No ID address found on floppy!

I am using Windows XP Pro SP1. The floppy drive seemed to quit working, but device manager says it IS working.

The problem is whenever I try to use a floppy disk I get an error message saying: "a:\ is not accessible. No ID address mark was found on the floppy disk"

It doesn't matter which floppy disk I try to use...NONE of them will work. It happens even if I put in a blank diskette.

I have not made any changes to my system or done anything else that I can think of to cause this.

I tried unisntalling and reinstalling the floppy drive device driver, which didn't make a difference.

I also tried reformatting a diskette on another XP computer (full format not quick format), then placed a .txt document on the disk. On THAT computer it can see/read the floppy and the text document just fine, but not on MY computer. Whenever I insert the floppy and try to do anything I get the same error message above.

 

Try replacing the floppy drive - one can be had for $10 or less ... and by the way, welcome to Wilders!

 

Tried that and even bought new cable.....even checked that the cable was installed right. Still no help.

 

Please check the Event Viewer and look at the System log for any errors.

I am assuming that you have done all the usual: full format floppy, invert cable connector, swap floopy drive, swapped cable, put in two floppy drives, checked BIOS configuration, updated BIOS, etc.

What have you installed recently?

Have you tried booting the system from DOS? If not, go to another machine and make a DOS boot disk. You can go to Bootdisk.com and make a DOS 6.22 disk if you have to. If this system boots from DOS and you can format a floppy with it, then the problem is with Windows.

(If you have the bandwidth, and you want to have some fun troubleshooting this, download a Knoppix Linux live CD and boot off of it. Perfectly safe, and a nice intro to Linux: http://mirror.csit.fsu.edu/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V3.4-2004-05-17-EN.iso. It's 600 meg, so don't do it with a dial-up account.)

One last thing. I did a search on Microsoft for your error and some stuff came up. You might want to try that if you have not already.

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Thanks CH for the help. Going to try the bootdisk idea. I know that the BIOS is identlfying the Floppy drive. But will post back when i get the result of this idea. And again thanks for the help! Also checked windows error messages before I posted to the board but still no help. Also in contact with a local computer making company and they have never seen this problem. I think that it is in something within Windows SP1 dnload. Just a brief history.
Hard Drive crashed about 2 weeks ago. But before it crashed floppy didnt work, thought that a clean install would bring back the floppy since it had to do with windows, but stupid me didnt think about checking it out before I installed Win SP1. And again it didnt work after the install. Thanks for the help
-Bobby

 

No, i havent checked the motherboard. I just bought this one from MSI in March and the motherboard is a 865-PE Neo2. But the problem also occured on the OLD PIII 550mHz board that I have before the upgrade. May sound like a stupid question, but how can i check this one to make sure that FDD controller is working. I aslo need info on what to look for in event viewer to make sure that it didnt stop on startup. I check but nothing looked out of the oridinary. Thanks again.

 

There are some hardware diagnostic utilities that you can find, but they are usually more expensive than a new board. In my almost 20 years of experience, I have never needed them.

The simplest way to check the FDD controller is with the DOS boot disk. That will definitely isolate the problem as to whether it is software or hardware related. If DOS can’t do it, nobody can.

If the DOS boot fails, we are going to try one last test. That last test will be to take out every piece of hardware, except the video card and floppy drive. Make sure that you document what PCI slot that you took cards out of. Then boot the system up with just the floppy and video card.

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One thing just occured to me. You said that this problem occured with an old board as well. Is the power supply the same? I am wondering if the floppy is getting enough current to work properly. It may be getting the voltage required to be seen by the board and OS, but not enough current to operate properly.

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Going to try to take all pci cards out and make a new boot disket. If Dos clears things up...all ok then. Ohh by the way i also bought a new case with a 350w power supply. Thought that it was enough. Also have several USB connections to the new board. Going to try all the things here and will let you guys know tonight when all is complete. Thanks again! Can i check the voltage to the Floppy drive myself with a voltimeter
But again....thanks!!

 

Sure can:

http://www.informit.com/content/images/chap3_078972927X/elementLinks/03fig13.jpg

You'll need to look to the drive manufacturer to see their current requirements.

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Well now its 4pm EST and i am finally home. I decided to test a floppy disk one more time to check if it gave me any errors again. Well this time it read a disk, now i can see what is on a disk but now i can access any files on the disk. Now its better than before. Does any one know what driver version of the floppydrive is the latest?
I am currently using:

Standard Floppy Disk Controller
Driver Provider: Microsoft
Driver Date: 7/1/2001
Driver Version: 5.1.2600.0
Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows Publisher
---File Details
c:\windows\system32\drivers\fdc.sys
Provider: Microsoft Corporation
File Version: 5.1.2600.0 (XPClient.010817-114

Floppy Disk Drive
Driver Provider: Microsoft
Driver Date: 7/1/2001
Driver Version: 5.1.2600.0
Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows Publisher
---File Details
c:\windows\system32\drivers\flpydisk.sys
Provider: Microsoft Corporation
File Version: 5.1.2600.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920)

Well I am going to try the diskets again and see what they do hopefully i can get this damm thing to work. I also tried the disketts on another coomputer and all of the disketts work. I can get the files and see them. Thanks again?

 

I am on a 2000 Pro machine now. It has fdc.sys v5.0.2195.6655, and flpydisk.sys v5.0.2195.6655. Not that that is of any real help. We have no XP machines at work.

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