Try to format on 640 kB or even 360. May be all your floppies are too old and no longer suitable to work on full density.

Hi sounds interesting how would I go about forming on 640 kb or 360 kbs

I noticed when the can’t format message comes up it also says could be wrong density but I don’t know what that means

Hi I’ve tried formatting in 360 kb mode still no luck it just gives a message error or wrong density

Drive is busted. Either needs cleaning or there's a more problematic issue in it. Can it read any existing disks by any chance?

wbahnassi wrote on 2024-07-02, 09:50:

Drive is busted. Either needs cleaning or there's a more problematic issue in it. Can it read any existing disks by any chance?

Hi yes the drive definitely reads different disks I’ve also cleaned the heads and have tried a new data cable but doesn’t make
Any difference

Don't assume the drive is bad because it can't format disks from a specific pack. It's not impossible (or even improbable) that this pack is bad.
Try to format or write something to one of the disks it can read, if they are not all original software disks.

jude1977 wrote on 2024-07-01, 23:51:

Brought a pack of unformated floppy disks and they won’t format

What are you using to format the floppies? What is the exact error being reported?
Drive type and photo of the floppies in question would help too.

These old drives are not really standardised so to say. Some drives write only 360k and some need certain disks. Disks often go mouldy and bad and it can rub off on the head so that also good disks fail.

Deunan wrote on 2024-07-02, 11:12:

jude1977 wrote on 2024-07-01, 23:51:

Brought a pack of unformated floppy disks and they won’t format

What are you using to format the floppies? What is the exact error being reported?
Drive type and photo of the floppies in question would help too.

Hi I’m using windows 3.1 I’m using 1.6 and 1.2 discs both with the same problem I try to format them and I get a error message I’ve taken some pictures to show you the way I try it and the error message I get

Check that the drive is set to the right type in the BIOS.

jude1977 wrote on 2024-07-02, 13:14:

Hi I’m using windows 3.1 I’m using 1.6 and 1.2 discs both with the same problem

Might be my poor eyesight but I can't see much on these photos. I do see you're using Windows GUI to format. Don't. Boot to pure DOS and try "FORMAT A: /U" command (I assume the drive is A:). See what that does.

Deunan wrote on 2024-07-02, 13:36:

jude1977 wrote on 2024-07-02, 13:14:

Hi I’m using windows 3.1 I’m using 1.6 and 1.2 discs both with the same problem

Might be my poor eyesight but I can't see much on these photos. I do see you're using Windows GUI to format. Don't. Boot to pure DOS and try "FORMAT A: /U" command (I assume the drive is A:). See what that does.

Hi I’ve tried to format in dos mode but when I go from c command prompt to a command prompt with the floppy in drive it says a error message it doesn’t give me the a command prompt so I can’t do anything with the disk that’s why I’ve been trying in windows

jude1977 wrote on 2024-07-02, 14:13:

Hi I’ve tried to format in dos mode but when I go from c command prompt to a command prompt with the floppy in drive it says a error message it doesn’t give me the a command prompt so I can’t do anything with the disk that’s why I’ve been trying in windows

New to DOS, huh? Do not switch drive to A: if it's not formatted. You need to run format command from C: (or any other drive you're on that DOS booted up from). That's why you give A: as a parameter to the format command, so that it knows what you want to format (obviously not the current drive).

FYI format command will not run without explict drive designation, so typing it and pressing enter by accident is not going to destroy your C: content. Plus it should ask for confirmation anyway. So, boot to pure DOS (don't use the command prompt from inside Windows), then just type FORMAT A: /U
If the command is not found it might be not in the PATH variable. In that case figure out where FORMAT is (C:\DOS for example) and change the working directory first with CD <dir_name>.

Deunan wrote on 2024-07-02, 14:53:

New to DOS, huh? Do not switch drive to A: if it's not formatted. You need to run format command from C: (or any other drive you […]
Show full quote

jude1977 wrote on 2024-07-02, 14:13:

Hi I’ve tried to format in dos mode but when I go from c command prompt to a command prompt with the floppy in drive it says a error message it doesn’t give me the a command prompt so I can’t do anything with the disk that’s why I’ve been trying in windows

New to DOS, huh? Do not switch drive to A: if it's not formatted. You need to run format command from C: (or any other drive you're on that DOS booted up from). That's why you give A: as a parameter to the format command, so that it knows what you want to format (obviously not the current drive).

