WinXP Pro

OK no big deal !......On odd occassions I format 720 k floppies, but unable
to on XP..........have I missed a where to enable it please.

TIA

Unfortunately that ability is not present in WinXP. It's verified here.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q302113/
--
Gary Woodruff MS-MVP

"That'll be the day" - John Wayne in The Searchers


"Terry" <terrybetts11138@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:di0pir$net$1@nwrdmz01.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com...
> WinXP Pro
>
> OK no big deal !......On odd occassions I format 720 k floppies, but unable
> to on XP..........have I missed a where to enable it please.
>
> TIA
>
>

"Terry" <terrybetts11138@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:di0pir$net$1@nwrdmz01.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com
> WinXP Pro
>
> OK no big deal !......On odd occassions I format 720 k floppies, but
> unable to on XP..........have I missed a where to enable it please.
>
> TIA

XP doesn't do anything other than 1.44MB AFAIK.....

Gary Woodruff wrote:

> Unfortunately that ability is not present in WinXP. It's verified
> here.
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q302113/


Gary, that article isn't strictly correct. Although you can't do it from the
format dialog box, you *can* do so by issuing the format command from a
command prompt, as follows:

format a: /t:80 /n:9

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup


>
> "Terry" <terrybetts11138@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:di0pir$net$1@nwrdmz01.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com...
>> WinXP Pro
>>
>> OK no big deal !......On odd occassions I format 720 k floppies, but
>> unable to on XP..........have I missed a where to enable it please.
>>
>> TIA

Use Winimage it can work with non standard floppies.

Glen


"Gordon" <gordon@gbpcomputing.co.uk.invalid> wrote in message
news:O9Cpi7byFHA.612@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> "Terry" <terrybetts11138@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:di0pir$net$1@nwrdmz01.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com
>> WinXP Pro
>>
>> OK no big deal !......On odd occassions I format 720 k floppies, but
>> unable to on XP..........have I missed a where to enable it please.
>>
>> TIA
>
> XP doesn't do anything other than 1.44MB AFAIK.....
>
>

Technically you are dropping back into DOS so I suppose that makes the WinXP Support
writers feel better. :-)

I do remember their being issues with this on some machines including mine at the
time. I just tried it here on my new Dell XPS, which I had not tried it on before,
and it failed. It starts, but gives a failure error with an old 720 floppy of mine.
I don't know if it is the computer or floppy drive BIOS or what, but it didn't work
for me in the past on my old Dell and also doesn't at least on this machine now.

Hopefully it will work for Terry and will provide a workaround.
--
Gary Woodruff MS-MVP Shell/User

"That'll be the day" - John Wayne in The Searchers

"Ken Blake" <kblake@this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in message
news:OB7DWmcyFHA.1040@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...

> Gary, that article isn't strictly correct. Although you can't do it from the format
> dialog box, you *can* do so by issuing the format command from a command prompt, as
> follows:
>
> format a: /t:80 /n:9
>
> --
> Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
> Please reply to the newsgroup

Quote from the M$ article "This behaviour is by design."

By design? Why would M$ remove such basic, simple stuff? Undesign more
likely.

I read it as follows - "As the World's dominant OS supplier, dependent upon
fools upgrading to stuff they don't really need, we couldn't be bothered to
provide backward compatibity for stuff that we can't use in our marketing,
in fact we decided, by design to remove stuff on purpose. Ha! Gotcha!"

Rant over.

"Gary Woodruff" <gwoodruff@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:Om9ZW0dyFHA.2644@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Technically you are dropping back into DOS so I suppose that makes the
> WinXP Support writers feel better. :-)
>
> I do remember their being issues with this on some machines including mine
> at the time. I just tried it here on my new Dell XPS, which I had not
> tried it on before, and it failed. It starts, but gives a failure error
> with an old 720 floppy of mine. I don't know if it is the computer or
> floppy drive BIOS or what, but it didn't work for me in the past on my old
> Dell and also doesn't at least on this machine now.
>
> Hopefully it will work for Terry and will provide a workaround.
> --
> Gary Woodruff MS-MVP Shell/User
>
> "That'll be the day" - John Wayne in The Searchers
>
> "Ken Blake" <kblake@this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in message
> news:OB7DWmcyFHA.1040@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
>
>> Gary, that article isn't strictly correct. Although you can't do it from
>> the format dialog box, you *can* do so by issuing the format command from
>> a command prompt, as follows:
>>
>> format a: /t:80 /n:9
>>
>> --
>> Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
>> Please reply to the newsgroup
>
>

Well, yes and no.

I understand your pain if you have a bunch of old drives sitting around, but I don't
expect any company to keep supporting any hardware that gets to the no one much
younger then me even remembers them stage. :-)

As Ken pointed out at least on some or probably even most systems the command prompt
method should work unless the manufacturer has changed something as Dell has
apparently. I can't use a USB to Com port converter on my Systemax laptop as the
drivers are not present in the BIOS and they never plan to add them.

Microsoft has a pretty good record of supporting the old and yes, less demanded
things like Classic style and other things for us geeks. But it nothing can go on
forever.
--
Gary Woodruff MS-MVP Shell/User

"That'll be the day" - John Wayne in The Searchers


"Mac" <mac@nospam.com> wrote in message news:uWkXhJeyFHA.2312@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> Quote from the M$ article "This behaviour is by design."
>
> By design? Why would M$ remove such basic, simple stuff? Undesign more likely.
>
> I read it as follows - "As the World's dominant OS supplier, dependent upon fools
> upgrading to stuff they don't really need, we couldn't be bothered to provide
> backward compatibity for stuff that we can't use in our marketing, in fact we
> decided, by design to remove stuff on purpose. Ha! Gotcha!"
>
> Rant over.

