Windows 7 Windows 7 corrupts Floppy disk

Hello Rjobe!

Rjobe said:

I have purchased and installed Win7 on a New (2 months old) PC that has a New floppy drive. The first time I used the drive I inserted a disk and opened it up to see what was on it. Explorer showed files and allowed me to open one for viewing. I then deleted all files from the disk and attempted to copy other files to the disk at which time I got a device not readable/disk not formatted. I attempted to format the disk numerous times with no luck. I used another PC (WinXP) to check/format the disk and again put the disk into the Win7 PC and opened it - showed disk empty (Good). I then copied some files to the disk, they did copy this time, then closed all windows and reopened explorer to the F. Drv again at which time I could See and Open the files. HERE'S WHERE THINGS GET FUNKY. I close explorer window, remove the disk and reinstalled the disk, open explorer to F. Drv and now the disk is EMPTY . When I try to again copy files to the disk I get the disk not formatted - but it will not format the disk and keeps giving a bad media message (I've tried 15 disks). I figured it was the drive (HW) even though it's new so I obtained another New drive and it did the same thing. I changed cables 3 times (one cable is new) - NO CHANGE. I tried an old but good drive - NO CHANGE.

Each time I try to read a floppy disk and then try to read the same disk on my WinXP PC I'm told the disk is not formatted/corrupted file system. The disk(s) are good and work as advertised in the XP machine but not with Win7.

Kicker - my USB floppy drive works very well with Win7 and no issues.

Bad drivers? Any thoughts?

Thanks.

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I'm running the retail version of Windows 7 Home Premium , and I have the same problems as you describe. I have been running build 7100 since it was released to the public to try. The problem was there as well, although not known to me while I had it installed.

I restored a Ghost image of W7 build 7100, in order to test if the issue was there with that version, and it was.

I also made new clean installations of both WinXP64 and Vista64, and the floppy drive worked without issues.

I probably wouldn't ever have discovered the problem, if it wasn't for the fact that I downloaded a new BIOS version for my second PC, from my running Window 7 machine, and copied the BIOS to a floppy diskette.

I thought that everything was fine, until I had flashed the BIOS, rebooted the computer, and got a hair raising msg. about a corrupted BIOS, when the machine woke up. I'm still surprised that it didn't die totally

I have posted almost the same text in the microsoft.public.windows.64bit.general newsgroup. From the answers I got there, I guess that the problem is related to Windows 7 and my Amd chipsets combination.

I got a reply from a person who has a motherboard with an Intel X58 chipset, and with a Sony floppy drive attached to the board's 34-pin connector, and it works as it should.

I answer your message to let you know that you are not the only one who have the problem

I don't know how "they" manage to copy the text from a newsgroup msg, and post it on a server, and make it look as if it was posted there originally, but I stumbled over a link to a site where I could read my own messages

Link Removed

Kind Regards
LDJ

My system:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
Processor AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H
RAM 2x2048 MB DDR2 SDRAM 1066 MHz OCZ
GFX Club 3D Radeon PCI-E HD4870 Extreme OC 1GB
Hard-Disk WD Caviar Black WD1001FALS
Sony Floppy drive 1.44MB
PSU Thermaltake Toughpower 750W

Thanks LDJ for the response. Since I've tried replacing the drivers with XP drivers and no change I'll take the AMD chipset issue as a possibility. I did forget to post my hardware info so here it is for any others who may have some insight.

Thanks.
rjobe

AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4GHz
ASUS M4A79T Deluxe 790FX AM3 MB
3x1GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600
ASUS EAH4850 Radeon 1GB Video
WD 150GB VelociRaptor 10K HDD
Nippen Lab FDD (x2)
Plextor PX-880SA DVD Burner/Lightscribe
Corsair 550W PS

Okay, first post!

I am another one affected by the problem using the internal floppy port! I can boot/read from the floppy fine but writing data is uselessly corrupted. Microsoft's silence/ignorance is embarrassing. When they can't fix a floppy drive any more why trusting in Windows any longer?

I am thinking about returning to Vista as there are no such problems

If you have problem with the floppy drive, then I empathise. But , if you can copy the contents, prehpas you could try and transfer it all to cd/DVD's. Floppies are really old technology. I have not come in contact with one for about five years.

Floppy problems

Drew,
What motherboard are you using? This issue seems to affect systems running certain AMD chipsets (see first few posts). I've tested with Intel chipsets with no issues. And there are folks that still use floppy drives for various reason out there. It's not dead yet as you can still by floppies and disc.

Rjobe

Drew might want to google about floppy formatting issues and he'll find a truckload of similar complaints mostly affecting certain AMD chipsets. However, no such issues under Vista why Win7? I am very sure Microsoft can fix the issue easily and if not they should not sell Win7 as being compatible with non (Intel) Microsoft hardware.

