Hello Woody: Thank you so much for your help on this Floppy lesson. For once I have undertood instantly all the messages that I have received. So glad I asked! Regards, June ----- Original Message ----- Subject: Re: [NEWGEN] FLOPPY A PROBLEM > Hi June,> > Write protection of a 3.5 floppy. > > The 3.5 floppies have a button on the back that you can slide up or down, > which opens or closes a hole. > Hole open = disk is write protected. (Read only) > Hole closed = can write to disk. > > Formatting a 3.5 disk: > > 1. Use Windows Explorer to navigate to and highlight "3 1/2 Floppy (A:)" > 2. With cursor on the highlighted "3 1/2 Floppy (A:)", right click on your > mouse. > 3. Select "Format". > 4. For format type, select "Full" > 5. Click on "start" > > NOTE: "Full" format is recommended to ensure your old floppies haven't > developed bad places on the disk, and to ensure previous formatting hasn't > become too weak to be picked up by the disk drive. Reformatting rejuvenates > the disk, or blocks off the areas that can't be fixed. The reformatting > will tell you if the disk has bad sectors. Whenever I run across one that > has bad sectors, I throw it away, because it's an indication the disk may be > on its last gasp. I know others who have just pulled out an old disk and > placed data on it, and then experienced loss of data on that disk. > Reformatting before use helps prevent that. > Woody ~~~~~~~~<>~~~~~~~~~~