Floppy drive format problem

[wkeel]

I am running windows 98, the a drive wants to format any 3.5 floppy inserted. Once I format a new disk it will read and write on the disk but i can only use it on that machine. The floppy can not be read on any other machine. What could cause this?

 

[angel]

I've seen that where the drive wasn't aligned quite right - can only be read on that machine. Probably time for a new one but can you read floppies from other computers on this one?

 

[wkeel]

No you can't. When you put in a floppy from another machine it tells you that you must format the disk.

 

[angel]

<a href="http://www.accurite.com/FloppyPrimer.html">Here's</a> a good article on it (you have to scroll down a little).
Also mentions some utils you can use to test and possibly fix (sorry, haven't tried them and not sure how they work)

 

[wkeel]

Thanks, we downloaded the article. We will try that and let you know. probably won't reply till tomorrow. Thanks Angel.

 

[angel]

Let us know.
Probably wouldn't hurt to just grab a new drive - they're pretty cheap nowadays. You might even have a friend/co-worker that has one or more just laying around.