When you are using MacDrive to read a Macintosh-formatted floppy disk, the following error message may appear:

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The floppy disk driver for Japanese 3Mode/AT drives and NEC98 computers are unable to read floppy disks without a valid media byte.

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A supported fix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Apply it only to computers that are experiencing this specific problem. This fix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Microsoft Windows 98 service pack that contains this hotfix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:NOTE: In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The typical support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

This fix should have the following file attributes or later:

Date Time Version Size File name Platform
----------------------------------------------------------------
7/23/99 1:41p 4.10.2000 25,883 Hsflop.pdr Japanese/NEC
2/24/99 9:37p 4.10.1999 27,301 Hsflop.pdr Japanese
				

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Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

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When a floppy disk is formatted with the FAT file system, a media byte is written to the floppy disk. This media byte indicates to the floppy disk driver the drive geometry (the number of heads and number of cylinders). Floppy disks formatted for Macintosh do not have the media byte.

For additional information about Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition hotfixes, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

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