Cynthia said:
I've just changed PC'c from aHP with Millennium Operating System and Office
2000 Professional, to Dell Dimension 8400 with Windows XP operating system
and Office XP. When I try to retrieve or save data on to the 3.5" floppies
used on the old PC, my new PC gives me the error message that reads "The
floppy disc in drive A: is not formatted or has been formatted for a
Mackintosh". I have over 75 floppy discs full of data stored via my old PC.
How do I retrieve all this data using my new PC?
Try this:
Essentially Microsoft KB 309623 says WinXP supports only 1.44MB disk
format. 3-mode FD's capable of reading/writing 720KB, 1.2MB and 1.44MB
require special driver support and support for this feature is not
included in Windows XP. See following:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309623
Driver link (this is a download only):
http://downloads.viaarena.com/WinXPE/Oct02/XPe_3mflp132_v10.zip
Instructions:
1. Download driver
2. Unzip the driver - extract the file to a folder.
3. Open Windows XP's Device Manager, expand the "Floppy disk controllers"
heading, and double-click the listing for "Standard floppy disk controller."
4. Click the "Driver" tab, then click the "Update Driver" button.
5. Select the "Install from a list or specific location" radio button and
click the "Next" button.
6. Select the"Don't search. I will choose the driver to install." radio
button and click the "Next" button.
7. Click the"Have Disk" button; then, click the"Browse" button. Browse to
the location that you extracted the files to in Step 2 and double-click the
"VIA3MFPY.INF" file. The, click the"OK" button.
8. You should now have "VIA 3-mode floppy controller" highlighted in the
drivers list. Click the "Next" button to begin the driver file copy. Once
the file copy is complete, your floppy disk drive will access 3 times
(checking all 3 "modes"). This is normal. Click the "Finish" button when
the
driver installation is complete.
9a. You may, or may not , have a device labelled "Unknown Device" in
the"Other Devices" heading in Device Manager. If so, continue with step 9a.
If not, skip to step 9b. If you have a device labelled "Unknown Device" in
the "Other Devices" heading in Device Manager, right-click on it and select
"Update Driver." Follow steps 5 through 8 to complete the installation of
"Floppy disk drive" (note that the naming of the driver in the drivers list
in step 8 may be different during this step - this is normal). Once you've
click the "Finish" button, continue on to step 10.
9b. If you do not have a device labelled "Unknown Device" in the "Other
Devices" heading in Device Manager, expand the "Floppy disk drives" heading
in Device Manager and double-click the listing for "floppy disk drive."
Follow steps 4 through 8 to complete the installation of "Floppy disk
drive"
(note that the naming of the driver in the drivers list in step 8 may be
different during this step - this is normal). Once you've clicked the
"finish" button, continue on to step 10.
10. Reboot your PC. This should let you know if all of your hard work
REALLY paid off. Check the Device Manager one last time to be sure that you
now have the"VIA 3-mode floppy controller listed under the "Floppy disk
controllers" heading. Put a file on a floppy in Win98 (or another non-SP
OS)
and you should now be able to access it in Windows XP (and vice-versa)
without issue. You made it!
