Floppy Drive - Drivers missing

Hello Experts :-)

I acquired a USB floppy disk drive recently and am having trouble with
the driver. Win 7 and Win Xp drivers are missing. Does any of you
experts know where I might find one?

Someone recently introduced me to a great web site for drivers. Does
anyone know that website?

TIA

On 13 Jul 2011, Seum <> wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

> I acquired a USB floppy disk drive recently and am having trouble
> with the driver. Win 7 and Win Xp drivers are missing. Does any of
> you experts know where I might find one?

Drivers, if needed, would come from the manufacturer of the floppy
drive.

You don't give enough to provide a thoughtful answer, just wild
guesses.

What happens when you plug it in? How do you know "drivers are
missing?" What is the status in Device Manager? Any errors in the
Event Viewer? What brand of drive? What motherboard? Does the system
see it on bootup, prior to Windows starting (watch the POST messages
scroll by.)

Here's one person's solution to a similar problem. I have no idea
whether it applies to your situation or if it really works at all,
or if it's safe:

http://www.techgeekandmore.com/2009/...and-windows-7/

In message <>, Seum <>
writes:
>Hello Experts :-)
>
>I acquired a USB floppy disk drive recently and am having trouble with
>the driver. Win 7 and Win Xp drivers are missing. Does any of you
>experts know where I might find one?
>
>Someone recently introduced me to a great web site for drivers. Does
>anyone know that website?
>
>TIA
>
Does it give some indication that it _needs_ a driver? When we plug a
USB floppy into our (XP) machine, nothing happens (well, I think we
briefly get a new hardware found popup), but suddenly explorer (Win + E)
has an A: drive. (I'd have expected the same to be true of 7.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in
silencing the one than the one - if he had the power - would be justified in
silencing mankind. -John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist (1806-1873)

Nil wrote:
> On 13 Jul 2011, Seum <> wrote in
> alt.windows7.general:
>
>> I acquired a USB floppy disk drive recently and am having trouble
>> with the driver. Win 7 and Win Xp drivers are missing. Does any of
>> you experts know where I might find one?
>
> Drivers, if needed, would come from the manufacturer of the floppy
> drive.
>
> You don't give enough to provide a thoughtful answer, just wild
> guesses.
>
> What happens when you plug it in? How do you know "drivers are
> missing?" What is the status in Device Manager? Any errors in the
> Event Viewer? What brand of drive? What motherboard? Does the system
> see it on bootup, prior to Windows starting (watch the POST messages
> scroll by.)
>
> Here's one person's solution to a similar problem. I have no idea
> whether it applies to your situation or if it really works at all,
> or if it's safe:
>
> http://www.techgeekandmore.com/2009/...and-windows-7/

OK Nil, here it is.

It happened by accident. I bought a brand new floppy disk drive, dirt
cheap, no brand, and from EBay. When I tried to get it going I
discovered missing drivers - none after Win2K. It is very well built,
had a USB plug, and cost very little, so my loss isn't huge.

A miniature floppy was provided with it and that's where I discovered
the max driver was for the Win2K OS.

My Win2K box is down now but I hope to be able to use the disk drive
after it is up and running.

Seum wrote:

> I acquired a USB floppy disk drive recently and am having trouble with
> the driver. Win 7 and Win Xp drivers are missing. Does any of you
> experts know where I might find one?

When you plug in the USB device, do you hear the dah-ding sound
representing "new USB device discovered" event? If the USB device is
recognized (something you didn't mention), what do you see or what
happens when you select the device in Windows Explorer?

Just WHEN are you trying to use the USB floppy drive? If you intend to
use it before the OS has actually loaded to provide the USB support for
removable storage media, like using it when prompted to hit F6 at the
start of setup to later add more mass storage devices that need drivers,
you may not yet have the USB support needed. For Windows XP, you can
add USB drives (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916196).

You could fake out your friends with this fake USB floppy drive (which
is actually still a USB flash drive):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXhS8OQrORE
(yuck yuck yuck)

Was there a reason you chose to keep secret the make and model of the
external USB-attached floppy drive? When you "acquired" the drive, why
did you also not not "acquire" the software disc that came with it?

