Floppy Disk Program

With Windows 7, direct access to a floopy disk drive was ended. Is there a program available to let the user install an run floopy disk drives. I have tons of histroy on 1.44 floppy drives that I need to retain and access. Any help of suggestions. Thanks.

 

Maybe something here: External floppy disk hard drive with Windows 7

 

If you are using an external USB floppy drive, these will often be correctly detected in Windows 7 without any "third-party" driver file being needed. Boot into Windows normally, then when Windows has finished loading plug the device into a USB port.

If it is not recognised, try it in a different USB port - don't merely assume that all your USB ports are the same, because they won't be. Modern computers typically ship with one high-powered USB port and a bunch of low powered ports, in order that the vendor can make performance claims for the ports that are not justified, to minimise the vendor's hardware costs.

If the USB drive is still not recognised, buy a mains powered USB hub, and plug the hub into the computer, then plug the floppy drive into the hub. Some computers need the extra power that a USB hub provides in order to run some types of power-hungry hardware devices,


Alternatively, if you have purchased an external floppy disk drive you should check whether the packaging or box which it came in specifies that the device is compatible with Windows 7. In general, only hardware which states explicitly that it will work with Windows 7 is guaranteed to run on this O/S.

If the device is not explicitly stated to be Windows 7 compatible, you might still be able to install the device by using a Windows XP driver (depending on the version of Windows 7 you have).

To try this, install the Windows XP drivers that came with the floppy drive. Then reboot. Plug in the device once Windows has finished loading. It should then be recognised automatically.

If it is not, try using the Program Compatibility troubleshooter -

1. Go to: Start button > Control Panel
2. Click on Troubleshooting
3. Under 'Programs', click "Run programs made for previous versions of Windows ".
4. Follow the instructions in the troubleshooter, which will hopefully guide you in setting the device to run in Windows XP mode.

This should enable the hardware device to utilise a Windows XP driver file - assuming you have one.

But note that if the driver file you have is for Windows 98, for example, you would need to set the mode as Windows 98, when prompted to choose a mode, rather than as Windows XP .

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll given a try.