USB floppy drive compatibility

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Level 8

41,405 points

USB floppy drive compatibility

Alright. I really hope you guys have an answer for me.

I posted this in "input devices" and didn't get any responses. Hopefully I'll have better luck here:)

I purchased a SmartDisk USB floppy drive. When I installed the software, Classic launched (this is when I became a bit concerned).
I restarted my machine, put a floppy (formatted for Mac) into the drive and waited. The icon that was supposed to show up on my desktop wasn't there. I tried a few floppies, with the same results.
I followed all of the instructions, but I'm not seeing any floppy icons on my desktop. When I check in System Profiler, the floppy drive is recognized.

On the box, compabitility for Mac OS 8.5 and above is claimed...
Any help is appreciated!

Posted on Aug 18, 2005 9:39 AM

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Answer 1

Deme

Level 4

1,140 points

Aug 18, 2005 10:47 AM in response to Lyssa

heres the deal, OS X does not natively support any floppy disk drives. I don't know if your drive has some special software, but it sounds like it is not Carbon based(will only run in OS 9 and below). OWC used to have a driver for floppy disks, but I don't think it is working anymore.

So you probably can't use the floppy drive with OS X

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Answer 2

Aug 18, 2005 5:28 PM in response to Lyssa

I don't use it anymore, but I have an imation SuperDisk drive that mounts floppies fine under every version of OS X I have had (10.1-10.4).

This drive has not been made for several years, but you may be able to find one used somewhere. This is the drive that reads both floppies and a proprietary 120MB disk. I bought mine when I bought my first iMac (333mhz G3). I really didn't use it a lot even back then. I guess Apple was right floppies were dead. This was back in 1998. Why do you still want to use floppies?

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Answer 3

Lyssa Author

Level 8

41,405 points

Aug 18, 2005 7:12 PM in response to Steve Whitsett

I don't want to use them. We have a PowerPC 6300 and I'm trying to get the files off of it. When I transfer them to a floppy, then try to burn a CD on my Windows PC, the files are corrupted. I was hoping to leave the ClarisWorks files in their original form, but it's looking like I'll have to change all the files to text only.

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Answer 4

Deme

Level 4

1,140 points

Aug 18, 2005 7:19 PM in response to Lyssa

Why don't you transfer them via networking? Or send the files to yourself through e-mail. then go onto the other computer and get them from your e-mail. or some places have online briefcases where you can store files.

And you can save the files as RTF (rich text files, I think) And it keeps the same formatting, but can been seen in claris and office and many others. test only looses most of the original formatting.

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Answer 5

Lyssa Author

Level 8

41,405 points

Aug 18, 2005 7:22 PM in response to Deme

I don't want to spend the money upgrading that computer for networking. We no longer have dial-up internet (and I highly doubt the software we have is compatible with OS 7.5.1). Thanks for the info on rtf 😀. It seems this floppy drive is useless. What a bummer!
ah well. Next time I'll post in here before I purchase something.

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Answer 6

Wade Peeler

Level 6

10,906 points

Aug 18, 2005 7:26 PM in response to Lyssa

My floppy drive is a VST I think, and it works just fine and I never had to install any software for it. I've been using it since 10.0.0.

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Answer 7

Lyssa Author

Level 8

41,405 points

Aug 18, 2005 7:27 PM in response to Wade Peeler

Thanks for that, Wade.
It seems I had the misfortune to choose the wrong brand of floppy drive. 😟

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Answer 8

Wade Peeler

Level 6

10,906 points

Aug 18, 2005 7:31 PM in response to Lyssa

Have you looked at this tech support article on SmartDisk's website?

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Answer 9

Lyssa Author

Level 8

41,405 points

Aug 18, 2005 7:37 PM in response to Wade Peeler

Hmmm
I can't say that I've looked at it. And right now, my browser isn't allowing me to view it. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it working later.

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Answer 10

Wade Peeler

Level 6

10,906 points

Aug 18, 2005 7:45 PM in response to Lyssa

This is what it says:

<code>Windows: Disk in drive x: is not formatted, do you want to format now? Mac: Floppy Disk does not mount on the desktop.

We have learned that on some computers, powering up the computer with the floppy drive connected can put it in a state where it will not properly read floppy disks. To see if this might be the situation on your particular system, try either of the following as a potential workaround:

1. Power up the computer with the floppy disconnected. Then connect the floppy drive, allow it a few moments to mount, and attempt to read a floppy.

2. If the computer was already powered up with the floppy drive connected and the floppy drive does not appear to be performing normally, disconnect the floppy drive [using the "Unplug or Eject Hardware" icon in the Windows taskbar, or by dragging to the Trash on the Mac]. Then reconnect it and try to read a floppy disk.

3. We also need to make sure that we are using 1.4MB HD (High Density) Floppy Disks, not DD (Double Density) Floppy Disks.

4. Try the drive on different USB ports, or another machine. Make sure that you are not connected through a hub or other device, but directly to the machine.</code>

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