Floppy Drive not recognized

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I am working on a computer that will not recognize a floppy drive. The OS is Windows XP Home edition. A floppy drive controller is listed in the Device Manager. I thought that the cable was loose – so unplugged the data cable from the drive and the mother board. Also disconnected and reconnected the power cable. No luck. So then I changed out the floppy drive. Still no luck. Then I pulled the old data cable and put in a new one. Still no luck. Then I tried an external floppy with a USB connector. Still no luck. What can be going on? Everything else is working fine.

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Hi trebor,

Could be that someone has disabled the floppy drive, either in Device Manager or in the BIOS.

Cheers

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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Believe it or not, a lot of floppy drives and cables are not keyed – which means you can plug the cable into the back of the drive backwords. The telltale sign is the the drive light stays on all the time. No damage occurs, the drive just does not work. Try flipping it over.

That would not explain the USB version not working.

Have you installed the I/O drivers for the motherboard? A utilties disk should have come with the board that includes those drivers – or look on the manufactures web site.

Bill (AFE7Ret)
Freedom isn't free!

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Believe it or not, a lot of floppy drives and cables are not keyed – which means you can plug the cable into the back of the drive backwords. The telltale sign is the the drive light stays on all the time. No damage occurs, the drive just does not work. Try flipping it over.

That would not explain the USB version not working.

Have you installed the I/O drivers for the motherboard? A utilties disk should have come with the board that includes those drivers – or look on the manufactures web site.

Bill (AFE7Ret)
Freedom isn't free!

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You were right on. Went into BIOS and enabled the floppy and all is well. Thanks for the tip.

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You were right on. Went into BIOS and enabled the floppy and all is well. Thanks for the tip.

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Hi trebor,

Could be that someone has disabled the floppy drive, either in Device Manager or in the BIOS.

Cheers

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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I had a similar problem where my machine kept telling me the floppy wasn’t formatted even though I had formatted several times. Turned out there was some sort of problem with either earthing or head alignment as I found that if I loosened the drive attachment screws the drive worked perfectly and continues to do so.

good luck

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I had a similar problem where my machine kept telling me the floppy wasn’t formatted even though I had formatted several times. Turned out there was some sort of problem with either earthing or head alignment as I found that if I loosened the drive attachment screws the drive worked perfectly and continues to do so.

good luck

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