If you think you need a driver, the obvious source would be the device
manufacturer's own web site since they wrote the driver, if there is
one. Can't help you with navigating their site since you never
identified the make and model of the USB floppy drive. Some of the
discs you obtain for a particular manufacturer look to cover many makes
of device. The Nippon USB-DL-Flppy download at their driver page
(http://www.nipponlabs.com/support.html) covers Teac, IBM, Mitsumi,
eBest, Sunday, NEC, and YE models. The CD that comes with the Nippon
device, labelled "USB Portable Diskette Drive - CD-ROM for Driver" looks
like the same one shown for the Sabrent device. ByteCC looks to burn
their own to include their manual.

Seum wrote:
> Hello Experts :-)
>
> I acquired a USB floppy disk drive recently and am having trouble with
> the driver. Win 7 and Win Xp drivers are missing. Does any of you
> experts know where I might find one?
>
> Someone recently introduced me to a great web site for drivers. Does
> anyone know that website?
>
> TIA
>

Actually, I discovered something similar. I wanted to use my
Mitsumi USB floppy on the Windows 7 laptop, and there was no
driver for it. And Mitsumi has stopped making the drive, so
feels under no obligation to provide drivers. Other companies
rebadged that drive, so they may be in a similar situation.

To fix it here, that'll mean another trip to the store,
looking for another one with drivers.

The review comments on this one, include positive experiences
with Windows 7. Apparently, one person recognizes the unit
as Teac based.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16821103402

Paul

On Wed, 13 Jul 2011 18:32:24 -0400, Paul <> wrote:

>Seum wrote:
>> Hello Experts :-)
>>
>> I acquired a USB floppy disk drive recently and am having trouble with
>> the driver. Win 7 and Win Xp drivers are missing. Does any of you
>> experts know where I might find one?
>>
>> Someone recently introduced me to a great web site for drivers. Does
>> anyone know that website?
>>
>> TIA
>>
>
>Actually, I discovered something similar. I wanted to use my
>Mitsumi USB floppy on the Windows 7 laptop, and there was no
>driver for it. And Mitsumi has stopped making the drive, so
>feels under no obligation to provide drivers. Other companies
>rebadged that drive, so they may be in a similar situation.
>
>To fix it here, that'll mean another trip to the store,
>looking for another one with drivers.
>
>The review comments on this one, include positive experiences
>with Windows 7. Apparently, one person recognizes the unit
>as Teac based.
>
>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16821103402
>
> Paul

There is in the control panel, a feature under troubleshooting, that
may allow you to try to run a device, under previous versions of
windows....

Seum wrote:

> Nil wrote:
>> On 13 Jul 2011, Seum <> wrote in
>> alt.windows7.general:
>>
>>> I acquired a USB floppy disk drive recently and am having trouble
>>> with the driver. Win 7 and Win Xp drivers are missing. Does any of
>>> you experts know where I might find one?
>>
>> Drivers, if needed, would come from the manufacturer of the floppy
>> drive.
>>
>> You don't give enough to provide a thoughtful answer, just wild
>> guesses.
>>
>> What happens when you plug it in? How do you know "drivers are
>> missing?" What is the status in Device Manager? Any errors in the
>> Event Viewer? What brand of drive? What motherboard? Does the system
>> see it on bootup, prior to Windows starting (watch the POST messages
>> scroll by.)
>>
>> Here's one person's solution to a similar problem. I have no idea
>> whether it applies to your situation or if it really works at all,
>> or if it's safe:
>>
>> http://www.techgeekandmore.com/2009/...and-windows-7/
>
> OK Nil, here it is.
>
> It happened by accident. I bought a brand new floppy disk drive,

A floppy disk drive? Or a USB-attached enclosure containing a floppy
disk drive? The two are different devices.

This floppy drive one fits in a 3.5" external drive bay (or a 5.25"
external drive bay with an adapter):
http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j0...Z-FDD-003-.jpg

This is a USB-attached floppy drive:
http://images.maplin.co.uk/full/a59fb.jpg

> dirt cheap, no brand, and from EBay.

