win98se install problem

[Lost4Cause]

Specifically the error is that my install floppy no longer seems to be formatted. I reinstalled everything about a month ago and it worked fine, I don't keep it near speakers, monitors or magnets. I went to reinstall on a new computer and nothing was on the disk, I kept getting I/O errors so I tried it on a couple other computers and there was nothing on my install or emergency boot disks.

Has this happened to anyone else? I'd like to know how to avoid this in the future. I'm going to my local computer repair place today and see if they'll copy a working floppy to mine. I'm sure they will since I'm taking the original cd and the certificate of authenticity that came with everything.

--Edited:
Okay, nevermind. Turns out both floppies had bad sectors which blows as I needed to reformat and stuff. Oh well, my buds at the computer shop open up in a couple hours, I'll go pester them for a new floppy.

 

[djnes]

Can't you boot from your 98 CD? That would be faster.

 

[cisco guy]

yeah, its happened to me from time to time - but over a year
air pollution, an old floppy drive that has partially lost its strength to magnetize the media
do not discount the ability of things like magnetized screwdrivers and scissors
I have also used GetDataBack to retrieve data from invisible floppies
Its best to do a full format at your machine, not trust the preformat out of the box.