PCA Forums

Guys, I just got an older IBM Thinkpad laptop and I'm having an issue with the A: floppy drive.
It keeps sayiong the drive is inaccessable. Any ideas on how to get this thing straightened out.

I got this from my sister as a Christmas present. Believe it or not, I've been looking for the older latop for a reason. It doesn't have a CD Rom, just teh 3 1/2 floppy drive. I can't get it to read anything, so I can't even do a windows overwrite to erase teh whole ting and start squeaky clean. Any suggestions or experience here would be appreciated.

If ya need more info, just ask, I'll provide whatever I can.

Have you tried cleaning the drive? Office Depot carries floppy drive cleaning disks.

Other than that you're out of luck unless you can find a replacement drive. One place to look is here:
http://laptopsforless.com

not the answer I was looking for, lol.
I asked my sister if she had used this laptop any. SHe said it was doing fine. I have cleaned it up, deleteing alot of bulking B.S. that was cluttering in up. Is it possible I screwed it up doing this?

A floppy is a VERY simple device. It either works or it doesn't. Floppy drives usually last forever but they occasionally do wear out.

There is a good chance it's just dirty heads. Also make sure that the floppy is FULLY inserted. A drive that hasn't been used in a long time sometimes sticks and the floppy doesn't properly seat.

If it's a removable drive try removing it and then re-inserting it (this will clean any corrosion of the contacts).

I seriosly doubt you could have done anything to disable it in Windows but if you want to be sure, try booting the computer using a Windows 98 boot disk (make sure BIOS is configured to boot from the floppy before the hard drive). If that doesn't work then you can be pretty certain it's a mechanical problem with the drive itself.

hey bud, email me the model # of the thinkpad... i may be able to help