CD, DVD and Floppy drive not reading disks

I have done nothing new or different to my computer, yet all of a sudden, when I insert a CD into my internal CD ROM drive, a DVD into my external (connected by USB port) DVD reader/writer and a floppy into my built-in A: drive, I get the message "disk not formatted ". The DVD is a application disk that I have used many times before, and the CD and Floppy both contain data that worked on the same computer days before. Please help!!

 

Hi Barbara,
It sounds like a floppy drive error message (I can't remember having that message for optical drives).

The first thing to suspect is that the floppy disk has been worn out or has been corrupted by, say, coming into contact with a magnetic field.

Test the floppy disk and let us know if that seems to be the problem (try another floppy disk or try reading that floppy disk in another computer).

Matt

 

I only wish it were that easy....I'm having the same problem on all drives...is it possible that the battery went out on my motherboard and lost all the settings to the drives (the rest of my computer -- hard drive, monitor -- works fine, though)....or do I need to reset the BIOS? The only thing that happened differently right before I had this problem is that my CPU was turned off -- I usually leave it turned on all the time. Could something have happened because of that?

 

Maybe some information for you, but you may need to give us more info about the problem if you can.

If you are using the one software program to access those drives, I might blame the software program.

If you can no longer use any of the drives, it would be strange that they all cannot be accessed...floppy, IDE and USB drives.. It may be that the motherboard/chipset drivers have been corrupted (it may be that the correct motherboard /chipset drivers were never installed and it has only been running on standard Windows drivers to work).

You may need to identify the motherboard of the computer, then download and install the latest drivers. Everest in my signature may help you identify the hardware (although I run the specified drivers, Everest only identifies my motherboard "generally "). Do you have any make/model for the motherboard/computer?

Matt

 

Thanks for sticking with me...I have an HP Pavilion 725n, and I'm starting to think your motherboard theory may be the biggest clue so far....I'm going to download a file transfer program first and transfer all my files by serial cable to another computer, before I start taking this one apart and tinkering with settings....I will probably be back this weekend with an update...thanks for your help!

 

Barbara, here is the download page for the 725n:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?lc=en&lang=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=311249&os=228

I was going to say not to worry about getting the BIOS update, but when I looked at it, it relates directly to some of your problems, external DVD and floppy drives and also mentions CD drives. I would say that is what you need to install first, but get the other updated drivers for you hardware and install those as well.

The thing about updating the BIOS is to read the instructions carefully and follow them. If there are warnings, heed them. It is not hard to do, just be careful.

Even if that may fix the problem, I would download and install those labelled "Driver ", "Application ", "Software-Multimedia" and the one under "Update" (if you use HP imaging software). The Microsoft files should be covered by Windows Updates if you have been keeping up to date, and I would only get the firmware updates if necessary (you would need to identify which models are in your computer).

Hopefully the BIOS update will cure the drive problems straight away. The driver updates will improve your system and keep it running well.

Matt