[Falkens_Maze]

Whenever I try to open or format a disk on XP I keep getting this message:

When opening: "No disk in drive"

Formatting: "Disk contains different file system"

When I looked at the file system it says this:

RAW

These disks work perfectly on other XP machines except this one and I am unable to format them. I tried formatting them through MS-DOS/Command Prompt and typed:

format a:

I was then told to insert disk and press enter.

When I did that I got a message saying 'device busy'. No matter how many times I try or restart the machine I still get this exact same 'device busy' message.

When I use these disks on other XP machines, the file system is exactly what it should be and not the RAW extension.

Please help.

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Do you get an error message when you format it in Windows?
Just put in the diskette, open My Computer, right click the A: drive and try to format like that.

Hope this helps,
Greets

[Caracas]

Do you get an error message when you format it in Windows?
Just put in the diskette, open My Computer, right click the A: drive and try to format like that.

Hope this helps,
Greets

[Falkens_Maze]

I still get the error message in Windows.

Even right clicking on A: drive gives me the "disk does not have a recognized file system" message...

[wannabe1]

Hi Falkens_Maze...

Will this machine read and write to disks formatted on another machine?

wannabe1

[Falkens_Maze]

No, it can't read or write to disks formatted on another machine.

In fact, it doesn't read disks formatted on other XP machines at all...I get the "Disk drive empty, please inseret disk" message...

[wannabe1]

Had you been inside the case just prior to this happening? It sounds as though you either have a bad connection or the drive has gone bad.

When you boot up, does the light on the drive come on and stay on? Come on and go out? Or not come on at all?

[Caracas]

I had something similar some time ago.
Looked at it for hours.
Turned out there was a small piece of a CD in the diskette player.

[Falkens_Maze]

Had you been inside the case just prior to this happening? It sounds as though you either have a bad connection or the drive has gone bad.

When you boot up, does the light on the drive come on and stay on? Come on and go out? Or not come on at all?

Never opened the case.

The light goes on and then off like normal when the machine boots up.

[wannabe1]

This sounds like a bad read head or transport mechanism. Will it look at a floppy that contains boot instructions like a startup disk or HDD diagnostics floppy? You might try booting with a boot floppy in the drive to see if it's a drive problem or an OS problem. To do this, you'll have to make sure the boot priority is set so the floppy drive is before the HDD.

If it will read the floppy it is most likely an OS problem and we'll dig deeper...if not, replace the drive.

[Falkens_Maze]

It won't read the boot disk. I get a message saying "disk is not formatted"...

[wannabe1]

I would say the drive is bad, then. The only way I know of to verify this absolutely is to try a known good drive in the machine.