Dell XPS 410 Internal Floopy Drive not working with Vista

I have a new computer with Vista home premium and an internal modem that
doesn't work. Dell has struggled with their software and have replaced the
Floppy but still doesn't work. The "fix" of an external floppy works fine.
Has anyone else had this problem and came up with a fix?
Thanks a lot.

 

Hi,

Floppy or modem? They are two different things entirely and rely on
different means of interaction with the operating system. A modem uses
software driver files whereas the floppy drive uses the system bios to
communicate - which is it? For the modem you need Vista supported device
drivers for it to work (and in the case of x64 these need to be signed
drivers). For the floppy, the bios may be misconfigured or require a new set
of instructions.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

Sorry it's an internal floppy drive. I screwed up talking about a modem. Sorry.

 

Hi,

Ok, then my first steps would be to reseat cabling (data and power - want to
make sure that latter one isn't in backwards either, a common mistake) and
also make sure that the BIOS is set for the correct mode.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

Ok I did that and internal floppy still not working but external floppy is.
Both drives show up in my computer along with all the other drives but in
disk manager neither floppy is detected. Any suggestions on how to get
internal floppy (Drive A) to work. Again External floppy (Drive B) does work.
Its just frustrating.

Thanks

 

No, floppy drives don't show up in the Disk Manager.

When you reboot the machine, does the internal floppy light up
and do its little seek dance as it should? If not, you may have
the data cable reversed like I always do.

 

Hi Dick,

As Don stated, it's Device Manager, not Disk Manager that you should be
checking.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

I have a question about floppy drives and Vista. I just got my PC loaded
with Vista Home Premium a week ago. The last computer that I owned had a
floppy drive built right in and I didn't have to worry about it being
compatible. I've looked all over the Internet for an external floppy disk
drive that supports Vista. They all seem to stop at Windows XP. Are there
any floppy drives out there that support Vista? I have a ton of disks with
lots of files on them. If I can't find one, those files are no good to me.

 

Any External USB connected Floppy will be compatible with Vista.
I have a Sony USB floppy and it works fine. You probably want to
transfer (permanently) off the floppy diskettes. Head alignment is a
common issue and sometimes disks that worked OK in one drive
may not be readable in another. I've USB floppy drives as low as
$20 or less.

 

Hi Kathleen

It's always good to look for hardware which is specifically supported for
Vista by the manufacturer.

But USB floppy drives are fairly generic devices, so quite low-risk for
compatibility. As long as they identify themselves as a USB floppy drive,
they should "just work". Vista has built-in drivers to support USB floppy
drives. Vista should automatically recognise such a device when you plug it
in.

I use an Imation floppy drive (see
http://www.imation.com/products/diskettes_storage/usb_drive.html). For me,
this has worked perfectly under Vista - I just pluged it in then started
reading and writing floppy disks. The Imation drive is actually a rebadged
Mitsumi drive, many other "manufacturers" also just put their label on a
Mitsumi drive and sell it as an "Acme USB Floppy" or whatever. So any drive
you buy, which is a Mitsumi drive inside, is likely to work with Vista.

Be more cautious with drives which also include built-in memory card
readers - some of these require hardware drivers supplied by the
manufacturer, so the chances of compatibility (while still reasonable) are
much lower, unless the manufacturer explicitly supports Vista.

As a side-note, you might want to think about changing to a USB Flash Key as
movable storage - even an ultra-cheap 64MB key can hold the equivalent 50
floppy disks at a time. And the Flash memory is far more robust, and less
vulnerable to mechanical damage, than floppy disks (in fact compared to the
relibility of CPU, memory, hard disk etc, floppies are one of the most
fragile and unreliable components in the computer - which is why new
computers don't have them!) Copy all your floppy disks onto your hard disk
(where they will be more safely stored), then when you need to take some of
the files to and from work or school, just copy them onto your USB Flash
key.

Hope it helps,
Andrew

 

Hi Andrew,

Thank you so much. So, I've been worrying all for nothing. Oh well, I
guess it's best to ask than be sorry later. Thanks again Andrew, you've been
a big help.