Windows 10: File Explorer keeps trying to seek my floppy drive after updating to version 20H2

Hello. Ever since installing the latest version of Windows 10 version 20H2 File Explorer has been aggressively trying to access / seek / read the floppy disk. It is easy to tell because the drive makes a noise which just so happens to alert me of this intrusion. It happens any time I right click a file or folder. It doesn't matter where the file is located. C drive, E drive, doesn't matter. For reference, the floppy is A drive. The 'A' drive should be the ONLY drive that, when accessed, will seek the floppy. C drive has nothing to do with the floppy, so why is Windows trying to access the floppy disk when I right click a file in C or E drive? I am not telling it to look in A drive ever. It makes me wonder if Windows is accessing ALL of my disks without permission, only I have caught it red-handed because my floppy drive's sound has warned me.


So I have three questions:


1 How can I prevent or BLOCK Windows from trying to seek my floppy disk without disabling it


2 How can I ensure that Windows is not trying to access my OTHER drives unless I am accessing it myself?


3 If there is no means to ensure File Explorer does not access my drives without my permission, please kindly suggest a File Explorer third-party alternative and to provide the steps to permanently disable File Explorer.


Thank you kindly,


Vlad

:)

 

Windows Explorer keeps seeking floppy disk

Hi

I'm running Windows 7 x64 SP1 Ultimate Edition on my Dell Optiplex 960 machine. All windows updates applied.

Recently a strange phenomenon happens all the time. Whenever I click "start -> computer" to open the windows file explorer, the floppy drive LED turns on with a loud disk reading noise, which is extremely annoying. It seems that the Windows Explorer is trying
to access/seek or search for the floppydisk. However there's no floppy in the drive.

At first I thought this must be due to some broken recent file links or broken entries in registry. But cleaning all of these does not help. I then turned off my anti virus protection, also useless. The annoyance remains.

What's the most strange, this annoying phenomenon can also be reproduced even when I start Windows in the minimum safe mode. I then went back to normal mode and loaded the procmon in Sysinternals Suite to see which program actually caused it. It's the windows
shell, explorer.exe that is always trying to access the floppy drive whenever I click start->computer.

Perhaps it's a bug in the current Windows 7 system that still not fixed?>??

 

Floppy disk drive driver

Greetings,

I appreciate your swift response, if the above steps did not work no worries since this is an open forum , we can ask assistance from other community volunteers with their feedback and suggestion with this issue.

For the meantime you can try to check on this thread by @Gary_816

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

After 6 hours this worked for me. I have the Teac drive also and it appeared to install correctly, but did not show up in Windows Explorer. During a boot up the drive clicks and spins like 3.5" drives did on older systems if there is diskette in the drive.
I opened "Devices and Printers" in the Control Panel and the drive was there. With the diskette still inserted, right click on the Teac icon and select "Browse files > Floppy Disk Drive (A". File Explorer should open up and you will see the files on the
floppy listed. You will now see "Floppy Disk Drive (A" listed under "This PC". Right click on "Floppy Disk Drive (A" and select "Pin to Quick access". "Floppy Disk Drive (A" should appear under "Quick access". Although "Floppy Disk Drive (A" will disappear
from "This PC" after you close and reopen File Explorer, it will remain under "Quick access" and you can access it from there. It appears that W10 now thinks there is an internal drive "(A" because if you right click it "Eject" does not appear as an option.
Why it disappears from "This PC" is a mystery.

Note: On my machine (ASUS) if I take out the diskette or disconnect the drive, "Floppy Disk Drive (A" stays in the "Quick access" menu. So no need to keep a diskette in the drive all the time or even have it connected all the time. Worked fine after I reconnected
it.

Note 1: Under "Devices and Printers" the Drive was identified as "TEAC FD-05PUB". If you get something different (assuming you have a TEAC) try running "Troubleshoot" and see if that corrects it.

I hope the information above helps.

Have a wonderful day ahead and stay safe.

With Warm Regards,

 

trying get external iomega floppy drive to work with windows 10

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

1. What is the current Windows 10 build version installed on your computer?
   
2. Are you able to use the Floppy drive on a different computer?
   

As there is a prompt on the screen saying the software is loaded, I suggest you to open the Disk Management and see if you are able to see the device under it.

Follow these steps to open Disk Management.

1. Press and hold the Windows + X key on the keyboard.
   
2. Select Disk Management.
   

Scroll down the Disk management window and check if the Floppy drive is visible, if yes.

• Right click on the Floppy drive.
  
• Click on Change drive Letter and Paths.
  
• Click on Change.
  
• Assign the drive letter you need and click on
  OK.
  
• Click OK to close the window.
  

Hope it helps.

Regards,

Noor Azam S

Microsoft Community – Moderator