[ 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:
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