Technical information

m When formatting floppy disks on a DOS computer for use in a Macintosh, you need to format
standard double-sided disks as 720K disks and high-density disks as 1440K disks. Double-sided
disks formatted in 1440K format and high-density disks formatted in 720K format may not
work in a Macintosh.
If you think a floppy disk formatted on a DOS computer might have a format that doesn’t
work in a Macintosh, use a DOS computer to copy the contents of the disk onto a properly
formatted disk.
m The floppy disk may be too warm or too cold to be read. A cold disk will warm up after a few
minutes in a warm room. You can cool an overly warm disk by placing it in a shady, cool place.
m The disk drive may be damaged. To see if this is the problem, click No to eject the disk; then insert
the disk into another drive, if you have one. If you still see the message, the floppy disk may be
damaged. If the disk icon appears on the desktop when the disk is in another drive, one of the
drives may be damaged.
Sometimes a drive can be damaged because its heads are out of alignment. You can still insert a disk
into such a drive and copy information onto the disk. However, when you try to use the disk in a
different drive the different drive can’t read (find and display information from) the disk. Try the
disk in three or four drives. If more than one drive can’t read the disk, it is likely that the drive that
copied information onto the disk is damaged. If only one drive can’t read the disk, then that drive is
probably the damaged one.
m If none of these suggestions works, the floppy disk is probably damaged. First use a disk recovery
program to copy the data from your damaged disk onto a good disk. For instructions, see the
documentation that came with the disk recovery program. Then, use Disk First Aid to repair the
damaged floppy disk, following the instructions in Chapter 13, “Techniques for Diagnosing and
Solving Problems.”
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