Windows 10: I installed a floppy drive, now Windows 10 won't leave it alone.

A floppy drive? Why would anyone do that? For the simple reason that I work on many older computers so I have a need for a good old 1.44M floppy drive.

To start with, whenever I'd plug in or remove a USB drive, Windows would also check the floppy drive. Today I formatted a couple of floppy disks.

Now the bleeping thing will not stop trying to access the floppy drive every 30 seconds or so.

Short of disabling the floppy in BIOS, then enabling it only when I need to use the drive - how do I make Windows 10 ignore the drive except when I want it to, when *I* click on the drive in Explorer? It's like a kid with a new toy that it refuses to stop playing with.

:)

 

sandisk usb showing driver error

my computer isn't recognising the usb floppy disk drive so unintalled it and now the installation wizzard won't work

 

Having problems with Floppy drives in Windows 10

Using a Floppy

Drive in Windows 10

­Having problem using a floppy drive in windows:

Connect the floppy drive.



Open the control panel and select devices and printers.



Go to the floppy, right click and select browse and opens up.



Now it is showing in the quick access menu.



The list showing cloud, computer and so forth will now show the floppy drive.



Minimize this window and open the desktop.



Drag the floppy icon to the desktop, using the mouse and now you will have a working shortcut on the desktop and be able to use the floppy drive for templates, Word and Excel templates so on and so on.



Every time you want to use the floppy drive insert floppy in and double click and your ready to use the floppy.



Trial and error is a way of learning and can get some answers to problems with the computer. Be patient when endeavors’ arise.

 

Is this floppy drive an internal or external drive?

 

Internal. Connected to the built in floppy port on an Asrock 770 Extreme 3.

 

Boot into Setup (Bios) look for Floppy Seek or some such. Disable this.

 

Also, I've seen lots of issues with floppies since Win7 wanting to reformat them. I also have clients with floppies they 'find' and want to check the data on them. I always open the write-protect switch before inserting into the drive to prevent that so as not to lose the data on them. Also use tape to cover the notch on the 5.25" disks. I usually use a WinXP computer with a combination 3.5"/5.25" floppy drive and a 250MB Zip drive for the recoveries.

 

This one either doesn't have that or it's disabled. In any case that's only for testing the floppy drive during POST.

It's periodically checking to see if there's a disk in the drive or if somethings changed with it or something. ISTR having this same issue with XP, which was the last time I had an internal floppy on my main computer. I think the fix was deleting something in the Registry, and deleting it again any time it went back to doing that.

A floppy drive should be completely ignored by the OS except for when the drive signals a disk change or the user accesses it or a program needs to read or write data. To the OS it should just be this 'lump', left alone except when it's told to use it.

Think of it like a manual can opener in a kitchen drawer. You may not use it very often but it's handy to have when you need it. Now imagine going into the kitchen every minute to open the drawer and stare at the can opener for two seconds.

I bought a brand new 1.44M drive back in the 90's and transferred it to every new PC I built, until one day it suffered a change line failure after probably 15 years. Still worked but could only be used for one disk insert per session because without the change line function the OS couldn't get the signal that a different disk was in so it would only show the cached directory info.

I have one of those 2-in-1 1.44M and 1.2M 5.25" drives. Got it the same time as a new PC build. I put everything together and what's this? The new motherboard only has support for ONE floppy drive? I could choose to use whichever part of the drive was selected by jumpers for A: and the computer would ignore the other drive. It wasn't just a BIOS limitation. I got BIOS modding software and enabled dual floppy support but the hardware still limited Windows to only seeing one drive.

One of these days I need to get an older computer to put that in.

 

Sorry, the switch and notch I referred to are on the floppy disks themselves.

The problem requiring their use is caused by Windows saying the disks need to be formatted which will destroy the data on them, seems there's a difference from earlier versions of Windows and DOS.

My combo drive is by Epson and only need one data cable from the motherboard. However, the BIOS has to support both drive A: and drive B: to use the combo which is the reason to keep the WinXP computer. Many motherboards of the last several years have only the A: support or none at all. For those [and Notebooks] I use a USB 2.0 3.5" floppy drive.

 

I only ask because of the boot order, if it's an internal drive. In your case you state that it is and by default the A drive (floppy) becomes the first boot drive. This could be some part of your issue. Make sure the boot order is set to C drive first and make the A drive last.

I keep a USB floppy for any such needs.....just easier for me.

 

I have a vague recollection of having run into this with a previous version of Windows.
In general terms, the solution is to remove from Explorer any references which might cause it to poll the drive.
Especially your MRU's and "recent files". Clear them out for any links or references that might lead back to the FDD.

 

USB floppy drive here too. I only plug it in when I need it.

Try turning Autoplay off (settings > devices > autoplay) and see if that helps. Or go to Control Panel > All items > AutoPlay and see if you can just turn it off for the floppy. May or may not help, kind of grasping at straws to be honest.

 

You could disable it in the Device manager rather than the BIOS. That makes it easier to enable when needed.