Floppy drive not working...

[SeanGilbreth]

I have recently just finished building my computer, and have got a floppy drive. However my floppy drive does not detect any of the floppies I insert. However, Windows and the BIOS detect I have a floppy drive. What could be the problem?

Thanks!

 

[Sympology]

Have you tried a blank disk and tried formatting that. Floopies are incredidably unreliable and you old ones may be calibrated differently and so unreadable by the new drive.

Stu..

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004

 

[SeanGilbreth]

Yes I have, and it still doesn't read it. But one thing I remembered from when I was in the BIOS, is that I couldn't set the floppy as a boot device, maybe it didn't detect it then...

 

[paparazi]

DakotaXS
The usual? cable orientation (twist floppy drive end, red stripe to pin 1)
Bent power or cable pins (it's very easy force on the cable and bend pins or in the case of the power connector, misalign)

But the most obvious and the one I suspect:
Modern cases mount the floppy drive behind the front panel, if the drive is mounted to close the floppy disk does not drop properly into the drive.
Insert a floppy and THEN slacken off the retaining screws to allow the drive to go back! the floppy disk will now fully engage in the driveand read properly.
Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[paparazi]

DakotaXS
I was just going to add:
Check in the bios that the floppy drive has not been disabled but by default it is set to enabled so unless you altered the settings it should work (worth checking)
Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[SeanGilbreth]

Just to add some more info for you guys, I checked in Device Manager and it says its working properly, and also the little green light on the front of my floppy drive lights up when I go to Run> A:. But it still doesn't detect the floppy.

Hope that cleared up my problem some more.

 

[Sympology]

As paparzi said, try unmounting the drive from the cage. It reminded me I had this problem where the disk didn't go in properly due to the eject button

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004

 

[edfair]

Look for the position of the drive slot on a floppy, put it in and try to read, then look at the position of the slot again. If it has rotated the slot usually is in a different position. Also when you put the drive in and try using it you should hear a click as the drive engages.

If any question about whether it is engagning you can turn the media to something like 180 degrees then try again.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[lb63640]

...or the drive could just be defective. Try another one and see what happens.