Drive B look like Drive A

[Z.K.]

I was wondering if there was a way to fool Windows XP into thinking that
Drive B is actually Drive A? I have a bad floppy drive so I am using
a USB floppy, but it is listed as Drive B and I need it to be A for a
driver program that came with my motherboard.

Z.K.

 

[bojimbo26]

I was wondering if there was a way to fool Windows XP into thinking that
Drive B is actually Drive A? I have a bad floppy drive so I am using
a USB floppy, but it is listed as Drive B and I need it to be A for a
driver program that came with my motherboard.

Z.K.

O K , being the other side of the pond , what`s the difference between
a floppy drive and a usb floppy ? ( is it an external floppy drive
that plugs into a usb port ? )

 

[Jim]

O K , being the other side of the pond , what`s the difference between
a floppy drive and a usb floppy ? ( is it an external floppy drive
that plugs into a usb port ? )

The OP means by floppy drive the one which connects to the floppy controller
on the motherboard.
The other one uses a USB port as a controller.

The OP can solve his problem by disconnecting the miscreant floppy drive.
I. E., unplug both the power
cable and the data cable. I would unplug the power cable just to avoid
wasting power.
Then, when the OP plugs a USB floppy into the computer, it will be listed as
the A drive.
Jim

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I was wondering if there was a way to fool Windows XP into thinking that
Drive B is actually Drive A? I have a bad floppy drive so I am using a
USB floppy, but it is listed as Drive B and I need it to be A for a
driver program that came with my motherboard.

Z.K.

The simplest way would be to shut down the PC, open the case and
disconnect the defective internal floppy drive, and reboot. The USB
floppy should then automatically be re-assigned the A: designation.

Alternatively, you could try using either the BIOS or WinXP's Device
manager to disable the floppy controller.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[Uwe Sieber]

I was wondering if there was a way to fool Windows XP into thinking that
Drive B is actually Drive A? I have a bad floppy drive so I am using a
USB floppy, but it is listed as Drive B and I need it to be A for a
driver program that came with my motherboard.

Deactivate the legacy floppy in the device manager (the
'Floppy disk drive' and the 'Standard floppy disk controller').

Drive letter A: is gone now. Then attach the USB floppy.
Change it's drive letter from B: to A: by means of my
ReMount commandline tool:

remount B: A:

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/files/remount.zip


You can use the XP mountvol command too but it's very unhandy.


Greetings from Germany

Uwe

 

[philo]

I was wondering if there was a way to fool Windows XP into thinking that
Drive B is actually Drive A? I have a bad floppy drive so I am using
a USB floppy, but it is listed as Drive B and I need it to be A for a
driver program that came with my motherboard.

Z.K.

You were given a lot of advice that may or may not work.

I think the first thing to try would be the easiest...
Unplug the USB floppy
then, go into the bios (setup) and *disable* your floppy drive (both A & B)
boot up and plug the USB drive in and hopefully it will be given the
designation A:

 

[Unknown]

Probably not without physically swapping them because different busses.

 

[Uwe Sieber]

You were given a lot of advice that may or may not work.

I think the first thing to try would be the easiest...
Unplug the USB floppy
then, go into the bios (setup) and *disable* your floppy drive (both A & B)
boot up and plug the USB drive in and hopefully it will be given the
designation A:

This will not work. If a drive once has a drive letter then
this assigment is stored until it's changed or superseeded
by another drive which get the same letter. In the OP's
situation the only hope would be that the USB floppy has
no USB serial number. Then it's seen as new device when
it's connected to different USB port and would get the A:
then if availlable. Otherwise it would stay at B: as before.

 

[Z.K.]

I was wondering if there was a way to fool Windows XP into thinking that
Drive B is actually Drive A? I have a bad floppy drive so I am using a
USB floppy, but it is listed as Drive B and I need it to be A for a
driver program that came with my motherboard.

Z.K.

Ok, thanks everyone for all that good information and if I ever get
windows loaded I might try this. Here is my situation. I am trying to
set up 2 RAID drives and I need a driver floppy, but from what I see,
your solutions will only work if Windows is already loaded. Well,
hopefully it is just a bad floppy drive that can be replaced though it
would have been nice if Microsoft could have forseen such problems and
built in the ability to load drivers from different drives. I am
wondering if there is a way for me to customize the install CD so that
it would see my usb floppy.

Z.K.

 

[philo]

This will not work. If a drive once has a drive letter then
this assigment is stored until it's changed or superseeded
by another drive which get the same letter. In the OP's
situation the only hope would be that the USB floppy has
no USB serial number. Then it's seen as new device when
it's connected to different USB port and would get the A:
then if availlable. Otherwise it would stay at B: as before.

It should still work...at worst the OP would have to boot to safe mode and
delete *all* instances of the floppy drive

 

[Z.K.]

The OP means by floppy drive the one which connects to the floppy controller
on the motherboard.
The other one uses a USB port as a controller.

The OP can solve his problem by disconnecting the miscreant floppy drive.
I. E., unplug both the power
cable and the data cable. I would unplug the power cable just to avoid
wasting power.
Then, when the OP plugs a USB floppy into the computer, it will be listed as
the A drive.
Jim

Thanks, that solved my problem. I disable both the floppy and the USB
floppy in the BIOS, rebooted, then re-enabled the USB boot floppy and
now it sees it as A:

Z.K.

 

[Uwe Sieber]

It should still work...at worst the OP would have to boot to safe mode and
delete *all* instances of the floppy drive

Sure, but you *didn't mention this* (I can use asterisks too)
and without deleting the USB floppy too your solution just
would not work. And you where the one who blamed the other
solustions for 'may or may not work' while your event not
may work without this little detail.

 

[Uwe Sieber]

Ok, thanks everyone for all that good information and if I ever get
windows loaded I might try this. Here is my situation. I am trying to
set up 2 RAID drives and I need a driver floppy, but from what I see,
your solutions will only work if Windows is already loaded. Well,
hopefully it is just a bad floppy drive that can be replaced though it
would have been nice if Microsoft could have forseen such problems and
built in the ability to load drivers from different drives. I am
wondering if there is a way for me to customize the install CD so that
it would see my usb floppy.

Your need the floppy while the XP setup. Better to mention such
little details...

XP loads drivers from the first floppy only. If there is an internal
one (a 'legacy' floppy), even only a floppy controller without an
attached floppy drive, then this one is seen as first, as A:.
If it doesn't work then deativate it in the BIOS setup as mentioned
befere in this thread.

Then you need a certain type of USB floppy. Some work as 'XP F6 floppy',
others do not, read here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916196/en


Greetings from Germany

Uwe

 

[philo]

Sure, but you *didn't mention this* (I can use asterisks too)
and without deleting the USB floppy too your solution just
would not work. And you where the one who blamed the other
solustions for 'may or may not work' while your event not
may work without this little detail.

Moot point ...
The OP has posted that he now resolved the problem