NTFS question

[Chuck56]

Thanks nihil and darkes. I'm at a loss then concerning my problem. This computer is less than a year old and the floppy drive worked perfectly up to the moment I changed from FAT32 to NTFS. I went to several Windows sites and basically they all said that the floppy drive was faulty. Then, I stumbled on several sites where people were complaining that their floppy disc drive stopped reading when they switched to XP. Well, I had XP running in FAT32 and all was okay. I should have left it running under FAT. It is apparently an XP issue that M$ won't correct because Bill doesn't think floppy discs are needed any more.

[nihil]

This machine runs XP pro and the floppy is OK...........only a standard generic device?

Try uninstalling then reinstalling? Let Windows find the device.

You might also make sure that you are fully up to date with windows?

If this fails, I would try a PHYSICAL uninstallation and reinstallation.

Does the BIOS "see" the drive?

Cheers

[Chuck56]

Yes, BIOS reads the drive and XP apparently sees it during startup. At least the drive light comes on. It knows the drive is there, it just won't read the discs. It's been taken out and replaced. We removed it to try the drive in a friend's machine. Worked perfectly. Replaced it, making sure everything was well connected, wouldn't work. It wouldn't be an issue I'd even bother with if the folks I deal with would realize that CD's are just as effective.

[Agent_Steal]

Don't floppies use something like FAT12?..........

File System and Floppy Disk Structures

Humm that question never crossed my mind until you brought it up.

[darkes]

Originally posted here by Chuck56
Yes, BIOS reads the drive and XP apparently sees it during startup. At least the drive light comes on. It knows the drive is there, it just won't read the discs. It's been taken out and replaced. We removed it to try the drive in a friend's machine. Worked perfectly. Replaced it, making sure everything was well connected, wouldn't work. It wouldn't be an issue I'd even bother with if the folks I deal with would realize that CD's are just as effective.

I'm rather baffled by this, as, despite what you might of read WinXP does still support floppies, regardless of whether you are running FAT32 or NTFS.

The drive light coming on does not mean it has been recognised by WinXP - this is just your BIOS/power connector recognising that it does have a floppy.

I'd try nihils suggestion - i.e. completely remove the device using device manager, and reboot.
What do you see in device driver details for your floppy?

[oofki]

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/fr...tfswin98.shtml

[IKnowNot]

I’m with nihil and darkes on this one.

This machine is running XP pro with NTFS, no problems with floppy ( though I did an initial install to NTFS )

You said it worked in another computer, and you replaced it with another drive which also did not work in the XP machine?

I would check the cable ... floppy cables are picky and can easily be installed incorrectly or be jarred loose, or get pinched somewhere.

I would try removing any reference in the device manager completely, disconnecting it, restarting with it disconnected checking to see it is removed in the bios as well as XP, then shut down and reconnect it again with a new cable ensuring is connected properly.

As for the CD reference, I once got negged here for saying “ floppies are as obsolete as bicycles” Guess that person never heard of sarcasm.

[SirDice]

Converting from FAT to NTFS has absolutely nothing to do with your floppydrive not working.

I see you've tried the floppydrive in a different machine and it worked there.
So maybe your cable and/or your floppy controller are faulty.

[Ghost_25inf]

9 times out of 10 its a hardware issue but that doesnt seem to be the problem now. go into your Device Manager and look the floppy controller there if it say this device is working ok then its a lier so try updating the driver. If this doesnt work go to the floppy drive manufaturer and see if there is a patch. Finally there could be and IRQ conflict or a problem with a legacy device.

Does your computers POST see the floppy?

[Chuck56]

Well, I can see I have my work cut out for me today. Thanks everybody for your suggestions and thanks for allowing me to sort of hijack this thread, although it wasn't my intention.

BTW, ghost 25Inf, are you or were you in the 25th Div. I was 27th Inf, 25th Div in Vietnam '67-'68.