USB Floppy drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Synapse Syndrome
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Synapse Syndrome

I recently built a new machine and I decided not to fit a floppy drive to
keep it as clean and legacy free as possible. I only ever use floppies for
drivers. I temporarily installed a floppy drive form an older machine for
RAID drivers when installing the OS.

Now that I have to do it again I thought I might as well get a USB floppy
drive for driver installation, and make it the last floppy drive I ever need
to buy.

I just wanted to check if one would work for this purpose. Are there any
problems with using a floppy drive, at least with Windows, for installing
drivers during OS installation, or for floppy based things like HDD
diagnostics when used with modern motherboards?

Cheers

ss.
 
Synapse Syndrome said:
I recently built a new machine and I decided not to fit a floppy drive to
keep it as clean and legacy free as possible. I only ever use floppies for
drivers. I temporarily installed a floppy drive form an older machine for
RAID drivers when installing the OS.

Now that I have to do it again I thought I might as well get a USB floppy
drive for driver installation, and make it the last floppy drive I ever
need to buy.

I just wanted to check if one would work for this purpose. Are there any
problems with using a floppy drive, at least with Windows, for installing
drivers during OS installation, or for floppy based things like HDD
diagnostics when used with modern motherboards?

Cheers

ss.
Click to expand...
Modern mobos will detect USB floppies in the BIOS and treat them
the same as in built ones. I've had no issues with them.
 
Synapse said:
I recently built a new machine and I decided not to fit a floppy drive to
keep it as clean and legacy free as possible. I only ever use floppies for
drivers. I temporarily installed a floppy drive form an older machine for
RAID drivers when installing the OS.

Now that I have to do it again I thought I might as well get a USB floppy
drive for driver installation, and make it the last floppy drive I ever need
to buy.

I just wanted to check if one would work for this purpose. Are there any
problems with using a floppy drive, at least with Windows, for installing
drivers during OS installation, or for floppy based things like HDD
diagnostics when used with modern motherboards?

Cheers
Click to expand...

I don't think you can boot from an USB floppy. Sometimes a BIOS upgrade
require a floppy drive. Clearly the floppy port is anchored deeply in
the system since that once was the primary access point. But why so hang
up about legacy features? I don't understand it.
 
Johannes said:
I don't think you can boot from an USB floppy. Sometimes a BIOS upgrade
require a floppy drive. Clearly the floppy port is anchored deeply in
the system since that once was the primary access point. But why so hang
up about legacy features? I don't understand it.
Click to expand...

I've heard that you can boot from USB floppy drives. I just want to make
sure that that is always the case and that there are no issues. My new Asus
motherboard seems to be getting new BIOS updates all the time at the moment.
I only got it three weeks ago and I have lready updated the BIOS four times.
Well, anyway, I don't need floppies for that; only for a recovery after a
BIOS update failure. I need it for RAID drivers and HDD diagnostics and the
like.

What you say about them not working conflicts with what Pen has said earlier
in this thread. I am just talking about modern motherboards. I have floppy
drives in my older machines. I just don't want to buy more than one more as
I only use them for these purposes. There is no hang up - doing this just
makes sense to me.

ss.
 
Synapse said:
What you say about them not working conflicts with what Pen has said
earlier in this thread.
Click to expand...

My experience is the same as Pen's. I've never had a problem with a PC
autodetecting a USB Floppy Drive and treating it exactly like a standard
Floppy Drive - including initial booting from one.

Regards

Mark
 
Synapse said:
I've heard that you can boot from USB floppy drives. I just want to make
sure that that is always the case and that there are no issues. My new Asus
motherboard seems to be getting new BIOS updates all the time at the moment.
I only got it three weeks ago and I have lready updated the BIOS four times.
Well, anyway, I don't need floppies for that; only for a recovery after a
BIOS update failure. I need it for RAID drivers and HDD diagnostics and the
like.

What you say about them not working conflicts with what Pen has said earlier
in this thread. I am just talking about modern motherboards. I have floppy
drives in my older machines. I just don't want to buy more than one more as
I only use them for these purposes. There is no hang up - doing this just
makes sense to me.

ss.
Click to expand...

