Will Windows 7 see an USB Floppy drive?(Vanity)

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Will Windows 7 reconize an USB Drive or run DOS?

[ml/nj]

Agree.

ML/NJ

[ml/nj]

BTW, I should add that I'm a guy who liked to poke at the chips directly, so I held on to 3.1 for as long as I could; but it's harder and harder to do that now.

ML/NJ

[Aliska]

Is Windows 7 any good? I’m going to run Fusion on my new imac, had a question and called apple, question about getting a different mouse and keyboard. The tech was helpful and sensed my frustration trying to make the transition. She recommended to go ahead and install Fusion (oh I asked if I could return it since I decided not to use it, no, I’d opened the box). Then explaining about Windows XP updates to catch up on since 2003, she recommended I get Win 7. See it’s about $200 but makes sense, will keep running Win XP on my pc.

Another incident, I had trouble with IE8 on my pc, don’t use it very much, annoyed that it forces me to open to msnbc, there is a fix but tricky. It lost my top bar and my task bar, I couldn’t get out of it and did the ctrl-alt-del. I thought maybe the last update caused it, never had that problem before. After a couple sessions of that, I decided to try f11 thinking it might somehow be in full screen mode. That did the trick. But if the cat did it, why wouldn’t it be back to normal when I rebooted?

[grayeagle]

Here's a link. Freep Computers I put it on my sidebar.

[Aliska]

My floppy drive broke way back when, and my only option now since I’m sol is to buy an external one or take in to the shop (not worth it) which I don’t want to do (buy stuff I don’t absolutely need), may be able to find someone to burn my important ones to CD or DVD.

I’ve fixed things but never tried messing with anything in the tower or I could replace with a new one myself. The tower is too heavy and too many cords to mark. Usually if I must, I yank cords and manage to remember where most of them go and can get out the quick start guide.

[BlueDragon]

"...But I wish I could just go back to Windows XP and be happy again."

Aah, yes. Good 'ol XP. A fine soldier, if one can overlook an occasional friendly fire incident, his being a bit hard on the liquor, his short-changing a few of the workin' gals, and penchant for allowing spies to hang around his bivouac ...
but all-in-all a fine soldier, executing his assigned duties rapidly, without [much] complaint. Much ordinance delivered accurately, on target.

All hail XP SP3 !

--- all rise, some albeit reluctantly, and applaud ---

[LomanBill]

>>Will Windows 7 see an USB Floppy drive?

An OS upgrade can be hit and miss relative to legacy hardware support. Check the drive vendor’s website and see if they have a Windows 7 driver available.

[calex59]

If you have to run "real" DOS, your best bet is FreeDOS in a VM (use VirtualBox or Virtual PC).

I beg to differ. The best real dos emulator is DosBox, free for the downloading and works great. The latest version, I believe, is 0.72.

[Voltage]

(a cheapie $298 at WalMart, E-machines)

It may be ok, but you should have 2 GB of RAM or it will disappoint you. Low end machines are almost always sold with too little RAM.

[LomanBill]

What do you mean by “Run DOS”?

Are you saying you want to boot DOS from a bootable disk in a USB floppy drive?

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

No, you could run a type of dos in Windows 95,2000, XP and
I see no way to run it in my borrowed Vista computer.
My XP burned up so I am going to buy a new PC.
I need a floppy drive for an old real time program that will work only under dos. I asked about windows 7 because all info on vista says it will not see a usb to floppy drive.

[the_daug]

IE 8 if you right click the gray space below the title bare you should be able to turn on/off (show/hide)the menu and other tool bars. Unless you’re set up for left hand.

[LomanBill]

[No, you could run a type of dos in Windows 95,2000, XP and I see no way to run it in my borrowed Vista computer.]

 

Goto the windows search box, type in "command" and press enter.   That will take you to a command (DOS) prompt - but that's not really DOS.   Depending upon how your real time program interacts with hardware, it may or may not run... but if it ran under the XP command prompt, I'd expect it probably would run under Vista or Win 7.... probably.

 

[I need a floppy drive for an old real time program that will work only under dos.]

 

Is the disk 5.25 or 3.5 inch? 

 

[I asked about windows 7 because all info on vista says it will not see a usb to floppy drive. ]

 

Google search returns numerous hits for floppy drives claiming Vista compatibility - but, I'd suspect, only 3.5"

 

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=Vista+USB+Floppy+drive&aq=f&aqi=&oq=&fp=a048890d3c90c6fc

 

If your app is on a 5.25" inch disk and you have no 5.25 drive available, there are services that can transfer the software to another medium for you.

 

Alternatively, if your PC has an open 5.25" bay, you should be able to install a 5.25 floppy drive - presuming your bios will recognize and allow you to configure for it.  

 

 

Once you get the software transfered, the next step would be to run the app either from the commnd prompt or from within one of the virtual Dos simulators that others have suggested on the thread.

 

Good Luck,

=Bill

[jpsb]

DOS on Vista, start->programs->accessories->Command prompt

[Aliska]

I see, took awhile, there are four items you can check or uncheck. It was ok so f11 must have worked. But that is good to know. I only use IE8 for the stock market and saving youtube videos; while there something sometimes catches my eye that I will read. No, I'm not set up for left hand but am left-handed. It has always felt natural to use the mouse right-handed for some odd reason, am somewhat ambidextrous.

Thank you; I may need to know that in the future, never really liked IE explorer but use the Windows explore all the time (totally different app).

[LomanBill]

>>DOS on Vista, start->programs->accessories->Command prompt

Same result as typing in “Command” from the search bar...

And that’s STILL not really DOS.

Under actual DOS I could write programs in ASM and Directly access hardware via BIOS interrupt and memory address. Not so under Windoze.

[jpsb]

I use C in Windows, VC++ seems to work ok, but have not upgraded VC++ in years. In fact I am looking for a good (free) C compiler to use with windows if you know of one. Oh I tried search->command and it worked, lol, I just keep a command window on the desk top so never tried the search before.

[LomanBill]

[In fact I am looking for a good (free) C compiler to use with windows if you know of one.]

“Microsoft® Visual C++® 2008 Express Edition”

http://www.microsoft.com/express/Windows/

[Bikkuri]

CTRL-SHFT-ESC is much more efficient at getting the Task Manager up.. and it won’t leave the desktop environment.

Bikk

[jpsb]

thanks I will give that a try