Your Macintosh can’t read a floppy disk.
If you see a message that a floppy disk is unreadable, try one of the following:
mIf the disk has never been used, you may simply need to initialize it.For
instructions, see the “Disks” topic of Macintosh Guide, available in the
Guide (h) menu.
mThe disk may be damaged. See “Repairing a Damaged Disk” later in this
chapter for information on testing and repairing disks.
mIf the disk is a high-density disk previously used on another computer, the
disk may have been formatted incorrectly as an 800K disk rather than as a
1440K (high-density) disk. If so, use the other computer to copy the disk’s
contents onto a properly formatted disk.
If you are trying to use a DOS disk, consider the following:
mWhen formatting disks on a DOS computer for use in a Macintosh, users
need to format standard double-sided disks as 720K disks and high-density
disks as 1440K disks. Because DOS computers allow standard double-
sided disks to be formatted in 1440K format and high-density disks to be
formatted in 720K format, it’s possible that your disk has been given a
format that won’t work in a Macintosh.
If you think your DOS floppy disk might have a format that doesn’t work
in a Macintosh, use a DOS computer to copy the contents of your DOS
floppy disk onto another DOS floppy disk that has been properly formatted
for use in a Macintosh.
49
Troubleshooting