The important thing is: I ended up with a few 'defective' diskettes.Īfter going back to a regular FDC, I tried to re-format them using normal DOS 'format a: /u', but it ended up with some bad sectors. I don't know wheter the controller is defective, or just lacks this functionality - I got it with a tape drive, and suspect it may be designed especially for tapes. I got it to read and write from/to a 1.44 MB floppy connected to that controller, but couldn't do format - 'Track 0 bad' error every time, with every diskette. So I've been experimenting with a card marked 'CONNER 2MB FLOPPY CONTROLLER'. Note: I DO have working floppies in my little floppy disk box, but I'm trying to recover the ones that AREN'T working because we all know how hard it is to find floppies now. I HAVE been unchecking that box in Win95, so that's not my issue. And Windows 10 doesn't even give me the option to low-level format - only quick format. Right now, the problem disks just keep getting kicked out as 'failed to format floppy' within Windows 95/98. I am also not opposed to finding a really strong magnet to pass over the floppies to see if that will get them to format. It's the floppy.ĭoes anyone have ready access to any software that might let me COMPLETELY low-level format a floppy to see if I can recover the physical disk for use? Like, the ability to write a brand new track 1 sector index marker, etc. I've checked multiple physical drives and OSes. Ok, so long story short, I have a box of floppies and a couple of them simply won't format anymore - not on my Windows 10 USB floppy nor on Windows 95 or 98.

Floppy disk not formatted error