Setting up the 3.5-inch floppy drive
The 3.5-inch floppy drive you receive will be a plug-and-play device, so it should “just work.” But a few common problems might trip you up.
These days, all new USB-compatible 3.5-inch floppy drives rely on USB for power. The label on mine, for example, asks for 5 volts at 500 milliamps (5V/500mA). Any USB port should do it (since the minimum specification requires it), but if you’re using a dodgy USB hub or have a bad port on an older computer, the drive may not work due to lack of power.
Matt Smith / Foundry
Once plugged in, you’ll need to search a bit to find the drive. It won’t pop up like a typical USB flash drive would, and the drive probably won’t appear in the list of drives in File Explorer. To find it, open File Explorer and navigate to This PC. (Make sure to fully open This PC in the main view of File Explorer by clicking the This PC icon in the sidebar.)
Matt Smith / Foundry
Still not seeing the A: floppy drive? Open the Settings app, then navigate to Bluetooth & devices in the side panel. Scroll down and click on Devices, then scroll down again to More devices and printer settings. This will open the old-school Devices & Printers view where, hopefully, you’ll see the floppy drive listed under Other Devices.
Joel Lee / Foundry
Once it’s all set up and working, the USB floppy drive will basically perform like a slow USB flash drive. You can drag-and-drop files into and out of the drive (assuming you have a floppy disk in it). And if you need to create a disk image (which is required for some software installs), you can use a disk-imaging tool like WinImage.