Could you please recommend a good program for HDD diagnostics?

thanks -
 
Synapse Syndrome said:
I recently built a new machine and I decided not to fit a floppy drive to
keep it as clean and legacy free as possible. I only ever use floppies for
drivers. I temporarily installed a floppy drive form an older machine for
RAID drivers when installing the OS.

Now that I have to do it again I thought I might as well get a USB floppy
drive for driver installation, and make it the last floppy drive I ever
need to buy.

I just wanted to check if one would work for this purpose. Are there any
problems with using a floppy drive, at least with Windows, for installing
drivers during OS installation, or for floppy based things like HDD
diagnostics when used with modern motherboards?

Cheers

ss.
Click to expand...

Actually, if the board is new enough, you can boot from a thumb drive, don't
need a floppy at all. Check your bios boot choices. Even my ecs and
biostar boards can boot from a thumb drive, I've done my bios upgrades from
that. It sure is faster, too.

pek
 
Synapse Syndrome said:
I just wanted to check if one would work for this purpose. Are there any
problems with using a [usb] floppy drive, at least with Windows, for installing
drivers during OS installation, or for floppy based things like HDD
diagnostics when used with modern motherboards?
Click to expand...

Actually, if the board is new enough, you can boot from a thumb drive, don't
need a floppy at all. Check your bios boot choices. Even my ecs and
biostar boards can boot from a thumb drive, I've done my bios upgrades from
that. It sure is faster, too.
Click to expand...

True, but doesn't help with the case of RAID drivers during Windows
setup - unless you integrate them onto the CD, your only choice is
floppy.

Cheers - Jaimie
 
Actually, if the board is new enough, you can boot from a thumb drive,
True, but doesn't help with the case of RAID drivers during Windows
setup - unless you integrate them onto the CD, your only choice is
floppy.
Click to expand...

But a USB floppy may be just as useless as a thumbdrive, depending on the
mainboard BIOS.
 
But a USB floppy may be just as useless as a thumbdrive, depending on the
mainboard BIOS.
Click to expand...

I have no idea. I'm not the one suggesting a *USB* floppy, just saying
that a floppy drive is the only possible method for a particular usage
that the OP needs.

Cheers - Jaimie
 
I recently built a new machine and I decided not to fit a floppy drive to
keep it as clean and legacy free as possible. I only ever use floppies for
drivers. I temporarily installed a floppy drive form an older machine for
RAID drivers when installing the OS.

Now that I have to do it again I thought I might as well get a USB floppy
drive for driver installation, and make it the last floppy drive I ever need
to buy.

I just wanted to check if one would work for this purpose. Are there any
problems with using a floppy drive, at least with Windows, for installing
drivers during OS installation, or for floppy based things like HDD
diagnostics when used with modern motherboards?
Click to expand...

If you mean the bit where a 2000/XP install offers you the choice
of pressing F6 to load a SCSI/SATA/RAID raid driver then no, F6
gives you no choice and insists on using the 'A:' floppy.

Nick.
 
Nick Austin said:
If you mean the bit where a 2000/XP install offers you the choice
of pressing F6 to load a SCSI/SATA/RAID raid driver then no, F6
gives you no choice and insists on using the 'A:' floppy.
Click to expand...

He does mean that ... and the answer is still "it depends on the BIOS".

Some BIOSes will (if configured to do so) detect a USB floppy (and in some
cases a USB thumbdrive) and present it to the OS as "the A: floppy", in
which case 2k/XP install will be able to get SATA drivers from it. Others
don't.

The only thing to do is to suck it and see ...

Cheers,
Daniel.
 
Nick Austin said:
If you mean the bit where a 2000/XP install offers you the choice
of pressing F6 to load a SCSI/SATA/RAID raid driver then no, F6
gives you no choice and insists on using the 'A:' floppy.
Click to expand...

But if the mother board has USB floppy support, then the USB floppy will be
"A" and will work because at this point the installer is still using the
BIOS interupts to access the floppy.....
 
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