"Mike M" wrote in
:

Without a 'working' A: drive, etc., there seems little point in
trying to make and run a disk checking application g

Mart,

Yes I agree and I'm guessing why I included a reference to running for
example PowerMax from a CD but then again I suspect that was more down
to luck rather than anything else. :-) I'm running at best on one
cylinder today and surprised that I posted at all. (Trying to clear
my head) I recently bought myself a cheap external usb floppy drive
and its been quite useful in such cases although to use at boot time
you have to set the bios accordingly such as enabling legacy usb
devices and in the case of one machine here specifically include usb
floppy in the boot order list.

Chers,

CMOS battery dead? BIOS not set to boot from floppy? 2 things I've seen
more than once.

--
"Time will bring to light whatever is hidden;
it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor."
Horace (65 - 8 BC); Roman poet.

Mike