Floppy diskette read as "not formatted"

"RD" wrote in message
...
I was using a floppy diskette to transfer a couple small files between my
old
PC and a new 8300. Installing the file onto the new PC went well; it read
the
floppy contents OK and accessed the file to copy. When I got ready to
transfer
another file from the new computer back to the old using the same
diskette,
when I accessed it in Windows Explorer I got an error message on the new
computer (Win XP Home) that said "the diskette in A: is not fomatted.".
So I
took it out and tried it in the old PC, and it showed up fine in Windows
Explorer and I could read the contents. I put it back in the new PC and
it
still said "not formatted". It couldn't even read the file it had
transferred
previously. So I grabbed another diskette and tried it, and the new PC
read
its contents fine. Any idea why one PC reads a diskette OK but the new one
reads it as "not formatted" (altho the first time it read it fine) ?
Thanks.

Rob

Some pre-formatted diskettes are not formatted with a proper "media
descriptor byte". This does not matter in win9x, because win9x does not
check this byte. It does matter in nt4/win2k/winxp. Such diskettes are seen
as unformatted.

The solution is to format the diskettes in a nt4/win2k/winxp PC, which will
automatically write the byte correctly. Of course, any data on the diskettes
will be destroyed by the format. So you could first copy the data to a win9x
PC, then format the diskette.

Please let us know what happens.

:-) Jay

"RD" wrote in message
...
Some pre-formatted diskettes are not formatted with a proper "media
descriptor byte". This does not matter in win9x, because win9x does not
check this byte. It does matter in nt4/win2k/winxp. Such diskettes are
seen
as unformatted.
The solution is to format the diskettes in a nt4/win2k/winxp PC

That sure sounds like it may have been the problem. Unfortunately, I
destroyed
and tossed that diskette when I got the error, so I can't test it. But
from
now on I'll use diskettes formatted in the XP machine. However, some of
my old
pre-formatted diskettes are read correctly on the XP machine, so who
knows....
Thanks for the advice; I would bet that is the cause.

Rob

Here is more info about the MDB:

http://is-it-true.org/nt/utips/utips126.shtml

http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBD/tip1800/rh1861.htm