Changing device? why? The floppy is supported under Win7, no?

window 7 floppy drive problems

I too have the very same problem with my floppy. It worked find in vista. It a sad day when Microsoft can not or will not fix a simple problem as a floppy. And no I dont want to use something else to back my files up. It a lot simpler to use a 3 1/2 disk for small files that you change on a daily bases.Why is the blame always pass to the amd chip set or the motherboard company. The floppy worked find under vista, same chip set and motherboard. What about fixing the problem and quick passing the blame to everone except Microsoft. I have used every Micosoft Operating system since DOS. Please dont make me switch to Linux this late in the game.
DLJ

dlj said:

I too have the very same problem with my floppy. It worked find in vista. It a sad day when Microsoft can not or will not fix a simple problem as a floppy. And no I dont want to use something else to back my files up. It a lot simpler to use a 3 1/2 disk for small files that you change on a daily bases.Why is the blame always pass to the amd chip set or the motherboard company. The floppy worked find under vista, same chip set and motherboard. What about fixing the problem and quick passing the blame to everone except Microsoft. I have used every Micosoft Operating system since DOS. Please dont make me switch to Linux this late in the game.
DLJ

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This thread is old now. Possibly there is a fix for floppy drives, which are not compatible with Windows 7. But, as has been repeated many times, hardware compatibility is not the responsibility of Microsoft.. All hardware manufacturers had more than a year, to examine the Windows 7 code and make adjustments accordingly. If those companies felt the age of the product was not worth the effort, so be it.. At a very late stage of XP, as I suggested in my other post, I transferred all of my floppy programs to other media. But, in several cases, I found that software which was so old as to only be available on a floppy, was not worth the effort.
I have all of my third party software on DVDs. As I often reinstall from new, I also have the more important third party software on another partition, for fast reinstallation.
Do you honestly see this as being slower than messing with snail pace floppies?

I do not want to sound discurteous, but if you feel the inability to use floppies with windows 7 is a deterrent, then I would earnestly advise that you stay with XP or, on your own suggestion, LInux.

RAK said:

This thread is old now. Possibly there is a fix for floppy drives, which are not compatible with Windows 7. ...

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please explain how can a simple floppy drive, on the market unchanged since earlier than DOS, never had any DOS/Windows issues up to Vista suddenly become a problem in Win7? Sorry to say but you just painted Microsoft as a clown

Quoting from my previous post. "But, as has been repeated many times, hardware compatibility is not the responsibility of Microsoft.. All hardware manufacturers had more than a year, to examine the Windows 7 code and make adjustments accordingly"
Windows 7 is widely ackowledged as an astronomical improvement over Vista, this obviously meant rewriting some of the code.

I am sorry if my posts, apparently, offended. It was intended as conversational advice. Regretfully, you chose to ignore my other comments.

RAK said:

Quoting from my previous post. "But, as has been repeated many times, hardware compatibility is not the responsibility of Microsoft.. All hardware manufacturers had more than a year, to examine the Windows 7 code and make adjustments accordingly"
Windows 7 is widely ackowledged as an astronomical improvement over Vista, this obviously meant rewriting some of the code.

I am sorry if my posts, apparently, offended. It was intended as conversational advice. Regretfully, you chose to ignore my other comments.

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I also have had this problem with "Floppy" drives (3 from different manufacturers, to be exact) and do not believe it to be a HARDWARE problem but a Win 7 issue.
I also have a PC with Win XP Pro 64 bit and have no problems formatting or reading floppy discs, and both my PCs are AMD chipset based. One with a Gigabyte Motherboard and the other MSI and both chipsets are the same iteration. (AMD 770/710). Also I realize that floppies are old hat but the become useful for updating BIOSes outside of the OS.

Stransky

(Douglas)

Windows 7 problems with floppy

Dear RaK Senior Member Valued Contributor
First of all the final version of windows just come out, how is this an old thread? I used a computer back when the cpu was a 8086 4 mhz probably before you were born. Floppy drives have a set standard they have to conform to . Another question, are you employed by Microsoft it sure sound like it. Do not insult me by trying too shoot me a line about compatibility on a standard floppy drive. I been programing C++ for over ten years. I also build computers from scratch. I dont run to the store and buy one. Nobody is trying to bash Microsoft , Windows 7 is the best yet. I know because I have bought ever Operating system they have made. I would just like a fix. If there a problem own up to it and fix it.That all I ask. If 3 1/2 floppy are so out dated why does some of Microsoft own solutions call for the use of a floppy? I also tried a usb floppy drive and got the same thing. Are you saying Microsoft is going to return everyones money if it has floppy problems? If Microsoft won't help the next best thing is to complain to AMD or a good computer magazine like Maximum pc or your motherboard company. They will find out what going on. DLJ

PS. I have notice that you can copy to the floppy and the file will show. But if you take disk out and put it back in windows say the drive is empty. But if you right click it and choose properties it shows that disk space has been used. Also sometimes if you select add a new folder your imformation will show up. Then if you remove the disk and use it later windows reports a empty disk even though you can check the property of it and it shows used space.