FYI format command will not run without explict drive designation, so typing it and pressing enter by accident is not going to destroy your C: content. Plus it should ask for confirmation anyway. So, boot to pure DOS (don't use the command prompt from inside Windows), then just type FORMAT A: /U
If the command is not found it might be not in the PATH variable. In that case figure out where FORMAT is (C:\DOS for example) and change the working directory first with CD <dir_name>.

Hi i typed what you said to type in dos mode definitely gives me the option to format disk but every disk I format in dos mode seems to give me this error message I’ve taken a screenshot for you

jude1977 wrote on 2024-07-02, 15:09:

Hi i typed what you said to type in dos mode definitely gives me the option to format disk but every disk I format in dos mode seems to give me this error message I’ve taken a screenshot for you

Inspect the floppies for physical defects. Had the same error when I tried to format a 1.44mb 3.5" that had deep scratches near sector 0.

jude1977 wrote on 2024-07-02, 15:09:

Deunan wrote on 2024-07-02, 14:53:

New to DOS, huh? Do not switch drive to A: if it's not formatted. You need to run format command from C: (or any other drive you […]
Show full quote

jude1977 wrote on 2024-07-02, 14:13:

Hi I’ve tried to format in dos mode but when I go from c command prompt to a command prompt with the floppy in drive it says a error message it doesn’t give me the a command prompt so I can’t do anything with the disk that’s why I’ve been trying in windows

New to DOS, huh? Do not switch drive to A: if it's not formatted. You need to run format command from C: (or any other drive you're on that DOS booted up from). That's why you give A: as a parameter to the format command, so that it knows what you want to format (obviously not the current drive).

FYI format command will not run without explict drive designation, so typing it and pressing enter by accident is not going to destroy your C: content. Plus it should ask for confirmation anyway. So, boot to pure DOS (don't use the command prompt from inside Windows), then just type FORMAT A: /U
If the command is not found it might be not in the PATH variable. In that case figure out where FORMAT is (C:\DOS for example) and change the working directory first with CD <dir_name>.

Hi i typed what you said to type in dos mode definitely gives me the option to format disk but every disk I format in dos mode seems to give me this error message I’ve taken a screenshot for you

I’ve tried multiple floppy discs as well

jude1977 wrote on 2024-07-02, 15:09:

Hi i typed what you said to type in dos mode definitely gives me the option to format disk but every disk I format in dos mode seems to give me this error message I’ve taken a screenshot for you

Back in the DOS days I would trash the floppy if it gave me such errors. But I was a bit too naive back then. You see, DOS is pretty stupid, but it tries hard and it actually makes things worse. In many cases DOS will look at the first sector of the floppy (even when using /U with format) to try and determine the floppy previous format. But not because it want's to format it again in the same way - no, that would be too smart. It just checks if you aren't trying to re-format to what it considers an invalid combination (like doing 720k on a 1.44M drive, on a floppy with a hole). The problem is, DOS often misunderstands what it finds and refuses to format a clean disk, or one formatted win non-DOS tools.

TL;DR: You now need to try non-DOS tool to make sure it isn't DOS stupidity preventing you from doing the format. I recommend FDFORMAT from FDFORM18 package. You can find it in FreeDOS, or just by running your favourite web search with "FDFORM18" keyword. In that package there will be FDFORMAT.EXE file, run that instead. Either just by typing FDFORMAT A: or try adding F120 at the end to that. See what that does.

Another way is to try and use a strong magnet to wipe the floppy but seeing how it's all rather new to you I'd suggest you keep your magnets away from your floppies for now. You can always revist that idea later if nothing else works.

Deunan wrote on 2024-07-02, 16:14:

TL;DR: You now need to try non-DOS tool to make sure it isn't DOS stupidity preventing you from doing the format. I recommend FDFORMAT from FDFORM18 package. You can find it in FreeDOS, or just by running your favourite web search with "FDFORM18" keyword. In that package there will be FDFORMAT.EXE file, run that instead. Either just by typing FDFORMAT A: or try adding F120 at the end to that. See what that does.

You could also use image disk 1.20 to do it, although i still don't know how to use it (especially how to move sector 0 from bad area to good).