Floppy drive not being seen

[Ukdodger]

Windows 7 home desktop Akasa. The floppy drive isnt being seen. It's been in the PC from the beginning but I've only just wanted to use it. If I put a floppy in it starts up and sounds as of it's going to do something but then just stops. The drive itself isnt showing in Disk management or in the navigation pane. The floppy works fine in my Laptop. Any ideas? Thanks

 

[iko22]

Hi

So, the floppy unit is wired up directly to the motherboard of your computer? Had you looked at the BIOS settings for an Enable IDE drive. or similar? Such setting was usually found in the first page of the BIOS menu. Also check for the Master/Slave jumper on the physical IDE connection.

 

[johnhoh]

floppy drives go bad because they are so exposed to dust and are never used. $14 gets you this
Amazon.com: 3.5" USB External Floppy Disk Drive Portable 1.44 MB FDD PC Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/10 Mac,No Extra Driver Required,Plug Play,Black: Gateway

 

[Ukdodger]

Hi

So, the floppy unit is wired up directly to the motherboard of your computer? Had you looked at the BIOS settings for an Enable IDE drive. or similar? Such setting was usually found in the first page of the BIOS menu. Also check for the Master/Slave jumper on the physical IDE connection.

Thanks. I'll check the bios. Where is the Master/Slave jumper on the physical IDE connection?

 

[samuria]

If yoy only have one floppy it doesn't matter about master slave it's more likely disabled in the bios

 

[Ukdodger]

If yoy only have one floppy it doesn't matter about master slave it's more likely disabled in the bios

Thanks Sam. How do I get to the bios? I have a laptop with W7 home on it and a desktop with the same. Hitting 'F2' on the laptop puts up the bios screen. It's a simple one where you move the left arrow over to 'Boot' hit return and you get the boot order.

On the desktop however I get a far more complicated screen with lots of options and appears to related to the graphics card.

 

[iko22]

On this particular Motherboard, you need to put the BIOS into advanced mode to be able to access all the options. The Advanced Mode selection is along the top row of options, around about the middle. Then see page 2-29 of the user manual for SATA/IDE setup.

For the legacy IDE chipset to work, you have to turn off SATA/AHCI. And you will need the software driver for the IDE device, otherwise the computer wont recognise the operating system.

Actually, having said that, you can check Window's device manager to see if the IDE driver is already installed.

 

[Ukdodger]

On this particular Motherboard, you need to put the BIOS into advanced mode to be able to access all the options. The Advanced Mode selection is along the top row of options, around about the middle. Then see page 2-29 of the user manual for SATA/IDE setup.

For the legacy IDE chipset to work, you have to turn off SATA/AHCI. And you will need the software driver for the IDE device, otherwise the computer wont recognise the operating system.

Actually, having said that, you can check Window's device manager to see if the IDE driver is already installed.

Thanks but you're way ahead of me. In the device manager it says this:

IDE ATA?ATAPI controllers
Intel(r) 8series/C220 chipset family SATA AHCI controller

I attempted an update and reply was it is up to date.

Is that all as should be?

 

[Megahertz07]

If I remember well, floppy drives had a dedicated connector to a flat cable. They are not IDE - PATA. The drive letters associated to floppy drives were A: or B:

You won't find a floppy connector on newer MB as the one on post #6.

 

[iko22]

Sorry that is a blind alley - apparently there is no separate driver for the IDE chipset on the B85_PLUS. Disregard what I had said.

Instead, power up the computer into BIOS. Select Advanced Options from the Menu, then select SATA Configuration. IDE configuration will be there. You will need to set the SATA Mode Selection to IDE for the IDE Legacy option to appear. I have a feeling that the computer wont boot after those changes. But there is nothing stopping you checking that setting for yourself.

 

[Ukdodger]

Sorry that is a blind alley - apparently there is no separate driver for the IDE chipset on the B85_PLUS. Disregard what I had said.

Instead, power up the computer into BIOS. Select Advanced Options from the Menu, then select SATA Configuration. IDE configuration will be there. You will need to set the SATA Mode Selection to IDE for the IDE Legacy option to appear. I have a feeling that the computer wont boot after those changes. But there is nothing stopping you checking that setting for yourself.

Thanks Iko I'l try that. Not sure what you mean by checking yourself?