Why does Vista insist I have an A:\ (Floppy) Drive?

[8IronBob]

I'm not too sure why, but even if I don't physically put a floppy drive in my rig, and these days in age, why would we? It seems like Windows and the mobo BIOS insist that I do have one, when there's not even a connection for one. I'm guessing that ASUS has it that you can disable that, but I'm wondering if I should even force it disabled or not without causing conflict. Anyone have any ideas?

[Phayzon]

Same deal here, and Im pretty sure its also impossible to put a floppy drive in this board as well. Hasnt bothered me so I just let it be. ;)

[avatar_58]

Disable in the BIOS then. This is pretty funny actually, I just noticed because I removed my floppy drive. It still shows up in My Computer. Haha. I guess as long as you have the controller it adds the drivers for it. Disabling in the BIOS will remove it though.

[8IronBob]

Yes, I was thinking about disabling it in BIOS, but had thoughts that it would cause some conflict in other areas of the config later on, I'll give it a try, and hope that nothing bad happens after the fact.

[d3ad connection]

Yes, I was thinking about disabling it in BIOS, but had thoughts that it would cause some conflict in other areas of the config later on, I'll give it a try, and hope that nothing bad happens after the fact.

I did and everything seems fine on my end.

I got this computer with no floppy drive but it always showed up in My Computer :p

[endmilled]

You should have no problems disabling hardware in the BIOS you don't use. For as long as I've been building/using computers that I can remember, I've always disabled everything that isn't needed. Serial/parallel ports, midi/game ports, onboard audio hardware, extra onboard USB/Firewire ports that don't get hooked up, floppy drive controllers, and so on. I guess I just don't like wasting resources on hardware that's not used. I've also never had problems enabling them later if any were needed at another time.

[NutWrench]

I can't believe floppy drives are still offered as an option in today's BIOS's.

[Superczar]

No more love for the floppy? :(

I bought one for my machine. :D

And I've used it!

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

When I had XP, I needed a floppy to install my raid drivers. With vista its no longer necessary.

[avatar_58]

No more love for the floppy? :(

I bought one for my machine. :D

And I've used it!

I had it in my old case but while setting up the new one I realized I never really used it. I installed Windows 3.11 in dosbox using it, but that's about it. So I just left it out.

[Rider]

The last PC case I bought, I bought specifically with a floppy drive in it! I remember the days before the live CD!! :D

[NutWrench]

When I build my next computer, I'm going to fill the floppy storage bay with one of these. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820162016)

[Phayzon]

^
My friend has one of those ;) I have a neat little external one, but for my next system I may get an internal just because.

[Crosma]

I can't believe floppy drives are still offered as an option in today's BIOS's.

I'm pretty sure that it's a requirement for a PC to be an IBM compatible. Not that I can explain why that matters now.

[IwantMORE]

It must be another example of MS not keeping up with the times, not understanding how people use computers and lack of attention to OS/UI design.

I mean Apple started winding up support for floppies in 1998 and MS still has not got round to making a version of Windows that realizes that people don't use floppy drives any more.

[peoplessi]

It must be another example of MS not keeping up with the times, not understanding how people use computers and lack of attention to OS/UI design.

I mean Apple started winding up support for floppies in 1998 and MS still has not got round to making a version of Windows that realizes that people don't use floppy drives any more.

Stop it, you started to make sense before this post. But no you are back to your formerself. It doesn't have anything to do with Vista.

[ZuljinRaynor]

It must be another example of MS not keeping up with the times, not understanding how people use computers and lack of attention to OS/UI design.

Yeah, it's MS's fault the BIOS says there is a floppy drive so Windows puts one in. :doh: You're really something.

[IwantMORE]

so Linux obviously has the same problem?

[tony]

so Linux obviously has the same problem?

Yes, it does. I've had many issues with apps that probe for a floppy when one wasn't physically installed, but it was enabled in the BIOS.

[peoplessi]

Obviously, wouldn't it be foolish for linux to disregard the hardware you have without asking you?

[Zero]

Actually Linux will, the kernel will detect the FDD controller, but if there is nothing connected to the FDD controller then udev can't make any block devices, if those block devices don't exist there is nothing to attempt to access, and if using HAL and DBUS in KDE i will not attempt to look for a floppy drive because it already know what block devices already exist.

I have a 3 1/2 and a 5 1/4 drive in my machine, a blueray reader/DVD burner, a multicard reader and a water reservoir for my water cooling setup.

So my system supportes most all formats even LS-120 and ZIP disks.
The reason why I kept all this "dead" hardware is because in school, (I am currently taking machincal engineering and some of the computers only have a 5 1/4 floppy drive) from this I realized that you never know when an older disk format might come in handy, it sure is not used to it is not worth having for the average person, but for those who had an old skool system like a C64 nothing can replace the 5 1/4 floppy drive, it may be obsolete, it maybe worthless but to people like me it's sort of a peice of my childhood that I never want to let go of.

