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Getting the Iomega USB floppy drive working on newer Windows OS

In this day and age, with 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). Today’s post will cover Getting the Iomega USB floppy drive working on newer Windows OS

Problems With Iomega Floppy On Newer Windows 

The problem is that many of the Floppy drives do not have drivers or “official” support for Windows Vista or later.  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 can’t find a driver for my device.

Steps To Get Iomega working with Windows

Here are some simple steps to get your drive to work with Windows Vista, 7, 8, or 10

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

Getting the Iomega USB floppy drive working on newer Windows OS

2A) For Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 – Go to start –> Control Panel –> System –> Device Manager.

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

2B) For Windows 10 – In the “Search the web and Windows” box type Control Panel. When the choice for control panel comes up, select it. This will open the control panel. Once in control panel, select Device Manager.

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 THAT I SAID LEFT)

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.

anovelo
anovelo
25 Yrs. of professional experience in Technology. Experience with technology implementation and systems management at numerous 5 Star Hotels, and Stadiums across North America. Head of Tech Geek and More since 2009
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35 COMMENTS

  1. Makes the device visible and I have a device A: (Floppy). But any floppy I put in it is listed as unformatted or unreadable. Does this device driver include the file sytem format reader of old? Or have all the floppies simply gone bad over time and appear unformatted?

    • It should read once the drive is listed. It is very possible (unfortunately) that the disk itself has gone bad. Floppy disks can go bad especially if they get exposed to many temp changes.

  2. Thanks for your instructions for the same floppy like yours I own, but surprisely up to the last moment I went, not worked at the final step on my Win7. That is to say that, after I selected to install the driver, it refers to this message:

    “Windows encountered a problem installing the driver software for your device” – “Windows found driver Software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it” – “NEC USB Floppy” – “This device cannot start. (Code 10)”…

    Any idea how to solve it?

    • I would try to reboot pc and then try the steps again as soon as the reboot happens. Sometimes code 10 can happen when other programs run causing issues with the installer. That would be my 1st thing to try. Let me know if that doesn’t do it.

  3. Thank you very much! It works perfectly within my W10-64 bit.
    The 3,5″ floppy drive is a Samsung SFD-321U/HP built 2003.3.

    I recovered an essay which I wrote in 1992! Although the file extension was a weird one, Word-2016 had no trouble opening it.
    Who said data on floppies will only last for 10 years?!

  4. I selected the wrong driver by accident, and I need to go to a different manufacturer, but the wizard will not show me different manufacturers. I’ve tried restarting it, with no luck. Any ideas?

  5. Thank you very much for taking the time to share this fix with others. Every step was clear and correct. My A: drive is now working again. Great advice!

  6. I was going to recycle this old floppy drive but your steps got it to work in Windows 7 Enterprise.

    Thanks for these steps!

    Alicia

  7. I attempted this, but after step 8 it gives me an error and says “Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while installing it [line break] NEC USB Floppy [line break] The data is invalid.”

    Also, my computer doesn’t recognise it as a floppy drive, it thinks that it is a “generic USB hub”. I assumed this was due to the drivers not being installed, but after this I’m kinda curious…

  8. Beautifully explained/laid out instructions (AbFab baby!!) Big hugs n’kiss for you! I have TONS of old pics, gifs & midi files exclusively on floppies & thanks to you I can access & burn em on to cds. Yes I am old & always AT LEAST 10 yrs behind the times but I’m happy with the stuff Im used to working with. Thank you again. j.

  9. I was tasked by a friend to retrieve some files from some old computers. No network cards. No USB ports. One even had the old bigger din type keyboard plug. Anyway, no way but a floppy disk to get the information off. I had a old IoMega USB floppy drive that I thought was useless until I found this page. Worked great!

  10. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU. Worked perfectly on a Win 7 Pro 64. All info from 1997 still fine and copied with no problem to my hard drive.

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