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USB Floppy Drive Not Working also cannot format the floppy gives error “disk cannot be formatted” after installing Windows 7 Service Pack 1

Anonymous
2012-09-05T16:18:08+00:00

Original Title: USB Floppy Drive Not Working for Windows 7

Hi there,

We were using floppy drives (via Sabrent USB Floppy Drive) just fine on our Windows 7 machine, until it was updated to SP1.  All of a sudden, Windows 7 will no longer load the files on the disks.  Half the time we put in a floppy disk, it asks to be reformatted.  If we select quick format, it will tell us it cannot be done.  If we unselect quick format, sometimes it will complete, but 80% of the time it will give an error message saying the disk cannot be formatted.  Even when it did complete a format, the disk became unusable and corrupt.

The other half of the time, it just crashes programs such as iTunes and Google Chrome and will load for a long period of time (15-20 minutes) before popping up an error message saying the disk cannot be read.

We have tried this USB Floppy Drive on 4 or 5 different machines with Windows 7 and it does this with every machine that has SP1 or greater.  We have tried this on both AMD, i3, i5 and i7 machines with no luck, but every time we have tried the floppy drive on a computer with Vista or XP, the drive works flawlessly.

The drive is supported for Windows 7, we have talked to the manufacturer.  We have tried both plug and play options and drivers given to us by the manufacturer.

Does Windows 7 have a bug where it cannot read floppy drives?  I've read in a million places people with the same or similar problems (not working on Windows 7 but working on every other Windows OS).  If anyone knows a solution to this problem, please let me know!

Thanks.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-11-04T13:33:41+00:00

    Same issue.  Would not run on Windows 7 machine.  Attached the drive to my older machine running XP and the floppy drive works just fine.  It also works on my Surface machine which runs Windows 8.  There is some type of bug within Windows 7 which does not allow the floppy to operate.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-09-06T07:10:45+00:00

    Hi Jaysus81,

    ·         What is the make and model of the computer or floppy drive?

    **Method 1:**Tips for solving problems with USB devices                             

    Tips for solving problems with USB devices

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Tips-for-solving-problems-with-USB-devices

    **Note:**The article applies to Windows 7 as well.

    Method 2: I would suggest you to update USB driver, the following steps will help you to update USB driver.

    a.       Open Device Manager by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Device Manager.‌ If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

    a.

    b.      In Device Manager, locate the device you want to update, and then double-click the device name.

    c.       Click the Driver tab, and then click Update Driver and follow the instructions.

    Additional information for updating drivers:

    Update a driver for hardware that isn't working properly

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Update-a-driver-for-hardware-that-isnt-working-properly

    Note: If you don’t find the drivers in Windows updates, go to manufacturer’s website download the latest drivers and install it.

    Let us know if this helps.

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