Problems,with,Floppy,Disks, computer Problems with Floppy Disks
----------------------------------------------------------Permission is granted for the below article to forward,reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website,offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as longas no changes a Gone are those times when the companies and the organisations didn't need a hi-tech system to handle them. Owing to the considerable increase in the business sector and thus, an enormous increase in the complexity of the organisational struc
----------------------------------------------------------Permission is granted for the below article to forward,reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website,offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as longas no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and theresource box below is included.----------------------------------------------------------Problems with Floppy DisksBy Stephen BucaroWith the advent of the rewritable CD (CD-RW) many peopleare predicting the demise of the venerable floppy disk.Today's computers can even boot from the CD drive. But ifyour computer is not connected to a network, there is noquicker way to back-up or share a file.Problems with the floppy drive are rare, but that is notthe case with floppy disks themselves. Floppy disks aremade super cheap and are very unreliable. Also, floppydisks are sensitive to magnetic fields. If you place afloppy disk on top of your monitor, your computer case, orany metal object, you risk corrupting the disk. If youhave a problem reading a floppy disk, it is almost alwaysa bad disk.Use the following troubleshooting guide:- Can't read a floppy diskIf you have another system, check to see if the drive inthat system is able to read the disk. If the disk works ina different drive, begin by checking for obvious problems.It is not unknown to find an object like a Post-It note orthe metal slide protector from a previous disk stuckinside a drive.- Can't write to a floppy diskAgain, begin by checking for obvious problems. Make surethe floppy disk is not write protected. On a 3.5" disk youshould be able to see through the hole in the upper-rightcorner of the disk (looking at the labeled side of thedisk). If there are no files already on the disk, try tore-format it. - Can't boot from a floppy driveIf your operating system is Windows 2000, or Windows XPProfessional, you can't boot from a floppy disk with thesesystems. Otherwise, make sure the disk you have is abootable disk. It needs to have been created as a "startupdisk" or formatted with the "copy system files" optionbutton selected.- More complex problemsIn order to start faster, today's systems are usually setin the BIOS to boot from the hard disk drive first. Checkthe boot sequence in the BIOS setup. If the boot sequencestarts with the letter of a hard disk drive (like C:), andthat drive is having a problem, the system will never evenattempt to boot from the floppy disk drive. Go to BIOSsetup, and set the boot sequence to start with A.In some companies, the floppy drives are disabled forsecurity reasons. This is done by either disabling theonboard FDD controller in the BIOS setup, or by removingthe power cable or data cable from the drive inside thecomputer.- Weird problemsSometimes when a technician is working inside a computer,they will temporarily remove the data cable from thefloppy drive in order to get easier access to anothercomponent. They may fail to replace the cable properly,or put the cable on backwards. If the floppy drive's LEDis always on, the data cable may be reversed.Sometimes a floppy disk can be read on the system that itwas originally formatted on, but cannot be read on anothersystem and vice versa. This is usually caused by the factthat the head of the floppy drive on one system is out ofalignment.=> As with all Windows(tm) systems, sometimes the operating system gets confused. If your system can'trecognize the floppy drive or can't read any floppy disks,try rebooting the system.If you are having a problem with a floppy disk, rememberthey are made super cheap and are not meant to be reliable,but they can still serve a very utilitarian purpose.----------------------------------------------------------Resource Box:Copyright(C)2002 Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to maintainyour computer and use it more effectively to design a Website and make money on the Web visithttp://bucarotechelp.comTo subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter Send a blankemail to bucarotechelp-subscribe@topica.com---------------------------------------------------------- Article Tags: Floppy Disks, Boot From, Floppy Drive, Floppy Disk, Disk Drive, Data Cable
Problems,with,Floppy,Disks,