On hindsight, they probably couldn't be arsed to test it, which does cost.

"Gary Woodruff" <gwoodruff@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:elosMZeyFHA.2072@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> Well, yes and no.
>
> I understand your pain if you have a bunch of old drives sitting around,
> but I don't expect any company to keep supporting any hardware that gets
> to the no one much younger then me even remembers them stage. :-)
>
> As Ken pointed out at least on some or probably even most systems the
> command prompt method should work unless the manufacturer has changed
> something as Dell has apparently. I can't use a USB to Com port converter
> on my Systemax laptop as the drivers are not present in the BIOS and they
> never plan to add them.
>
> Microsoft has a pretty good record of supporting the old and yes, less
> demanded things like Classic style and other things for us geeks. But it
> nothing can go on forever.
> --
> Gary Woodruff MS-MVP Shell/User
>
> "That'll be the day" - John Wayne in The Searchers
>
>
> "Mac" <mac@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:uWkXhJeyFHA.2312@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
>> Quote from the M$ article "This behaviour is by design."
>>
>> By design? Why would M$ remove such basic, simple stuff? Undesign more
>> likely.
>>
>> I read it as follows - "As the World's dominant OS supplier, dependent
>> upon fools upgrading to stuff they don't really need, we couldn't be
>> bothered to provide backward compatibity for stuff that we can't use in
>> our marketing, in fact we decided, by design to remove stuff on purpose.
>> Ha! Gotcha!"
>>
>> Rant over.
>
>

If you ran a for-profit company, would you waste
precious resources building in support for ancient
technologies? Even the floppy itself it doomed.
Many new PCs don't even have floppy drives.

For sentimental reasons, I keep a Mac 400K
floppy disk because it contains the original
Microsoft Excel (Mac) application. Excel
on a 400K disk?! It seems amazing today.
And I paid $350 for that stupid disk in '94.

You won't find any Mac support for 400K
disks, either.

"Mac" <mac@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:uWkXhJeyFHA.2312@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> Quote from the M$ article "This behaviour is by design."
>
> By design? Why would M$ remove such basic, simple stuff? Undesign
> more likely.
>
> I read it as follows - "As the World's dominant OS supplier,
> dependent upon fools upgrading to stuff they don't really need, we
> couldn't be bothered to provide backward compatibity for stuff that
> we can't use in our marketing, in fact we decided, by design to
> remove stuff on purpose. Ha! Gotcha!"
>
> Rant over.
>
> "Gary Woodruff" <gwoodruff@mvps.org> wrote in message
> news:Om9ZW0dyFHA.2644@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>> Technically you are dropping back into DOS so I suppose that makes
>> the WinXP Support writers feel better. :-)
>>
>> I do remember their being issues with this on some machines
>> including mine at the time. I just tried it here on my new Dell
>> XPS, which I had not tried it on before, and it failed. It starts,
>> but gives a failure error with an old 720 floppy of mine. I don't
>> know if it is the computer or floppy drive BIOS or what, but it
>> didn't work for me in the past on my old Dell and also doesn't at
>> least on this machine now.
>>
>> Hopefully it will work for Terry and will provide a workaround.
>> --
>> Gary Woodruff MS-MVP Shell/User
>>
>> "That'll be the day" - John Wayne in The Searchers
>>
>> "Ken Blake" <kblake@this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in message
>> news:OB7DWmcyFHA.1040@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
>>
>>> Gary, that article isn't strictly correct. Although you can't do
>>> it from the format dialog box, you *can* do so by issuing the
>>> format command from a command prompt, as follows:
>>>
>>> format a: /t:80 /n:9
>>>
>>> --
>>> Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
>>> Please reply to the newsgroup
>>
>>
>
>

Uncle Joe wrote:

> If you ran a for-profit company, would you waste
> precious resources building in support for ancient
> technologies? Even the floppy itself it doomed.
> Many new PCs don't even have floppy drives.
>
> For sentimental reasons, I keep a Mac 400K
> floppy disk because it contains the original
> Microsoft Excel (Mac) application. Excel
> on a 400K disk?! It seems amazing today.
> And I paid $350 for that stupid disk in '94.
>
> You won't find any Mac support for 400K
> disks, either.
>
>

We're not a for-profit organization but keep old machines
around. I think we could have collected quite a substantial
sum by operating those old machines for people whose new
toys and gimmicks are lacking in some essential hardware or
software. Don't laugh...there's profit in them oldies.

Gary Woodruff wrote:
>
> I do remember their being issues with this on some machines including mine at the
> time. I just tried it here on my new Dell XPS, which I had not tried it on before,
> and it failed. It starts, but gives a failure error with an old 720 floppy of mine.
> I don't know if it is the computer or floppy drive BIOS or what, but it didn't work
> for me in the past on my old Dell and also doesn't at least on this machine now.

The media is most likely bad.

Command line is NT, no "DOS" in Windows XP.

Gary Woodruff wrote:

> Technically you are dropping back into DOS so I suppose that makes the WinXP Support
> writers feel better. :-)
>
> I do remember their being issues with this on some machines including mine at the
> time. I just tried it here on my new Dell XPS, which I had not tried it on before,
> and it failed. It starts, but gives a failure error with an old 720 floppy of mine.
> I don't know if it is the computer or floppy drive BIOS or what, but it didn't work
> for me in the past on my old Dell and also doesn't at least on this machine now.
>
> Hopefully it will work for Terry and will provide a workaround.

Bob I wrote:
>
> Command line is NT, no "DOS" in Windows XP.

Well, for NT 4, 5, and 5.1, Windows *is* the Disk Operating System.