Microsoft KB Archive/84941

= Abnormal FORMAT Termination Yields Invalid Media =

Article ID: 84941

Article Last Modified on 10/13/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0a
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.0 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q84941



SUMMARY
If you use the MS-DOS FORMAT command to reformat a fixed disk drive and you terminate the command by pressing CTRL+C (or CTRL+BREAK) at the &quot;Proceed with Format (Y/N)?&quot; prompt, later attempts to access the drive produce the following error, even if the drive was properly formatted before the abnormal termination:

Invalid media type reading drive X

Abort, Retry, Fail?



WORKAROUND
To regain access to the drive, do the following:


 * 1) Issue the FORMAT command again, and press N (for No) at the &quot;Proceed with format (Y/N)?&quot; prompt.
 * 2) Reboot the machine.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in MS-DOS versions 5.0, 5.0a, and 6.0. This problem was corrected in later versions of MS-DOS.



MORE INFORMATION
This condition is caused by an error in the MS-DOS FORMAT CTRL+C handler. When FORMAT is terminated at any point by pressing CTRL+C (or CTRL+BREAK), it assumes that the disk is only partially formatted and therefore unusable; therefore, the disk is marked as such.

Additional query words: 5.00 5.00a 6.00

Keywords: KB84941

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