Even with it being 2009 (almost 2010) and the fact that most new pc’s do not have floppy drives anymore, as a tech, I still find times where bring out an old reliable floppy is my best way to resolve a problem.  Many people still have some “classic” tools that are on floppy, or documents or pictures saved on floppy (Before CDRW/DVDRW drives became the norm, floppy disks were the way to store and transfer files).

The problem is that many of the Floppy drives do not have drivers or “official” support for Windows Vista or Windows 7.  This post covers just such an issue.  I use an Iomega USB drive, and whenever I plug it into my Windows 7 pc’s, I get a message that Windows cant find a driver for my device.

 Here are some simple steps to get your drive to work with Vista or W7.

1) When you install the drive you will get the message that your drive needs to find drivers. Just hit Cancel

2) Go to start –> Control Panel –> System –> Device Manager

(Example from Windows 7, Vista may look a little different)

3) When the Device Manager opens you will see a listing for X1DE-USB with a Yellow triangle next to it under Other Devices.  On that line item right mouse click (NOTE IM SAYING RIGHT MOUSE) and then select Update Driver software and left mouse click (NOTE THATS LEFT NOW)

4) Now select Browse my computer for driver software

5) Now select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer and click on Next

6) Now you will get a box to select your device type from list, click on “Show All Devices” and click on Next

7) In the following window, for the box on the left select NEC Systems, and then on the right select NEC USB Floppy then click on Next

8 ) You will be told by Windows that “Installing this device driver is not recommended…..” its ok just click on Yes to continue.

9) Lastly you will be told that Windows has successfully updated your driver software.

Now if you look at the Device Manager you will see the listing for Floppy disk drive – Citizen X1DE.

Finally if you look in the My Computer icon, you will see the A: drive listed for your floppy drive

With that you now have a working Floppy USB drive.