5.25 1.2mb disks not working on Windows 98 machine.

Twiggy

I just got the 1.2mb DS/HD floppies I ordered in today:





The Pack-Mate III reads, writes, and formats them fine as 1.2mb, which it should.

However, when I use it in my Windows 98 machine with the 5.25 1.2mb HD drive, win image fails formatting them, I got a BSOD when I tried to read it in "my computer", but it sometimes does open.

What could be the issue? Since the packmate III uses them perfectly, I have no doubt these are true 1.2mb disks.

Twiggy

Weird, it's working fine now that I restarted the 98 machine.

I wonder, why would a restart be needed for a floppy drive to work?

altracker9

Floppy drives, especially 5.25", can be touchy. That is why over the years I have accumulated several 3.5, 5.25 and combo drives for backup. It can be a loose cable, a failing power supply, or a failing floppy drive. I generally check the floppy drives periodically for reading/writing and formatting in both low & high density. That way, I know when some remedial action is required before I really need it to work.