Floppy and Flash Drive No Longer Work

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nick Cellino
  • Start date Start date
N

Nick Cellino

I'm encountering a strange problem I can't seem to solve on my own. Starting
today, I can't display files on my floppy drive or SanDisk Cruzer Mini USB
Flash Drive. Both drives appear normally in My Computer. Both also appear in
Device Manager where they are shown to be "working normally" but I can't
open the drives to display the files or copy files to the drives. Each time
I try to do so, I see the error message "Please insert a disk into Drive A:
(or Drive F:)".

Because I'm encountering problems on both drives simultaneously, I suspect
the problem is somewhere in Windows rather than on the drives themselves. I
tried "uninstalling" the floppy drive in Device Manager, rebooting and
watching Windows XP reinstall it but the problem remained.

I am using Windows XP Home SP2. Can anyone offer any suggestions? Thank you.

Nick Cellino
 
Hi,

check for your connections in the motherboard to these devices...
Probably some cable in the hardware is loose.

Balaji R
 
Hi, Nick.

Many of the things that we used to do with Device Manager and other tools in
earlier versions of Windows are now handled by Disk Management. One way to
get to Disk Management is to enter at the Run prompt: diskmgmt.msc

Both My Computer and Device Manager still have some useful functions, but
only Disk Management can handle some jobs, such as creating or deleting
partitions, formatting them and changing their drive letters. In Disk
Management, maximize the window, then click View to customize it to suit
yourself. I like to see the Volume List at the top and the Graphical View
on the bottom. Disk Management does not handle the floppy drives, but you
should see your HDDs, CD/DVDs and your flash drive there. It even shows my
SanDisk SD card reader. The Help file here explains much more than previous
versions.

Some USB devices require their own drivers to be installed. Also, if a USB
device is plugged into a different port than last time, it might need to be
re-detected. It might now be Drive X: instead of F:. If you right-click on
the drive in Disk Management and then click Properties, you can change some
settings, such as whether to Optimize for quick removal or to Optimize for
performance.

Maybe none of these ideas apply to your problem, but Disk Management is a
tool that every WinXP user should get to know.

RC
 
I checked the connections which are normal. Here's one additional clue. The
floppy drive does not appear on the information screen that appears at
startup.

Nick
 
I entered the BIOS settings where I "shut off" and then turned on the floppy
drive and now the floppy drive does show on the startup screen. I can now
boot to DOS with a startup disk but after I load Windows, I can only open
the floppy to see files or copy files if the floppy is in the drive when I
turn on the computer! As soon as I remove that floppy and insert another
floppy, I get the same error message, "Please insert a disk into Drive A:."
This is really baffling but I do seem to be making some progress. Does
anyone have any ideas?

Nick
 
Has said:
I'm having the same bloody problem. I have tried everything I can
think of.
Click to expand...

Because you are posting on one of those web "forums" that is really just
an interface to Usenet and you didn't quote any of the previous post,
we here using real newsreaders don't know what "the same bloody
problem" was. Try using a real newsreader to access this resource. Here
is information to help you (and it is easy):

Since you are using a web interface, you may not realize that this is
really a newsgroup. You will get far more out of this resource if you
learn to use a newsreader. There are many good newsreaders for Windows,
but you can use Outlook Express since you already have it. Here are
some links to information about newsgroups:

About Usenet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet
http://groups.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=basics.html - Basics
of Usenet
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page3.html#12-09-02 - a brief
explanation of newsgroups

Using Outlook Express as Newsreader:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
http://rickrogers.org/setupoe.htm

How to Post:
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

http://aumha.org/nntp.htm - list of MS newsgroups
microsoft.public.test.here - MS group to test if your newsreader is
working properly
http://www.mailmsg.com/SPAM_munging.htm - how to munge email address
http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm - multiposting vs.
crossposting

If you want help from the MS newsgroups, refer to the first link under
"How to Post" above to see what details to include in your next post.
Then come back with all pertinent information and someone will help
you.

Malke
 
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