Dear Westcoasthibby-ga,
Based on the context of your reply you quickly assumed that your
floppy drive is broke. Anyway, what we can do now is to help you
troubleshoot the problem. One thing is certain – the floppy drive
doesn’t require you to install a driver. This is why you can’t find it
on your CD’s. Floppy drives are automatically detected and installed
by the OS.
You did not answer the last part of my clarification, which is if you
tried to unload your floppy disk while the drive is still reading it.
This is a critical question because if you did unload the disk from
the drive while the green lights are on, chances are you may have
scratched or damaged the reading head. In your case, I cannot say for
sure if the problem is the disk or the drive. Let us, however, proceed
to what you can do in order to pinpoint the problem.
Have you tried inserting other floppy disks that you’re 100% sure are
readable, fully-functioning, and free from damages or defects? You
should in order to verify if the drive is really defective. In your
case, let’s call a 100% readable, fully-functioning, and damage/defect
free disk a GD (good disk). Just make sure the disk/s contains file/s
that you can discard just in case you decide to format or delete the
contents. Remember, that the procedures described below are given
under my assumption that you are using a Windows operating system.
a) If you insert a GD and the drive still cannot read the disk, saying
that it is not formatted, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the drive
is broken. It means it can’t read it. It may be because the floppy
drive’s reader is dirty and needs to be cleaned. You only need to buy
a floppy disk drive cleaner to make the process easy for you. The
package comes with a special floppy disk and cleaning solution. You
simply add the right amount of cleaning solution (specified in the
package), insert it inside the drive and try to access it several
times so the drive’s reader will be cleaned. Pull the cleaning disk
out and insert the GD disk. If it works, your problem is solved. If it
doesn’t, go to the next step.
b) If you insert a GD and the drive still cannot read the disk, saying
that it is not formatted and you cannot access or read the disk using
your file browser (Windows explorer), you should first try to do step
a). If it works, your problem is solved. If not, before we can say
that the drive is broken, please do the following first:
- go to the desktop
- right-click on the “My computer” icon
- select properties
- find the device manager or hardware manager/devices. I’m not very
familiar with WinME, 2000 or XP but the principle is the same. In case
you are not using Win98, please let me know.
- uninstall the floppy disk under the “disk drives” category by
selecting the drive, right-clicking and choosing “remove” or simply
pressing “delete” on your keyboard. Please note that your floppy drive
may be labeled as “generic floppy disk” or “generic NEC floppy disk”
so you should be very careful about it.
- restart the computer. The computer will automatically detect and
reinstall the floppy drive.
This procedure is to ensure that the driver for your floppy drive is
not corrupted in any way. If you’ve done this procedure and all the
other procedures described above and your drive still can’t read or
access the disk, you need to replace the floppy drive or have it
serviced by a certified or highly reliable technician. Just go for
what will cost you less.
If you’re a bit experimental, you can try eddie2002-ga’s suggestion.
However, it may be too risky on your part and might cause more
problems in the process. I mentioned it because it’s still a possible
solution and we are open to ideas in as much as we want to give you an
un-biased presentation of solutions.
I hope my advice helps.
Sincerely,
Feilong-ga |