I cannot see the purpose of your second post, except to prolong this thread into an argument. I can see you apparently joined the site, to make these posts?
I guess this is an attempt at sarcasm..

"Dear RaK Senior Member Valued Contributor"

I should point out that I do not self appoint such titles on this, or any other forum, in fact, if you read some of my posts in the general section, you will see that I very positively disapprove of them.

"I used a computer back when the cpu was a 8086 4 mhz probably before you were born. "

I am sorry. But to that I can only comment, loudly -LOL. I am 75 years old. My first home computer was a self built Sinclair ZX80, in 1980. I went though a brief Apple 1 phase, but, with company urging, then moved on to my first PC (IBM 5150), as this had a more appropriate usability and was already established with digital research (CP/M)as its operating system.

I have unfortunately, been drawn into a prolonged argument now, in this thread. This is contrary to my instincts. I can only reiterate, before leaving the thread, that my sole intention was to point out the weakness of continuing to use floppy technology.

I still use my floppy for stuff like Driver installs and noticed I had a problem formatting a disk until I noticed that unless the unit size is on default I keep gettiing an error.. See the screenshot.

Link Removed due to 404 Error

floppy drive problem

No rak I am afraid you are wrong. No one was making fun of you I join this forum because I had a problem the same as other people. You told me this was an old thread and in other words move on. I not trying to start trouble I am just trying to solve a problem like everyone else and since you dont use a floppy, I guess you think no one else is suppose to use one either . Yes you made me mad because this a free country and people can still use what they want to on there computers. It is a lot easier and faster to use a floppy for small files then having to go thru burning a cd or dvd for less then a meg. You made it sound like if you didnt use a floppy no one else had the right to try to work this problem out. You would jump in and try to end the thread when the problem was not resolved. You tried to make people feel like they didn't know what they were talking about. I could tell you made several people mad. It does not matter weather it is Window 7 problem or AMD chipset or a motherboard issue we are trying to help each other. If you dont want to help find a solution fine. But dont try to stop other people from using this forum to work their problems out. It you are not intertested in what we are doing fine just keep quite and dont try to end other peoples research. Forgive me it I am wrong, but the last time I talked to a window tech this forum belong to Micrsoft not you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DLJ

floppy drive problem

I found this article online it might help someone else. I tried it, reformating 3 disks on my window xp 64 bit machine and 3 on my vista 64 bit machine. But i still got the same problem. DLJ

A:\ is not accessible.
The device is not ready.
-or-
Disk is not formatted
The disk in drive A is not formatted.
Do you want to format it now?
-or-
STOP: The disk media is not recognized, it may not be formatted. The same disk may work correctly with MS-DOS or Windows 95, or after you re-format the disk with Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003.

This problem occurs on disks that do not contain a media descriptor byte in the...
This problem occurs on disks that do not contain a media descriptor byte in the BIOS parameter block (BPB) of the boot sector. Some older preformatted floppy disks do not contain a media descriptor byte. Older product disks may also not have the media descriptor byte.

The media descriptor indicates the type of medium currently in a drive. With MS-DOS and Windows 95, you do not have to set the media descriptor byte. Therefore this problem does not occur with these older operating systems.

The media descriptor byte is located in the BPB of the boot sector at offset 21 (15h) and in the first byte of each FAT on the disk.

To resolve this problem, re-format the floppy disk with Windows 98, Windows Mill...
To resolve this problem, re-format the floppy disk with Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003.

Did you check my screenshot DLJ? No use?

floppy drive problem

Hello Kemical.
Yes I did look at your shapshot. 512 bytes is the standard for floppys. You can use different sizes but it hasn't help me. Have you tried using the add a folder option on the floppy. I have found sometimes the files will show up on the disk till you take the disk out and put it back in. The files are actually on the disk but window 7 report the disk empty. I have took the same disks that windows 7 said was empty and tried them in an xp or vista machine and the files showed up. I have also been checking other forums and found several others reporting the same problems. One is real long. So there are a lots of other people having problems too. I am going to post them later. It might help someone. I have to go for now. DLJ

Stransky said:

I also have had this problem with "Floppy" drives (3 from different manufacturers, to be exact) and do not believe it to be a HARDWARE problem but a Win 7 issue.
I also have a PC with Win XP Pro 64 bit and have no problems formatting or reading floppy discs, and both my PCs are AMD chipset based. One with a Gigabyte Motherboard and the other MSI and both chipsets are the same iteration. (AMD 770/710). Also I realize that floppies are old hat but the become useful for updating BIOSes outside of the OS.

Stransky

(Douglas)

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I have no problem doing a BIOS update from any one of my USB external drives when I boot into the BIOS. My Mother Board is an ASUS P6T Deluxe V2. I ahve one machine with a floppy, I have transfered most of what I have on Floppys to an external hard drive. I have not used a floppy in over 3 years