modem7
10k Member
One thing in common is the drive.
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Maxtor 7120AT jumper settings.
- Thread starter mdh
- Start date
Yeah, I haven't had much luck with USB floppy drives over the years, I know nothing about Windows 10 and haven't used Winimage for many years. I was wondering if a bare bones FreeDos boot floppy image might fare better or Boot the XUB from floppy with the aid of 'dmac's' Optromloader..
Sour Patrol
Member
Try the 'Driver free disk for bios flashing' see if that makes any difference, It's a Winimage self extractor, Just double click on the exe and follow instructions, You'll need a 1.44 floppy.
Sour Patrol
Member
I've had 1 or 2 bad floppy's in a box before but never all of them, Do you know anyone local with a computer with internal floppy you could maybe use ?Doesn't work. Same error.
Sour Patrol
Member
I do not. I'm don't know anyone who uses floppies anymore. I know I haven't used them since 2004-ish.
Tried on another laptop, also running Windows 10. Same error.
modem7
10k Member
From what I am reading, "Floppies do not match" is an error message unique to WinImage. I cannot see anything that informs me as to which condition/s trigger the error. My best guess is a data verification error (sector data read-back from target "floppy" does not match sector data written [i.e. sector data from "floppy" image file]).
Is the drive (and diskettes) usable within Windows Explorer? Say, copy 1 MB worth of files to a diskette, then copy them back to C:
Is the drive (and diskettes) usable within Windows Explorer? Say, copy 1 MB worth of files to a diskette, then copy them back to C:
modem7
10k Member
The other thing I was thinking of was whether the drive is getting enough power through the USB interface.
I remember buying a USB powered 'A4 document + film slide/negative' scanner donkeys years ago, and all was working up until the point where I tried (for the first time) to use the scanner's 35mm slide scanning' functionality. It would not work. I contacted the Canon help desk, and the person who answered suggested that the scanner might not be getting enough power, and suggested that I try one of the USB ports at the rear of the computer. That was the answer. That port could supply more power than the front panel USB port.
But you have now tried three computers.
I remember buying a USB powered 'A4 document + film slide/negative' scanner donkeys years ago, and all was working up until the point where I tried (for the first time) to use the scanner's 35mm slide scanning' functionality. It would not work. I contacted the Canon help desk, and the person who answered suggested that the scanner might not be getting enough power, and suggested that I try one of the USB ports at the rear of the computer. That was the answer. That port could supply more power than the front panel USB port.
But you have now tried three computers.
I've never had much luck with WinImage, W10 and USB floppy drives. Have you tried RawWrite for Windows? https://archive.org/details/rawwritewin
Sour Patrol
Member
It worked! Let me go see if I can boot off it.
Edit:
So, I don't know... I think the 486 might have eaten my floppy. It wrote okay, and yes, I could see the contents in Windows Explorer. Then I took it to the 486 and booted up, and I got this:
Got to "Starting MS-DOS," but there were some strange noises coming from the floppy disk drive. Sounded like something scratching lightly against the disk, not what I remember these things sounding like back in the 1990s... Then, "Bad or missing Command Interpreter."
Took the back to Windows 10, and I couldn't read from it in Explorer anymore. Couldn't write to it either:
I'll give it one more try with another disk. I'm guessing this one's zapped.
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Sour Patrol
Member
Attempt #2...
1. Format in command.com:
2. Write in Rawritewin:
3. Verify in Windows 10 Explorer:
4. Attempt to boot the 486 off the floppy... No bad noises this time. The amber activity LED comes on twice during boot-up. Now I'm getting "Diskette read failure"
I'm starting to remember all the reasons why mankind ditched floppy disks.
1. Format in command.com:
2. Write in Rawritewin:
3. Verify in Windows 10 Explorer:
4. Attempt to boot the 486 off the floppy... No bad noises this time. The amber activity LED comes on twice during boot-up. Now I'm getting "Diskette read failure"
I'm starting to remember all the reasons why mankind ditched floppy disks.
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Sour Patrol
Member
Wait... Looking at this, I just realized, it still isn't writing Command.com? WTF. No wonder it couldn't find the command interpreter! It only wrote 36 out of 42 files! Why the heck is EVERY program screwing up and failing to write the same six files to the disk? It's the same ones WinImage was choking on too: MSDOS.sys, IO.sys, DRVSPACE.bin, CONFIG.sys, COMMAND.com, and AUTOEXEC.bat. This makes NO sense to me.
You should probably inspect and clean the drive. Check if there are visible rings on the floppy... if yes it could be that dirty heads or stuck/misaligned drives scratch against the magnetic surface and ruin the disks.
Be aware that Windows 10 has an option "hide system files" or something like that which hides files like config.sys, command.com etc.
Sour Patrol
Member
Okay... That at least makes me feel better at least, to know that they are there. Thanks.
Yeah, if I pull back the slider, there appear to be some annular rings on the inner disc of the floppy... How do you recommend I inspect and clean the drive? Something like this?
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modem7
10k Member
Sour Patrol
Member
What product would you recommend?
Yeah, though I would have never lifted the upper head so much. The worm gear also needs to be lubricated, otherwise the stepper doesn't move the heads to the right track and it produces errors.
As modem7 mentioned, there's a chance you got a bad batch of floppies. The worst offenders regarding decaying magnetic media are the late 90s/early 00s cheaply produced ones, often with the black plastic sliders. Throw out any disks that have bad sectors or you hear the drive having a hard time formatting.
If it formats correctly in your USB drive I would focus on cleaning the drive of the other computer. If there is leftover crud on the heads it will ruin any new disks you insert in the dirty one.
Sour Patrol
Member
Wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what I have!
I'm leaving the country for six months on the 24th, so my window to be able to work on this project is rapidly closing. If you have any suggestions on what type floppy to buy, drop a URL to the Amazon page and I'll overnight it. Appreciate all your help!
I disassembled the A:\ drive and and cleaned the heads. It's only 91% isopropyl though, so I'm going to give it several hours to dry before I reassemble and try it out. I also put some WD-40 on the threaded screw, which I'm assuming is the worm gear. Hopefully it makes a difference. It was pretty clean in there already -- I didn't see any dirt or dust come off on the Q-tip.
Thanks for the help and advice!
modem7
10k Member
There is always risk in purchasing new-old-stock (NOS) floppies/diskettes, unless the seller has tested the actual disks that will be sent to you. Over time, some brands fared better than others, and storage conditions obviously play a part. No, I don't know which brands, but hopefully someone will comment on that. I have quite a few boxes of Verbatim DataLife 2HD (stored for many years in my residence, but not in the garage), and to date, it has only been the occasional diskette that I have discovered faulty.
Assumption: The problem is all 10 diskettes:
Perhaps take a bet on a different brand from a different seller, and because of that, surely the odds of the 'all 10 diskettes are bad' lightning bolt hitting you twice, would be very low.
And perhaps put a location in your profile. Once, someone in these forums wanted a 360K DOS boot floppy, and it turned out that they were like, half an hours drive from me.