[ The PC Guide | Troubleshooting and Repair Guide | The Troubleshooting Expert | Troubleshooting Specific Components | Troubleshooting Floppy Disk Drives | Disk Formatting Problems ]

I am trying to format a floppy disk but always get a "Track 0 bad - disk unusable" error message

Explanation: You are trying to format a floppy disk and the format fails saying that track 0 is bad on the disk. This occurs even with brand new disks, and even after trying several disks in a new box.

Diagnosis: The usual cause of this problem is using the wrong type of media. In particular, it is often seen when people try to format a high-density (1.44 MB) disk as a double-density (720 KB) disk, in either a low-density or high-density drive. Many people do not realize that while high-density drives are backward compatible with the double-density format (if you use the correct parameter when formatting), the media is not. High density media have a different formulation and cannot be formatted to 720 KB, even on a high-density drive.

Recommendation:

• Use only double-density media if you have a double-density drive, or when you need a 720 KB disk.
• If you are using the right media, and you are having problems with one disk, try another one, or another brand.
• Make sure the floppy drive types are properly set up in the system BIOS.
• If problems persist then you will need to troubleshoot the drive.

Home  -  Search  -  Topics  -  Up