USB Floppy Drive

[Haze]

Hi all

So some of you might have seen my retro game thread, Facebook bargain. I have got Doom 1 and 2 of floppy, so i wanted to check they are still working, i purchased a USB floppy drive, but it does not recognize them, and i tried some normal floppy disks, and no joy, anything i might be missing? windows can see the drive ok, not sure what else to try, will go down my parents Sat and dig through the garage for an old pc, but i dont think i will have a vga monitor

 

[Taziir]

Could try running chkdsk /r A: (or whatever drive letter is assigned) from windows command prompt.

Also check in device manager whether windows is happy about the drive - driver may need updating.

Your old pc floppy drive will use an IDE connector. If your current motherboard has an IDE connection then try hooking the old drive to your current rig that way.

 

[Ch3m1c4L]

Does the device show up fine in device manager?
What if you use mini tool partition wizard free edition, does that show the disks at all?

 

[5abr3]

Possibly a stupid question but does the USB drive have a power connector as well as USB? If so, have you plugged in a supply as well as the USB lead?

 

[Haze]

Possibly a stupid question but does the USB drive have a power connector as well as USB? If so, have you plugged in a supply as well as the USB lead?

USB power only

Does the device show up fine in device manager?
What if you use mini tool partition wizard free edition, does that show the disks at all?

Looks good in device manager, will check that tool out

 

[5abr3]

USB power only

Interesting, don't recall seeing drive before that didn't need 12V (a charge pump isnt beyond the realms of possibility though).

Are you plugged in to the motherboard or a powered hub? Or have you tried both already?

 

[paradigm]

Clean the heads of the drive.

I’ve got a couple of USB floppy drives that were “dead” when they arrived. Dismantled, cleaned the heads (with isopropyl alcohol) and cleaned/re-greased the mechanism and they are both good as new now.

 

[Haze]

Clean the heads of the drive.

I’ve got a couple of USB floppy drives that were “dead” when they arrived. Dismantled, cleaned the heads (with isopropyl alcohol) and cleaned/re-greased the mechanism and they are both good as new now.

Well if i have no joy finding an old PC in my dads garage, will have a look at taking it apart

 

[Quartz]

I have got Doom 1 and 2 of floppy,

Floppies don't hold data forever. Without checking, IIRC they're rated for 5-7 years.

 

[OldKitMan]

can you see the A drive in windows when the drive is plugged in - even without a disk in it, IIRC (and it was a while back) in windows 95 it still showed the A drive even when empty - a bit like the cd drive.

 

[paradigm]

Floppies don't hold data forever. Without checking, IIRC they're rated for 5-7 years.

They might not be “rated” for it, but I’ve got shoeboxes of early to mid 90s floppies that are still readable without error.

 

[Threepwood]

can you see the A drive in windows when the drive is plugged in - even without a disk in it, IIRC (and it was a while back) in windows 95 it still showed the A drive even when empty - a bit like the cd drive.

" windows can see the drive ok,"

 

[Threepwood]

So some of you might have seen my retro game thread, Facebook bargain. I have got Doom 1 and 2 of floppy, so i wanted to check they are still working,

why? what is the point ? Doom , runs off msdos which win 10. and win 11 don't have now, maybe if you had an old 32 bit retro machine it could be worth it, or are you hoping to run it on a modern computer? it won't run on a 64bit machine, and the sound will be unlikley to work too
if you are using a period machine, are you sure that it has proper native drivers for a usb floppy, in the OS that you are using?

 

[Yaka]

is it a lacie usb floppy drive? if so the ubuntu reads off it fine did not work for me in win 10/11

 

[KompuKare]

Could try running chkdsk /r A: (or whatever drive letter is assigned) from windows command prompt.

Also check in device manager whether windows is happy about the drive - driver may need updating.

Your old pc floppy drive will use an IDE connector. If your current motherboard has an IDE connection then try hooking the old drive to your current rig that way.

It probably doesn't matter for the OP since they're going USB, but floppy was not IDE.
IDE was 40 pin (and 80 wires for UDMA66 upwards), while PC floppy was 34 pins. At least the last ones were, as I'm sure 8" floppy floppies used "who knows what".

Floppy disk drive interface - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Haze]

why? what is the point ? Doom , runs off msdos which win 10. and win 11 don't have now, maybe if you had an old 32 bit retro machine it could be worth it, or are you hoping to run it on a modern computer? it won't run on a 64bit machine, and the sound will be unlikley to work too
if you are using a period machine, are you sure that it has proper native drivers for a usb floppy, in the OS that you are using?

Because i am selling them, so want to make sure they are still readable, not planning on installing it....

 

[Rroff]

USB floppy drives usually have quite limited format support compared to the old drives - if discs use something even remotely non-standard they might fail to read.

I went through around 200 old floppies recently quite surprisingly range with no real correlation to date how useable they were, some still as good as they were up to 40 years ago, others completely no use.

 

[Haze]

I had the drive plugged into a front port, and moved it around the back, can confirm they all still work after 30 years

 

[Threepwood]

I had the drive plugged into a front port, and moved it around the back, can confirm they all still work after 30 years

that's pretty cool I'll admit!