Solved Help to activate the Floppy drive :A

[tyler4402]

Hi all
I am using Win7 pro, and when I put a 3½ Floppy in the A drive nothing happens, I can find it if I click >Start >Computer > Floppy Disk Drive :A but how do I tell the PC to find the disk and display the contents when I put the disk into the drive?
Regards Robert.

 

[nilank]

AFAIK, floppy drives don't support autorun. They need to be manually accessed via Explorer.

BTW, it's 2013, if you know what I mean.

 

[tyler4402]

Hi Nilank
Thank's for your quick reply, I am sure that my PC used to find the drive and display the contents, anyway I will continue to open the drive through the "Computer" tab I know it's 2013 and I do have more memory sticks than "Soft Mick" and some of them are 64Gb so I am not short of storage, and I have 3 Hdd's in my PC, but I still like to put bits of info onto a 1.44 floppy, maybe I'll grow out of it

Best regards Robert.

 

[nilank]

Although this is not supported by default, you may try this, I don't know if it's gonna work in Windows 7 or not, this is meant for good old XP:

Find or create the key :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER->Software->Microsoft->Windows->CurrentVersion->Policies->Explorer->

Then find the value named : NoDriveTypeAutoRun

Note : if your value has "95" in it, procede to step 1, if it has "B5" or anything else, procede to step 2 !

Step 1. Right click on this value and click Modify. If the value has 95 in it, delete the number 95 and replace it with 91 , making sure to keep all zeros and spaces in the value!

Step 2. If the value has B5 in it, or any other letter followed by the number 5, change ONLY the number to 1, so, for example it looks like B1 ( your letter substituted for the B ) NOTE: If you value does not have 95 in it, and instead has a value with a letter such as B and then a 5, this tweak may not work!

Then click OK, restart your computer, and you will now be one happy autorun man!

Source

 

[LazyLizard]

I have never seen floppies being autorun.
And being 2013 what comes to mind is that my dusty neglected floppy collection simply doesn't read anymore.
Some of them have lost their data. Demagnetized or whatever.
My 90's UNI final year project: Gone! Needs Data Recovery!

 

[nilank]

I have never seen floppies being autorun.
And being 2013 what comes to mind is that my dusty neglected floppy collection simply doesn't read anymore.
Some of them have lost their data. Demagnetized or whatever.
My 90's UNI final year project: Gone! Needs Data Recovery!

Oh yes, floppies were one of the most unreliable storage media. During floppy days, I remember I really had hard time protecting data, they were there for a few days and then - data was gone - corrupted. Floppies are easily affected by the Earth's magnetic field, those tiny magnets loose orientation very easily. I wonder how you have some of em still working!

 

[tyler4402]

Hi Guys
Thanks for your input, I did have a look at the string value and it was already set at 91 so I left it alone.
In the past when I loaded in a floppy, an icon came onto the task bar and I clicked onto that which opened the drive for viewing.
Although over the years I have never had any trouble with a floppy disk, with a heavy heart I do see that I must now progress into the 20th Century and transfer my data from floppy to memory stick (colour coded of course) until something better comes along

Best regards Robert.

 

[LazyLizard]

Oh yes, floppies were one of the most unreliable storage media. During floppy days, I remember I really had hard time protecting data, they were there for a few days and then - data was gone - corrupted. Floppies are easily affected by the Earth's magnetic field, those tiny magnets loose orientation very easily. I wonder how you have some of em still working!

Well, 6 months or so ago I did my annual floppy session (the last one ever I presume).
Thing is if you like to muck around with old PC hardware, repair laptops etc you didn't get around
using floppies to add Sata (AHCI) drivers for Windows XP installation (Press F6 ...) or for
BIOS updates. When you gloriously updated a Pentium 4 2.6Ghz to a Pentium 4 3.2Ghz you
might have needed a newer BIOS version. All of which still available at the manufacturers websites
requiring floppies to this day!