Unable to format floppy

C

clutterbuck

New Member
After using Eraser 5.82 to erase unused space on some floppies I find I can't afterwards reformat the floppies (Windows says it "was unable to complete the format") unless I deselect "Cluster tip area" and "Directory Entries" before running Eraser.

Is there a reason for this and is it OK to deselect the above items?

Thanks for any help
 
You should upgrade to 5.8.7 - 5.8.2 had some serious data loss bugs which were fixed in later versions. That could be the cause of your problems. You should format the floppy before doing another free space erase (with cluster tips and directory entry erasure enabled).

How are you formatting the floppies - and why are you formatting them and erasing unused space at the same time?

Joel
 
Thanks for the info Joel.

I have now upgraded to Eraser 5.8.7 -- couldn't download from Heidi's site but found it elsewhere.

I was erasing some old personal data from the disks and then reformatting just to ensure they would be OK on my present PC. I am now erasing old files, reformatting and then erasing the free space.

I was being further confused because some of these old floppies are "DD" instead of "HD" and I hadn't realised that Windows XP doesn't easily format to 720K . I eventually discovered that the command "format a: /T:80 /N:9" works and everything seems to be OK.
 
Ah, okay, I've not seen any of those 720kb floppies before :( glad it worked!

Joel
 
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