Diskette drive not functioning

Is this happening with all disk?  Is the light always on?

If so then your drive has just went bad.  You can get a replacement cheap.  Name brand floppy drives cost ~ $10-$15.

Simple hardware test:

Insert a DOS or win9X bootable 1.44M floppy inthe drive and see if you can boot from this. If "No", re-check BIOS settings. If they are correct, get a new FDD.

Or:
Boot your 98 system to command prompt only. See if the FDD works OK (read and format floppies). If "Yes" here, you 98 drivers are damaged and you should do SFC, or remove and re-detect the FDD in device manager, or something, to correct the situation.
/RID

I would double check BIOS settings, as well.

Take it into the garden and bury it...

Sounds broken to me

Agree with OliWarner.... its not worth the hassle to try and fix it, they are onky cheap so go get yourself a nice new one and put that one in your machine.  

Then go bury the old one :)

Just one thing to check however, make sure the disk is fully inserted into the drive.  If you have a case where the floopy goes behind the front of it then there is a chance that the case is slightly leaning on the eject button, this will mean that the floppy disk you insert is not seated right inside the drive.  If you do have a case as I have just explained then take the floppy out of the machine and try it outside the case, plugged in as normal.  If that succeeds then you could trim the floppy button down a bit with a shape stanley knife.  I had one that did as your saying not too long ago and that was what was causing the error.  I just took two milli metres of the floppy disk button with a knife, inserted it back in and it worked fine.

If its not that then bin the wee bleeder!

Good luck to you

pjcrooks2000

I'm sure you all don't mean the drive should be ditched before it has been found to be faulty.... If it is a BIOS/driver/O/S/floppy disc problem it'll still be there with a new FDD. No?
/RID

I did say get a new disk first before he ditched the old one :)  I know what you mean it could be a number of problems, yes please check all things advised to you and then you can work out which one works :)  

Thanks for reminding us all Rid ;)

that's true to an extent but not too much time should be wasted on trying to breathe life into a dead FDD.... they fail all the time...

Agree again the things suggested here should take 10 mins tops, if he still has not had any luck then do as myslef and Oli say to do, but don't throw away the old one until the new one works :)

or buy a USB one... they're a lot more reliable and faster?

Hehe, I'm with you... they're not worth too much hassle. And they DO seem to be failing quite often, too...
Cheers!
/RID

Heh even better but  atad more expensive rip it our and get yourself a USB pen, 128MB or 256MB an dthen you can take it with you where ever you :)

I never use my flooooooopy anymore, i mean 1.44MB thats  a waste of time to me :)  

Oooh sorry you said that already OliWarner :)

i actually meant a USB floppy drive... they are useful... for doing driver installations on fresh systems... and you can take them from PC to PC as and when you need them, plus they wont get the wear and tear of always being on as regular floppies are...

the problem with flash drives is they're not recognised as floppies... so WinXP/linux setup wont see them... = bummer

Actually the one I have has a virtual floppy drive with it!  Yes USB flppy may be a good idea for him  TEAC is usally a good one to get I would say!

More and more companies are actually preventing the use of flash disks - they are a glaring breach of firewall and security etc. We may see floppies coming back. Some of my older win98 machines didn't even have usb. As mentioned earlier I would check the BIOS to make sure the floppy is set to be 1.44mb. I would also put in a known good floppy and try dir a:\ at a DOS prompt. If these work, how are you trying to format, by "format a:" at a DOS prompt, I hope. Format can have a lot of arguments, one of which forces the size, so if you were formatting using a desktop icon, this may have been mis-set. Failing all that - it may be to buy another, but when you have the back off, just check that the cables are fully pushed in on the old one.

Just because paranoid companies are stopping hotswappable USB installation without admin/power user rights doesnt make flash drives a bad idea, especially at installation time...

Just think how much easier having one flash drive with all your drivers on is than having several floppies...

I know my life would be easier if windows accepted them at install-time...

Before going for another expensive Option, you may just want to run a Cleaning Floppy in your FDD and see if that makes any difference. Probably its just a clogged magnetic head  that requires Cleaning.

Good Luck

Sinu.

but a cleaning kist cost as much as a new floppy.

+ there's 3000% more effort...

The Precision of my suggestion is left to the Author. +3000% is definitely misleading. Guys, all I am suggestion is to use a Cleaning Floppy and not a Cleaning Drive or a Robot that uses Rocket Science. :)  Its as simple as acessing a Floppy and the cost if insignificant when compared to a USB Flash Drive or having to go for a NEW FDD.

Cheers
Sinu

I would definately find buying a floppy disk ~3000% less effort than opening up a floppy disk drive, cleaning the magnetic heads and putting it back together again....

Especially if the new FDD is a USB one... they're cool

That's What I am trying to Explain... use a Cleaning Floppy Media. This procedure just involves to have the user instert the cleaning Floppy Media into the Drive and access it. Its as simple as it sounds. Instead, who suggested of opening the Drive and Clean the Head Manually ? Jesus Christs.... we are creating a Mountain out of nothing ! :))

Cheers
Sinu

And that's cheaper than a floppy disk?
That's going to last longer than a new floppy?

A new floppy here costs £3.50 including vat and P&P...

OLiWarner... the world is full of people who do not know anything about anything and suggest unreasonable things to solve the simplest of problems... If i were you I would just iggy them ;)

Duh, whats iggy mate ?

I think he means ignore :p

Aye it's a secret code that is hidden from those who don't know nothing ;)