Request could not be performed because of an I/O device error

[wumply]

The message from my effort to read and write to my floppy drive also said "A:/ not accessible."

I tried a different floppy, with the same results.

So assuming the floppy drive was the I/O device I tried a brand new floppy drive.

Exactly the same results.

What can I do now?

[efc]

Check cable connections.

Enter the bios and make sure the floppy, drive A: is active.

If that doesn't fix it, enter the Device Manager. Delete the floppy drive and reboot. XP will find the drive and install it.

[wumply]

All cables plugged in tightly. It is getting power for the little green light on the front of the drive lights when I try to read/write.

Nothing in the BIOS about active-inactive. The A drive was, like, just listed. Couldn't do anything with it...no options.

Deleted drive and rebooted.
Problem still existed...

?????

[georgejr05]

try to clean your floppy drive, using floppy drive cleaner.. if problem persist put it with other computer to test it if still did not work..try to change your floppy drive with a new one.

[bhxtyrant]

Also might wanna check the pins where the data cable connects to the back of your floppy.I had a similar issue when i accidentally bent a pin while plugging in the cable.Correcting the pin fixed it.

[rik]

and sometimes, even though the cables are seated snuggly, reseating may help.

[Grim]

try to clean your floppy drive, using floppy drive cleaner.. if problem persist put it with other computer to test it if still did not work..try to change your floppy drive with a new one.

He said he Bought a new one.. I doubt it would be dirty too ;).


Havent heard mention it, so I will, try changing you floppy drive's Data Cable.

Magnets Are not your PCs friend.

As said, try the drive in another computer, with another cable.

[wumply]

I'm going to try a new data cable tomorrow. Also I am beginning to think another way to go would be just to ignore the floppy drive and use a flash/thumb drive instead. Since I just got a 2 gb one!! Of course the drawback is that I've a ton of floppies with files and pictures I want which I began saving back in 1999--Catch 22 is that I can't read them without a working floppy drive. I'll post a reply here if/when I get things working whatever that turns out to be. I'm wondering if it could be that some fine wire has somehow broken or become disconnected from some terminal in the data or power cable or in the power supply but the latter is only 3 years old.

[zipp51]

wumply is the write protect switch on?Check the floppies you have tried.:D

[wumply]

Yep, the write protect switch is on.

Update: But no solution. Just behavior that is inconsistent!

At this point I elected to take it to my computer repair place. There the technician began by inserting a disk in the floppy drive. He could read the disk--no problem. So he called me and told me he found nothing amiss. So I went back and we tried inserting and reading the 3 floppies that would not read at home. Including the one I could not write to at home. All were readable and we were able to write to the one I kcould not write to at home. And this was with MY computer.

Well, what to say?...things were working

So went back home, and I could not read or write to any floppy disk.

Go figure!

I also noticed this once back at home. Sometimes I can read a floppy to the extent that I can see the drive's contents listed, but generally I cannot access a given file. At other times I cannot even see the contents and in its efforts to read a disk, the drive just goes click...click...click until I take the floppy out of the drive.

I also noted that when I now click on the A drive (from My Computer) I often get an hour glass. Which goes when I click out of My Computer. Then if I try and access My Computer again (from the desktop icon) I get an hour glass which itself disappears in 2 seconds, leaving me still at the desktop. (A reboot however, overcame that particular behavior and I was able to access My Computer.)

And the above is with a new data cable and the new floppy drive.

And I am sure, sure, sure that no pins are bent and that all cables (power andl data) are firmly and correctly seated.

And in all other aspects my computer continues to work just fine.

I had great hopes of a solution when I took my computer to the Repair Place; I still hope that the facts of this post will stimulate some further options. I begin to wonder if something is amiss with Windows - a bit desperately. Maybe I should try a reinstall of XP. Time-consuming but not as bad as a clean install. And even that may not be a solution. But what to do when you find nowhere to turn?

[bhxtyrant]

Only other thing that comes to mind are the discs themself,i have had problems with old discs before that had a similar behavior.when i inserted the disc the floppy tried to access the data which was met with the "click,click,click" until i either had an error or removed the floppy disc.I would try a fresh floppy just for testing.