Formatted Disk May Show Incorrect Bad Sector Information

• Microsoft Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

When you format a floppy disk in Windows 95 by typing the FORMAT command (FORMAT <X>: /S) at an MS-DOS prompt, the summary information displayed for the disk may be incorrect. For example, you may see the following summary:

       1,457,664 bytes total disk space
         397,824 bytes used by system
   4,294,597,120 bytes in bad sectors
       1,430,016 bytes available on disk

             512 bytes in each allocation unit.
           2,793 allocation units available on disk.

   Disk unsuitable for system disk.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur if the floppy disk contains a bad sector where Windows 95 would have otherwise copied the system files. Even though Windows 95 reports 4 gigabytes of bad sectors, there is actually no problem with the disk other than that the transfer of system files failed.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Windows 95. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

If you reformat the disk without the /S command, the correct information will be displayed for the disk. However, the disk will not be a boot disk.