[peoplessi]

They should upgrade their computers, if they are from the dark ages as you say.

[MrBlackCat]

To each his own... but floppy disks are not dead for a great number of people. Anyone who plays very many DOS Games could benefit from, if not need, a Floppy Drive... I really don't know how many people do this, but from the DOS game sales I see on Amazon, eBay there are tens of thousands.
It would be a stretch to say Floppy drives are dead, or aren't needed.
I have two dual Floppy controllers in one of my PC's for a pair of 2.88's (3.5) drives and a pair of 1.2's (5.25) drives. I did this way back for quick duplication mostly. I have a third dual controller in another older computer to maintain a pair of 1.44's and a single 1.2. I still use 5.25 disks sometimes with old games.
Another example of modern Floppy disk usage is with certain types of remote automated manufacturing machines. Some are still several types of PC controlled iron working machines that rely on floppy disks... but they don't run Windows... still today, they run DOS. With these computers, even an 80486 is overkill.

The point... I still use 3.5's, 5.25's and I even have some working 8.0's around that get occasional use. (Yes, you can still buy ANY floppy disk ever made, all day long, even the 8 inch.)

Anyway... I must admit that I have archived any floppy disk games to mini-CD ROM whenever I get them out to actually use them. I do this mostly because of floppy disk reliability issues.

As far as issues with disabling hardware... with some hardware, port and interrupt shifting (due to assignment order) can cause some problems, but this should not occur with a floppy disk drive due to standard assignment. I don’t have Vista, but after reading this thread, I am glad to know they (at Microsoft) haven't removed Floppy Support.

MrBlackCat

[d3ad connection]

Floppies are still useful, even to me. I am helping my friend with his very old Acer and the only way to transfer drivers/games/apps is through floppies or a burned CD (and there's no way I'm wasting 1 CD just for a 5 MB file) So I've been stuck moving things via floppy a lot lately.

[IwantMORE]

I understand that floppies are not dead, but I would have said they are for the typical consumer PC. It appears the main reason is some motherboards still need floppies to refresh the BIOS. I guess the problem remains until motherboards move up to a firmware based BIOS like EFI (http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FExtensi ble_Firmware_Interface&ei=SEgpSdKeKJzY-Qa6zrShAg&usg=AFQjCNEsrkqTLJDjBnNV0x2vHa5tQ0tpPw&sig2=82wWW45LAzTMTqH7VwYafA). Then again MS has not been quick to support EFI so the motherboard manufactures have not moved on.

[peoplessi]

Well, I don't you can call firmware based BIOS, since EFI is an replacement. Most new boards can be updated with USB storagedevice, and most computers have USB so transferring files with floppy disks isn't so needed. Maybe for very old PC's, but in production enviroment I haven't seen floppydisks to be used anymore. It's unreliable system to store data.

[d3ad connection]

I'll agree with you there. Floppy disks are very unreliable.

[IwantMORE]

And soooo slow!!

[MrBlackCat]

...snip... Maybe for very old PC's, but in production enviroment I haven't seen floppydisks to be used anymore. It's unreliable system to store data.

I agree floppy disks are unreliable for storage long term... in production at four steel fabrication plants I work for, they use hundreds of floppy disks. Programming creates the process model and writes it to floppy disk, then it goes out to the production floor and is taken to one of many machines. Sometimes multiple machine processes are written onto one disk and taken to different departments consecutively. This is standard for thousand of shops in machine working and steel fabrication. The amount of data on the disks is very small. Most of the machines are DOS based... some are networked, but only the more advanced single process machines. When you produce many thousands of different parts in a month, floppies are the way to go. Some are recycled but they are not used for storage. They are only a transfer medium from office to shop basically... but they are industry standard and critical. For a machine operator to look up parts in a directory structure of thousands isn’t reasonable. It would take longer to tell them where a process file is than write a disk and take it to them... Again, one disk, one process, reduces errors.

So maybe for main-stream household PC’s floppy disks/drives are no longer needed... I could see that point. USB drives would be a great replacement for floppy drives on non-DOS computers. It will be interesting to see what direction the industry I work in goes when older PC’s die out. Actually single board Pentium 1 and 2 class computers (rack mount multiples) are either still made or there are thousands stocked from suppliers.

Interesting thread though...

MrBlackCat

[Karthik]

Still use em to boot to Real Dos mode here.

[Xonic]

I still use floppy disks on desktop computers to run Norton Partition Magic or other diagnostic programs.