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Answer» I had a diskette I used to take files to/from school. Well, for some ODD reason it wouldn't read at school. I could see the files, but whwn i tried to do anything, the drive would make a lot of noise and give me an error that made no sense. I can't even remember the error, but that's irrelevant. I took the floppy home and tried to get it to read on my XP machine (school uses Win2000 Prof) and I finally got an error that was coherent: My disk wasn't formatted! What?? Just how did I write to the *censored* thing if it was incorrectly formatted?? OK, whatever. I had another copy on my hdd, so I just formatted the sucker. WORKED perfectly, but I managed to maintain my dignity by insisting it was just the "fact" that my diskette was formatted for only external floppy drives. Being PC illiterate, they bought it.
That's one "HUH???". The second one:
After this happened, I decided to format all my diskettes (all 10 of them). One after another went smoothly. Then one refused to format. I tried it again, no go. So I exited the Prompt and selected Format... from the A: right-click menu. It refused to format, again saying it couldn't. Annoyed, I tried to access the drive. Of course, it told me I had to format. This time, it worked.
1. How can a floppy diskette lose its format? It makes no sense to me!
2. Why on Earth would a floppy be unable to format when I try to do it manually, but if I try to access it it works, even though the same window pops up? I wasn't angry at that point, I wasn't laughing. It was just... wha...?Got any magnets nearby? Are the floppys being bent or pressed on? Static electricity? As for why it would refuse to format, that could be a number of things. Either the disk itself, or the drive. Seeing as how other disks worked fine, I would say that there's just one oddball. Do you buy preformatted disks?
Flame1. No magnets.
2. I take care of my floppies - great care. I make sure they aren't bent or pressed on.
3. I don't think there would be ESD, but that's probably the culprit.
1. Yes, they were formatted, the box said, for PC/MAC. But I just bought 25 more, all formatted for PC. (I'm still going to format them before I use them)Save your time, money, and stress. Go buy a USB flash drive.
FlameI'd do that, except for the fact that floppies are cheap, while replacing a broken flash drive would be... painful. (In Sr. High, things tend to get broken. Not as some violent cult, just everyday wear and tear that gets exaggerated around TEENS. And I'd hate to replace a $30 flash drive when floppies are so darn cheap) I really didn't want to buy so many floppies, but really, I wanted to replace those cheap floppies, and they were sold in 25-packs or 50-packs. I didn't want 50, and the 25 were only 5 USD, so...
I am interested in getting a flash drive and was already, but I'm saving my pennies for that. It'll take a while with no job...I agree with Flame, buy a USB flash disk.
You'll get more storage with a lot less problems.
I have about 10 of them and not a single problem.
You know what I do Dilbert... I not only put my files on my USB Glash Drive, butmy cousin owns a web server, so I upload my files there, just incase anything happened to the drive
FlameOK, OK. I'll save up for a flash drive. But in the meantime, I'll stick to floppy and CD as I don't have the flash drive yet. Though I am also interested in a zip drive; it appears to be cheaper if you're willing to not buy a 1 GB flash drive (I'm not, I'd rather have something like 512 MB as I don't have that much data on my computer. Heck, I'm using less than 10 GB right now including Windows and updates and AntiVirus, etc...). How good are zip drives?Your school has a Zip Drive? The idea is to have something reliable that almost every computer will have. A USB port is the best thing today, as more and more computers are not coming with floppy drives...
FlameFor your purposes, any size flash drive would probably be sufficient. Here's a 128MB drive for $9.99 plus shipping/handling: Lexar Media 128MB JumpDrive Portable USB 2.0 Drive.
And, here's more.Quote Your school has a Zip Drive? The idea is to have something reliable that almost every computer will have. A USB port is the best thing today, as more and more computers are not coming with floppy drives...
Flame
I was under the impression they had external (USB) zip drives. Wikipedia has a picture of one. But I will probably go with the flash drive, and later get a zip drive just because I like having computer "toys". 8-) But that's for later... it makes for good BRAGGING to the other techhies around the schoolgrounds.
lol Yes, but I would keep the zip drive for home. You wouldn't want to lug that drive around school all day Not bad for home use though.
FlameConsider this Dilbert. For less than the cost of a 250MB external zip drive, you could buy an 80GB hard drive and an external enclosure for it and thereby have an 80GB external hard drive. Or, go with a true External Hard Drive, such this 80GB for about $92.50 including shipping. Now, which makes more sense, the zip drive or one of the options for obtaining an external hard drive?
And, if you compare the cost per MB of zip drives vs. flash drives, it makes zip drives look like a rather expensive item, doesn't it? I see an Iomega 250MB USB Zip Starter Kit with 3 Disks from TigerDirect.com for $140. But, I could get a 1GB flash drive for less than $50. I'll let you do the math; I think you get the picture.At this point though, Dilbert just wants the Zip Drive as a new toy
Flame
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