report cards read-only on floppy

[Chris Aitken]

Jason.Shein-V7Ve2fXh0sTQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org wrote:

>I hate to ask the obvious, but have you attempted inserting a new blank 
>floppy, and seeing if the 
>problem persists? 
>  
>
I tried to format (just usingf the GUI 'Floppy Formatter') - sure enough 
I got an error:

Problem reading cylinder 2, expected 18432, read 4096

So, I inserted another floppy, it formatted successfully, I copied files 
onto it, and opend a file (*not* read-only) in OpenOffice!

>The reason I am asking, is that floppy drives are mechanical devices that 
>can easily fail due to 
>dust and debris. 
>
Doesn't look like mechanical failure but your troubleshooting idea 
uncovered the real problem: a damaged floppy disk.

>I have seen in the past where the microswitch that checks 
>if the write protect tab
>had stuck / failed and all disks seems to be read only.
>  
>
Thanks to everyone for your help. Sorry I was a bit thick.

Chris

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