Member Avatar for joshuu

Halloo. There is this computer I came across in my work place that had the floppy drive right but it can't be seen in the computer i.e when you open mycomputer there is nothing like 31/2 floppydrive.I even checked the device manager and its not there too.I haven't opened the case yet to check if the connections are correct.Could it be caused by something else.

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If My Computer and Device Manager both show no floppy at all, the problem is almost always at the BIOS/physical level rather than a Windows display setting. The following compact checklist expands on the earlier suggestions from , and with concrete tests to isolate the fault.

Start with hardware: power the PC down and unplug the mains, then check that the small 4‑pin power plug (Berg) is seated on the drive and the floppy ribbon is firmly plugged in. On floppy ribbons the red stripe marks pin 1; confirm the stripe aligns to pin 1 on both drive and motherboard connector. If the cable has a twist, make sure the drive is on the correct connector after the twist. Inspect for bent pins, a dead drive LED, or a loose connector; if available, swap the ribbon and power cable with a known-good one.

Check BIOS/CMOS next: confirm the onboard floppy controller is enabled and the A: drive type is set correctly (1.44/3.5 or Auto-detect). If BIOS detects the drive but Windows does not, use Device Manager -> View -> Show hidden devices, scan for hardware changes, remove any ghost floppy-controller entries and reboot. If BIOS does not detect the drive, the fault is very likely physical (cable, power, drive) or the motherboard controller.

If those checks fail, swap in a different drive or cable to isolate the faulty part; as a workaround, a cheap external USB floppy or a PCI floppy-controller card will restore access. Observe ESD precautions when working inside the case. These steps extend the thread’s earlier points into a practical sequence for narrowing the cause.

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Member Avatar for DuncanIdaho

I can think of a few things that can cause this.

1: Floppy drive is unplugged inside the case.

2: Floppy drive is not enabled in the BIOS, or has been intentionally disabled by your IT people for increased security.

3: Bad floppy drive.

Hope this helps.

Member Avatar for vicec64

Also try turning the IDE floppy cable around the other way as connected to the floppy side.

Member Avatar for Puckdropper

vicec64, it's not an IDE floppy cable, it's just a floppy cable. IDE refers to hard disk technology. (Besides a twist at the end, there's also 6 fewer pins on a floppy cable.)

Try this:
Start the computer at the command prompt (booting off a "startup disk" or whatever you call it made in Windows will allow you to do this) and type dir a: and note the results.

To boot back in to windows, simply remove the floppy disk and reboot.

commented: Helpful +1
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