external floppy drive

Message

TomStearns · #1 Post by **TomStearns** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 8:12 am

Gentlemen:

A rapidly dying breed but once in a while an external floppy drive is a good thing. I have one which will read a boot disc during startup but will not read a floppy once the machine is up. Is this normal?

#2 Post by **GomJabbar** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:04 am

Does this external floppy drive use a USB connection?

No, what you are experiencing is not normal IMO.

Aroc · #3 Post by **Aroc** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:40 am

No this is not normal. That Operating System (O/S) are you using?

FYI - I get these symptoms under NT 4.0 using a USB floppy since USB is not supported under NT (I can only boot from the floppy, not access it). I have no problems with other USB friendly O/Ss. I have no problems with Win98, Win2k, Win XP, Win 2k3, or Ubuntu Linux 5.04 or 5.10.

TomStearns · #4 Post by **TomStearns** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 8:01 am

Sir:

O/S is W2K SP4. No question this O/S supports USB. I guess this is a baddrive and should be replaced. The seller insists it works on his machine which is the puzzle.

dr_st · #5 Post by **dr_st** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 8:56 am

external floppy drive

SeanM · #6 Post by **SeanM** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 6:37 pm

TomStearns wrote:No question this O/S supports USB.

So I'm assuming you're saying the drive is a USB drive?

What kind of machine are you connecting it to?

Does it show up under unknown devices in device manager maybe? Or perhaps it was given a drive letter like E:, instead of the A: you might have been expecting?

Have you ever installed a scsi device, or any type of backup device especially tape drive?

Does it work at all if you boot the machine, then unplug the drive and plug it back in?

Depending on what machine this is, do you have a "legacy fdd" option in bios, and if so what is it set to? It should be disabled, assuming your floppy drive is USB.

TomStearns · #7 Post by **TomStearns** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 11:19 am

Gentlemen:

Many thanks to all of you responders. The issue has resolved into a matter of cockpit error. I got it and it now works.