Graphics forum: FORMATTING A 1.44 MB DISKETTE

When you format a floppy from WinXP you should only see a selection for the ''FAT'' File System (actually I believe it is FAT16).

My own WindowsXP Pro system uses NTFS on my hard drive, but the only selection I have, when going to format a floppy, is ''FAT''

There are outside tools, that I've see, that may give possibilities to format a floppy with NTFS or FAT12 and a couple other file systems as well, but doing so will not be useful to the common user. As far as I have seen, I have never seen a tool (or a reason) to format a floppy to FAT32 (the other file system that your WinXP might be using).

There is little reason for attempting other than FAT (FAT16) on a floppy. There is just not enough space on a floppy to gain any space advantage. Heck, most computers now don't even have floppy drives in them, unless you want to pay extra! and with USB drives being faster, smaller, and gobs more useful, most people don't see any use of a floppy anyway .

I know you said they were 1.4MB formatted floppies, but I ask you to re-verify.
The reason is because you can get that sort of error if you try to format a 720KB floppy to the higher density of 1.4MB.

The 1.4MB floppy is physically identifiably different by having TWO holes on the outer edge of the case. One hole, kati-corner from the ''angle-cut'' corner, which is the write-protect hole, the other being the hole=hi-density (1.4MB) identifier.

Have you got BOTH?
BTW, the write-protect hole, usually has the shutter slid over to block the hole, to allow you to write to (or format) the floppy. That isn't your problem, right now, because lacking that would report a wholly different, and more meaningful error.

If your diskettes are the double-density (marked 2D, or 720KB) then you can format them with this DOS command, in WinXP (I just tried it, it worked):
FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9