A22e USB Floppy

[jecoled]

I recently replaced a failed hard drive on my A22e and thus had to do a clean install of the OPS (Windows XP Home). Everything works, except now the USB floppy drive insists on calling itself the (B) drive. I've reset the BIOS, installed/reinstalled the drive via Device Manager, and updated the driver -- all to no avail. One online source suggested a registry edit? Anybody have any ideas on a fix? I only use the a floppy infrequesntly, but I would prefer to call it my (A) drive.

Thanks.

[Orevin]

Here you go: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844/

[jecoled]

Orevin,

That Windows procedure does not apply to USB Floppy Drives -- at least not on my System. The only drives that show up under Disk Management are the C and D drives. I am sure there is some setting that will fix my problem, but what it is is beyond me.

Thanks anyway.

[schen]

Maybe I'm not getting something, but a USB floppy showing as "B" drives seems right on an A2x series since they have an internal floppy. The internal should automatically be seen as "A" an external floppy would be the "B" drive.

[jecoled]

Schen,

The A22e does not come with an internal floppy drive. The choices are to swap the cd-rom drive with an internal floppy via the Ultra Bay 2000 or use a USB floppy. Prior to "rebuilding" my system with a new hard drive, the USB floppy could be set to read as the "A" drive thru the BIOS (enable Legacy Drive, disable Super Disk). For whatever reason, these BIOS settings no longer reset the floppy to "A". I have the latest BIOS installed, so something else must be at issue. The only change I made to the computer is a new hard drive. The OPS (XP Home) is the same.

Thanks.

[schen]

I might be wrong on this, but as far as I know (others please check and weigh in on this if you have other info); all A Series machines came with a floppy on the left-hand side and an Ultrabay on the right. If yours doesn't have that, it would have been removed at some point leaving a hole in the left-side toward the back. I have 3 As in the house at the moment and they all have the FDD in exactly the same spot!

edit: All As except for the A30/31 which has an Ultrabay on the left and the Ultrabay enhanced on the right side.

[AlphaKilo470]

Actually, some A21e models have nothing in the floppy drive slot and the A21e doesn't even have the floppy drive slot because it uses the T2x formfactor.

[schen]

That's interesting. My wife's previous machine was an A21e and it had the floppy there. It comes in regularly since here friend has it now. I know one of the things that the "e" models didn't have was the IR, but not aware that they came w/o floppy and certainly not in the smaller T Series form factor. Do you know what the model number are for those?

[jdhurst]

I had an A22e once and I am pretty sure the USB floppy was drive B: Strange, but it never caused any issues. I no longer have the machine. ... JD Hurst

[jecoled]

Schen etal,

The A22e does not have a slot, or even reserved space, for an internal floopy drive. Front left access would be blocked by the hard drive, and front right access would be blocked by the battery. Check out the specs for model #2655-45U. The A series machines you referenced must be of a completely different design than the A22e and other floppy-less models.

Of course, the floppy "a" vs "b" issue is not a big problem, just a curious quirk at this point. The bottom line is the drive works just fine as a "b" designation. This is an aging machine, so if this is my only issue with this computer now, then I'm doing pretty good.

Thanks again.