the cable/pinout is different than a desktop. If it is not, you could try the drive in another (desktop) system and see if you get the same kind of problems. Also, really remote, but it wouldnt hurt to try a different cable, and even more remote, a different power supply connector.

 

[franklin97355]

Seems to me that if the drive can't be used in XP and Linux it's hardware and not software.

 

[edfair]

There is a difference between detecting a drive and using a drive. This sounds like a read problem. Try a known good bootable floppy. Suspect that the controller will report back a read error, not a system disk, or something.
You may have to get into CMOS setup and change boot order.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[BadBigBen]

Hi there,

go into BIOS and check your setting of drive A under Standard CMOS setting, make sure it's set to 1.44mb 3.5 inch...

another thing to check is if the cable in use is a. firmly seated or b. fully functional...

BEN

 

[rockerfellerz]

Boot to the command prompt only and try to read a disk from dos. If it says "retry abort fail" then retry at least 4 or 5 times. I had similar problems with my floppy drive saying the disk wasn't formated etc. Don't know why but after trying it 3-4 times in dos it started working. It had been inactive for many months up till that point so dust or dirt could have been the culprit. When I then rebooted to windows it worked fine again.

If you're going through Hell...keep going... (Winston Churchill)
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