[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] formatting floppy diskettes

mimperat@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Marco Imperatore) (06/20/91)

My DOS format program has suddently stopped working (have no idea why).  It
goes through the usual initial steps of asking me to insert a disk in drive a:,
it prints "head 0 cylinder 0" as if it's working, and then it complains that
about invalid media.

I tried formatting an already formatted diskette and it killed it.  After the
attempted formatting operation, I could no longer even DIR the diskette.  A
second attempt to format the diskette complained about a bad track/sector 0.

Can someone please tell me if these symptoms sound familiar?  Can someone
also please tell me why a *format* program should care what's on track 0,
sector 0.  I could understand if it was a physically corrupt sector but it
seems that the problems arises because of what's stored there.  I am pretty
darned sure that the disketted I tried to format were in excellent physical
condition.

What can I try next?  Could someone describe (or point me to) other possible
ways to format a diskette (including actually writing a C program to do it).
I actually tried to write a program to do this once but I managed to mess
up yet another diskette when I attempted to write track 0, sector 0.

I would welcome any and all information on this subject.  Please e-mail
me at mimperatore@watcgl.waterloo.edu as I don't read this newsgroup very
often.

Many advanced thanks.
-- 
Marco Imperatore
Computer Graphics Lab, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
mimperatore@watcgl.waterloo.edu

ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib) (06/21/91)

>What can I try next?  Could someone describe (or point me to) other possible
>ways to format a diskette (including actually writing a C program to do it).
>I actually tried to write a program to do this once but I managed to mess
>up yet another diskette when I attempted to write track 0, sector 0.

Try copying format.com from your original
DOS diskette onto your hard drive. Also
check for viruses (?)





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Iskandar Taib                        | The only thing worse than Peach ala
Internet: NTAIB@AQUA.UCS.INDIANA.EDU |    Frog is Frog ala Peach
Bitnet:   NTAIB@IUBACS               !
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rhyde@koufax.ucr.edu (randy hyde) (06/22/91)

>> Cannot format diskettes...

I had a similar problem a couple of weeks ago.  Turned out to be a virus.
Scan your disks!
*** Randy Hyde