floppy disk can not format disk

hi there
i have just finished building pc for my friend and everything works find.
when i tried to put disk in a drive i got a message that floppy disk has not been formated so i click yes and it stops and it say it can not be formated.
tried with few floppy disk and no success.
i have notices after 2-3 disk that it tried to format in fat files.
is this a problem????
runing xp pro has ntfs files.
it look like it can not read the disks because some of disks do have a files on them but still got a message it has to be formated
xp pro sp1
asus all in one a7n8x-mx se
ddr2700

thnks

You can read these diskettes on another computer/A drive ?
Sounds like your ("floppy") disk drive unit or it's ribbon cable is bad.
Either that or (gasp) your motherboard FDD port is bad..

Being a new build, you might also want to reset your bios via it's reset jumper.

yes i can read them on my pc.
i have change brandnew ribbon cable
jumpers on mobo are all ok

umm i get that message when the floppy disks are locked ...you know when the little black box is moved up....:)

It's normal that by default your windows tries to format diskette's into the FAT fileformat, giving backwards compatibility to none NTFS systems.

Are you sure the ribbon cable is correctly installed? Can you read floppy's on the 'bad' pc? And like memory said, I hope the floppy isn't write protected?
Other things to check: bios set to correct floppy type and floppy mode 3 disabled.

The other thing could be that the floppy drive has the connector backwards. I've seen this happen on some cheaper made floppy drives, where the power connector was actually soldered on upsidedown. Try flipping it over and see if things work (sounds weird but ... can't hurt).

hmmm MSM I hope you mean the data cable? normaly a floppy drive power cable will only fit one way, except when you force it in. And indeed some floppy drives come with the connectors upside down, I have installed such one myself and it took me a reboot to figure out the freaking manufacturer's 0 was 1. :)

No.. I was referring to the power connector (where the female molex connects). If the prong portion is solder in upside down (read: the wrong way), then the red cable needs to be on the other side (I've seen it once or twice.. it's really weird and annoying). I don't think I've ever seen the data cable have that happen but wouldn't surprise me.

Yep that's weired, cause normally you can assume that the red power cable logicaly lines up with the data colored side.

well.. if the datacable was on backwards.. the light on the drive would stay on constantly and it wouldn't be recognised by the bios.. the power connector does have rounded edges on one side and the drive wouldn't even try to read the disk if the power wasn't hooked up right.

if it's not the data cable, it's the drive itself that's bad or the motherboard port for the drive.

unvi$ible, when I mentioned jumper, I didn't mean whether to check the jumpers.. I meant that you should reset the bios via the bios reset jumper.. it could be that something in the bios is messed up and it's looking for a 720k or 1.2meg drive or something. it's just good practice anyway to reset the bios on a new build.. or after a cpu change.. or after you flash a bios. just unplug the power supply AC cord or the turn off the switch (on back of PSU) before jumpering the reset jumper for a second or two. if you don't, the bios won't get reset.

seems to me 'tho, that trying a new diskette drive would be first on the list.