It's most likely either a corrupt floppy disk or a bad floppy drive. I have multiple old systems and some of the most common problems are in fact associated with floppy disks and drives. The behaviour described is especially characteristic of a corrupt boot floppy disk; on the other hand, when the machine asks to format an unrecognized disk (one that you know to be good from using it in another machine), that is a classic sign of a bad floppy drive.
Floppy disks do not last forever, alas, although certain brands seem better than others and Apple's OEM disks tend to be more robust than most. YMMV. A couple of suggestions: Try booting from the Install Me First disk that came with your machine and see if you can get the machine to boot. You presumably don't want to agree to an installation on the machine, but it would help for diagnostic purposes to know if the machine can boot from a floppy at all. Just terminate the installation at the appropriate point (e.g., disagree with the software license). If you have another machine on which to make a replacement Disk Tools floppy, doing so would then be the next step, since Disk Tools (or a Norton emergency disk or the like) is the floppy that you need. The 7.5 system available on Apple's old software dl pages will do nicely. If neither of these work, then a further simple strategy to try is to clean and lubricate the drive and see if that helps: e.g., there is often a gear mechanism visible at the back in pre-PPC machines, outside the area where the floppy disk itself goes, and it more or less always requires lubrication by this stage. A little WD-40 or some silicon grease if you have it should work. Then boot and insert a floppy to spread it around in the gears. There are more fulsome instructions on the cleaning and care of old floppy drive mechanisms "out there." Cleaning involves mostly getting any dust out of the drive; best to leave the heads alone, as they are very delicate and you can ruin the drive permanently just by fiddling with them (best cleaned with a floppy cleaning kit, which is essentially like a floppy disk that you insert). Good luck! -- ----- You received this message because you are a member of the Vintage Macs group. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintage-macs Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/
