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WINDOWS 11 DOES NOT ALLOW 3.5" EXTERNAL USB FLOPPY DRIVE

Anonymous
2024-01-31T17:15:52+00:00

WHEN I PLUG EXTERNAL USB 3.5" FLOPPY DRIVE INTO LENOVO THINKPAD P16 GEN ......A DRIVE NEVER APPEARS OR APPEARS FOR A BRIEF SECOND THEN DISAPPEARS .......SOME OF US ARE STILL USING THIS OLD HARDWARE .

DOES THIS WINDOWS 11 SUPPORT FLOPPY DRIVES ?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Accessibility

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-05-22T08:42:18+00:00

    (Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2 - on a laptop computer)

    FIXED!

    My newly-purchased USB floppy disk drive does not appear in Windows Explorer BUT, if you type A: in the search bar, there it is!

    In Device Manager look under the heading "Floppy Disk drives" to see the automatically-inserted driver for your FDD.

    If the driver exists there, then Windows found your legacy drive and installed a driver. However, since nobody uses drive A: and B: any more, they seem to have seen fit to remove any reference to them in Windows Explorer, and you have to go looking for yourself.

    Cool.

    20+ people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2024-04-22T18:01:01+00:00

    I had the same problem. If you open file explorer, then click "This PC", you should see the drive listed. You then right-click and "Open". I used this method to access the files.

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2024-03-26T13:36:30+00:00

    Yeah, uhhh, I've got a DELL floppy disk reader and it works fine. The reader's probably from like, 2003.

    Side note: looked- it's from 2004. Close, but not on top.

    Edit: Windows 11 must still natively have drivers for this stuff because Plug&Play with the floppy drive works BEAUTIFULLY.

    5 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2024-11-19T20:32:08+00:00

    I keep getting "Request is not supported" message using file manager

    Win 11 24H2 Pro

    also in command line I entered "a:" And got "your request is not supported"

    4 people found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2024-01-31T17:31:38+00:00

    Does the manufacturer of your (unnamed) floppy drive support the drive on Windows 11.

    4 people found this answer helpful.
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