Ask the seller to provide the driver disc. This USB-attached device has
no labelling on it whatsoever? The seller couldn't identify it for you?

> When I tried to get it going I
> discovered missing drivers - none after Win2K. It is very well built,
> had a USB plug, and cost very little, so my loss isn't huge.

And yet we don't know what happens when you plug it into a USB port. Do
you hear the dah-ding sound for the event of finding a new USB device
when you plug it in? Do you hear the ding-dah sound when you unplug it?
When it's plugged in and if you hear the dah-ding sound, is it listed in
Windows Explorer or not? If listed, what happens when you insert a
formatted floppy with data into the drive and then open the drive in
Windows Explorer?

> A miniature floppy was provided with it and that's where I discovered
> the max driver was for the Win2K OS.

A "mini" floppy? You sure this is a floppy drive and not a CD drive?
The only "mini" disk that I can think of is the one for a CD (the one
shown on the left in the picture below):

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...comparison.jpg

While the capacities can differ (720KB DD, 1.44MB HD, 2.88 ED), the
physical size of the floppy disk (shell and floppy within) has to remain
the same to fit inside the floppy drive.

> My Win2K box is down now but I hope to be able to use the disk drive
> after it is up and running.

If the "mini" disk was a CD on which were the drivers then it may be
there are no driver available or provided by the manufacturer beyond
Windows 2000. It is likely the manufacturer assumes the user of later
versions of Windows will use the generic drivers already bundled in the
Windows installation.

What happens in Windows 7 when you simply plug in the USB floppy drive?

Paul wrote:

> Seum wrote:
>> Hello Experts :-)
>>
>> I acquired a USB floppy disk drive recently and am having trouble with
>> the driver. Win 7 and Win Xp drivers are missing. Does any of you
>> experts know where I might find one?
>>
>> Someone recently introduced me to a great web site for drivers. Does
>> anyone know that website?
>>
>> TIA
>>
>
> Actually, I discovered something similar. I wanted to use my
> Mitsumi USB floppy on the Windows 7 laptop, and there was no
> driver for it. And Mitsumi has stopped making the drive, so
> feels under no obligation to provide drivers. Other companies
> rebadged that drive, so they may be in a similar situation.
>
> To fix it here, that'll mean another trip to the store,
> looking for another one with drivers.
>
> The review comments on this one, include positive experiences
> with Windows 7. Apparently, one person recognizes the unit
> as Teac based.
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16821103402
>
> Paul

That's why I mentioned the Nippon USB-DL-Flppy download which has
drivers for several models, including the Mitsumi. It might work.

In message <ivm12q$16j$>, VanguardLH <>
writes:
[]
>A floppy disk drive? Or a USB-attached enclosure containing a floppy
>disk drive? The two are different devices.

I think he knows that. He's already said the thing he bought has a USB
plug.
[]
>And yet we don't know what happens when you plug it into a USB port. Do
>you hear the dah-ding sound for the event of finding a new USB device
>when you plug it in? Do you hear the ding-dah sound when you unplug it?
>When it's plugged in and if you hear the dah-ding sound, is it listed in
>Windows Explorer or not? If listed, what happens when you insert a
>formatted floppy with data into the drive and then open the drive in
>Windows Explorer?

(Still good questions.)
>
>> A miniature floppy was provided with it and that's where I discovered
>> the max driver was for the Win2K OS.
>
>A "mini" floppy? You sure this is a floppy drive and not a CD drive?
>The only "mini" disk that I can think of is the one for a CD (the one
>shown on the left in the picture below):
[]
My thought at first too, but he is not wrong to use that term - I just
haven't heard it for ages. Floppies did come in assorted sizes - 5.25"
and 3.5" were the commonest for PCs, but there were also 8" (ancient and
huge) and 3" (rare! and I don't know if ever for PCs); I can't remember
which got which name. (I _think_ it was mini - 5.25", micro - 3.5".)

>What happens in Windows 7 when you simply plug in the USB floppy drive?

Yes, still a good question.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in
silencing the one than the one - if he had the power - would be justified in
silencing mankind. -John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist (1806-1873)