Windows 10: Why won't Windows 10 read 3.5" floppy disk on external USB floppy drive?

Is there a fix to make Windows 10 read 3.5 floppy disks on a USB floppy disk drive. The drive shows up in the Devices and Printers screen but when I right click on the device and choose "Browse files" and then choose "Floppy Disk DriveA:" it replies

"A:\ is not accessible.

The disk media is not recognized. It may not be formatted."

It does this on both my notebooks Dell Inspiron and Asus

:)

 

Floppy disk drive and windows 10

This instructions are for windows 7 put it dose work on windows 10

In this day and age, with the fact that most new pc’s do not have floppy drives anymore, as a tech, I still find times where bring out an old reliable floppy is my best way to resolve a problem. Many people still have some “classic” tools that are
on floppy, or documents or pictures saved on floppy (Before CDRW/DVDRW drives became the norm, floppy disks were the way to store and transfer files).

The problem is that many of the Floppy drives do not have drivers or “official” support for Windows Vista or Windows 7. This post covers just such an issue. I use an Iomega USB drive, and whenever I plug it into my Windows 7 pc’s, I get a message
that Windows can’t find a driver for my device.

Here are some simple steps to get your drive to work with Vista or W7.

1) When you install the drive you will get the message that your drive needs to find drivers. Just hit Cancel

2) Go to start –> Control Panel –> System –> Device Manager

(Example from Windows 7, Vista may look a little different)

3) When the Device Manager opens you will see a listing for X1DE-USB with a Yellow triangle next to it under Other Devices. On that line item right mouse click (NOTE IM SAYING RIGHT MOUSE) and then select Update Driver software and left mouse click
(NOTE THAT I SAID LEFT)

4) Now select Browse my computer for driver software

5) Now select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer and click on Next

6) Now you will get a box to select your device type from list, click on “Show All Devices” and click on Next

7) In the following window, for the box on the left select NEC Systems, and then on the right select NEC USB Floppy then click on Next

8 ) You will be told by Windows that “Installing this device driver is not recommended…..” its ok just click on Yes to continue.

9) Lastly you will be told that Windows has successfully updated your driver software.

Now if you look at the Device Manager you will see the listing for Floppy disk drive – Citizen X1DE.

Finally if you look in the My Computer icon, you will see the A: drive listed for your floppy drive

With that you now have a working Floppy USB drive.

 

Floppy disk drive not reading disks

Sorry, I did not see your response earlier. I was finally able to get it to work but I can't remember how. I had tried the external floppy drive, which had worked with no problems for over a year, on both a
Windows 10 and a Windows 7 computer but received the same error msg. I eventually obtained a new floppy disk drive and received the same error msg. Microsoft tech support had run out of solutions. I then on my own tried to access the files
from the floppy through DOS. I can't remember which commands I used but somehow I opened a document stored on the floppy, and at that point, I could access the floppy drive through Windows. I then tried the old external floppy disk drive and it worked also
at that point.

I use this floppy drive in my work to transfer documents from a third computer that runs a DOS-based stenograph software where I create documents to my Windows computer to convert to Word and send out.

I tried pulling up the history on DOS to see what commands I used by typing in doskey /History but nothing came up. This would be helpful if I ever have this happen again.

 

Windows 10 USB Floppy Drive not working

I have a TEAC FD-05PUB USB Floppy Drive which was working with Windows 7.

Now with Windows 10, the Floppy Drive is "seen" by the system and has installed the SONY-FDU USB Device and its states that "This Device is working Properly".

However, when I insert a floppy, the Floppy Drive tries to continually read the disk as if there is a fault with the disk. I have tried several disks and non are recognised. Before anybody asks, I have tried these disks on another machine and they work OK.

When I remove the disk from the Floppy Drive, the Floppy Drive still seems to want to access the disk even though there is not one in the drive - the green light on the front of the drive turns on repeatedly and you can hear the motor spin. Sounds like an
issue with the SONY driver to me.

I have tried to look for a suitable driver on the web but am a bit dubious about some of the sites that come up. I have even tried to get Windows to load a different driver but I'm unable to get a list of Floppy Drives to appear when I ask to do an "Update
Driver Software" within Device Manager.

Anybody any ideas on what to do next?

Alistair