Need help with this floppy drive error...

[crowland2]

I'm trying to put a jump-drive driver on my friend's computer using her floppy drive. I'm able to open up her "A" drive and see the file; however, when I try to copy it or cut and paste, etc. I get this message: Your computer has performed an illegal operation...

I click ok and get this message:

This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.

Is there anything I can do to get past this? The owner doesn't know anything about it. She vaguely remember trying to use it a while back and it didn't work.

[Sidewinder]

You might try going into the device manager & check to see if there are any conflicts with the floppy drive, also the driver for it may have gotten corrupted, in the device manager right click on the floppy & click on update driver, hope this helps. Sidewinder

[crowland2]

No conflicts--it said device was working properly. I tried to update the driver, and it said the best driver was already installed. Thanks for the post, though! Anything is worth a try. Any other suggestions?

[Sidewinder]

Could be the floppy drive has just went south, the price on them is dirt cheap these days. Might want to just go ahead & replace it. Sidewinder

[104456]

Try the disk in another system to check its alright if it is use a windows boot disk as you restart the system to see if it will read from the drive correctly if it does its probably a windows problem.If not you could try either reseating or replacing the floppy cable and/or drive.Failing that its either a bios or motherboard fault so post back if none of those work.

[crowland2]

You all understand that I can open the floppy drive and even see what's on it? I just get the error message when I try to copy and move it to the harddrive or when I try to open it. Just want to make sure you understood that. Thanks.

[Sidewinder]

Yes that was understood, error messages can be caused by a bad floppy drive, have you tried copying & pasting any files from floppy other than the ones you mentioned?
Another thing you can try is to go to the device manager & highlite your floppy drive, right click & remove it, the reboot & let windows detect it & re-install the drivers for it. Sidewinder

[AlaricD]

This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.

That part interests me more than the illegal operation-- it sounds like there is some sort of policy enforcement in place that isn't working quite right-- the interruption in the file copy per the policy is causing the illegal operation. Find the source of this policy and remove it, then see if you continue to get the error.

Start, run poledit.exe may be revealing (that is, of course, if the administrator hasn't blocked the use of it by other users of the system.) (This particular error could also come from Internet Explorer.)

Because this is Windows 98, you can just boot to "Safe Mode Command Prompt Only" and copy the contents of the floppy to a directory on the HD. To do so:

1. Remove the floppy diskette.
2. Shut down the computer
3. Power on.
4. At the message "Starting Windows 98" press F8
5. At the menu, choose "Safe Mode Command Prompt Only"
6. Type md temp123 and hit enter.
7. Type cd temp123 and hit enter.
8. Place the floppy in the drive.
9. Type xcopy a:\*.* /s /e /v and hit enter
10. You should receive a message such as "X file(s) copied" after some disk activity.
11. Eject the floppy
12. Reboot

Once in Windows, you will no longer need the floppy to install the driver-- the files will be in the c:\temp123 directory on the hard drive.

[crowland2]

I've returned the computer to my friend since I fixed her original problem. I've emailed her this post so she can try to fix this floppy problem. I'll try to let you know what she comes up with. Thanks for all the replies!

[cshajkur]

Goto to madboot.com and download file: "madboot ver 8" link http://madboot.com/ First boot up and check your Bios by taping your delete key (keyboard). Check Bios settings for any conflicts, then restart computer using mad boot version 8.

[LDThornton]

Apparently, you have a bad floppy drive or there is some kind of restriction applied to the files. If you want to install it from the floppy can't you just left click the file and install it? If you want the driver for the jump drive and the computer has access to the internet you can go to the manufacturers web site and download the drivers from there. But that was too easy of an answer..........