Now the question of what it is - USB FDD, is increasingly less likely to appear on the Web. People have ceased to be interested in such devices, since disks first appeared, and later - flash drives. But still, a floppy drive can come in handy for those who have an outdated model of the motherboard.
Is it necessary?
Despite the fact that modern PCs no longer support floppy disks, you can purchase special “adapters”. Such floppy drives are connected to a PC via a USB interface. The question also arises whether it is realistic to put Windows on Raid if there is no direct floppy disk drive itself.
If suddenly installing the operating system requires special drivers, you need a physical drive and a floppy disk for this. You can either purchase the drive itself, which connects to the motherboard, or buy a USB drive.
Appearance
If you do not know what USB FDD is, then most likely you have never seen a floppy disk. Previously, these storage media were often used instead of flash drives and disks, since they were still not available.
The first floppy drive became known even during the existence of the IBM-PC computer. He was five-inch and used only one side. It fit on such a floppy disk 180 Kb. Later, double-sided floppy disks began to appear and doubled recording density appeared. The capacity of many reached 720 Kb.
Interestingly, then all this was enough, because an operating system such as DOS or the second version of Windows used a little space. The PC could only work with a drive. Winchester was not needed for him.
Of course, a little later there was a need to create additional memory. Floppy disks became even larger and gained 1.44 Mb. Immediately became known 3.5-inch floppy disks. Such drives entered the computer and were no different in general. Before the OS appeared on the disks, they were placed on a floppy disk.
Inside
Before an external FDD USB appeared, the use of an internal drive was available. Old motherboards still support its connection. He joins through a special loop. Power is connected via the power supply. Most likely, if you basically do not provide for the use of a floppy drive, you will have to activate its work in the BIOS.
BIOS
The inclusion of an internal drive will depend on the BIOS version. Anyway, look for the Integrated Peripherals section. There will be a line with Onboard FDD Controller in the menu. Here you need to activate this controller by selecting Enabled.
Maybe there will be such a problem that everything is included, but the drive itself is not displayed anywhere in the system. To do this, in the first paragraph of BIOS, we look for Standard CMOS Features. For the value of Drive A, you will need to select the parameters of the floppy drive.
If you have a newer version of BIOS, then you need to go to the second tab, find the Devices Configuration line there and enable the controller on it. The drive is also activated on the first tab.
External device
So, we’ve come close to sorting out USB FDD: what it is and how to work with it. If you do not have the drive itself, and the motherboard does not support connecting an internal device, then you can purchase an external drive. In BIOS there is a line where you can optionally connect FDD as a USB device.
In the USB settings, this item is indicated differently. Look for the combination of the words Legacy and USB. It will be indicated next to whether this option is on or off. An automatic parameter can be set. An external floppy should earn. But do not forget to immediately check that all existing controllers with a USB interface are connected, and the mode for them is set to 2.0.
Replacement
But the answer to the question of what it is - USB FDD, can be somewhat different. It turns out that in the BIOS settings you can configure the floppy emulator. If you go to the USB Mass Storage menu, you can see the Emulation Type item there. In it you will find the Forced FDD parameter. In this case, you can create a drive emulation.
You will not need to purchase a floppy drive. It can be a simple flash drive. The only thing that you need to use it will be a little different. If you need to put the Raid driver on the drive, then simple formatting might not be enough.
Installation
This is due to the fact that the flash memory itself is somewhat unprepared for what USB FDD drives could do right away. For it to work correctly, you will have to install an additional program. You will need to download FlashBoot with the antivirus turned off and with administrator rights.
You must say right away that this is a paid program, but for one time you will have enough demo version. We choose to convert floppy to USB. After that you need to select a disk image. But remember that you will have to download it from the official website of the board manufacturer.
To get a floppy disk image, you can go to the official resource. The permission of the document will be “.img”. Each of them has a 1.44 Mb diskette. If you yourself want to make an image from an existing diskette, you will need the Floppyimage utility
So, let's continue. We select Wrap, and then specify which flash drive all data will be written to. Next, in the line indicating the file system, select FAT12, and then click on formatting. Everything is ready, you can work with the emulator.
In general, as practice shows, in this case there are too many troubles. It’s much easier to buy a 3.5 FDD USB drive. Although many believe that such a device will be idle for a long time, and they wonder if it makes sense to spend an extra $ 20 on it.
Programs
Of course, all the described methods are now less relevant than they were in 2012-2013. or even earlier. But on the Internet they can still ask similar questions. This is due to the fact that some programs find it difficult to work without a CD-drive or floppy disk drive. Such applications can store a small amount of data on media. In this case, it is necessary to conditionally “deceive” the system. This is done by emulation.
There are many programs for this business. For example, ImDisk can be considered a good option. It can simply be downloaded without additional installation. After you find a file with the extension “.exe”, it will be enough just to run it. In the program you need to select a disk image. As in the case of BIOS setup, it will be enough to select drive “A”, which was previously responsible for the floppy drive.
In the type of device, click "Floppy." Next, save the image, format and delete the drive. By the way, you need to run the program from the "Control Panel".
Ready device
Of course, there is an option for the most lazy. You can try to purchase a 3.5 FDD USB drive emulator. He easily translates a system that asks specifically for 3.5-inch floppy disks. In general, this option is needed for all kinds of technological equipment. For example, on machines, embroidery machines, medical devices, etc.
Such an emulator is connected to a PC via a standard interface, but at the same time, a flash drive is not installed in it, but a flash drive.
Boot drive
If you worked with a bootable USB flash drive, then most likely you would like to know what USB FDD is in BIOS. You understand that if you simply drop all the files of the operating system onto a USB flash drive, then nothing good will come of it. Therefore, you need to make a boot option from the drive. To do this, you will not only have to work with programs on the desktop, but also go to BIOS.
Depending on what goals you are pursuing or what opportunities your PC has, you should choose the boot option. When you get into the BIOS, you will see that there is a whole list of options. If we talk about simulating boot from other devices, then there is already the familiar USB FDD, USB HDD, USB CDROM.
Variability
The first option is needed to simulate a floppy disk (by the way, there is also a USB ZIP with it). The second option is to boot from the hard drive, and the latter helps to install the OS from an optical CD.
The choice of one of them will depend on the possibilities. For example, many programs that prepare a flash drive work only in USB HDD format. But this option does not support all versions of BIOS. This situation can create a problem in which you simply can not start the flash drive. WinSetupFromUSB works with floppy drives, hard drives and regular disks, so this utility is suitable for absolutely everyone.
How it works?
No matter which option you choose, you will need to verify that all controllers are up and running. After that, you will need to set the download order. For all PCs, the download starts from the hard drive. To select a flash drive, you must move it up in turn. Then it is with her that the download will begin first.
But remember that if you use a USB flash drive as a USB FDD simulation, then in the list you will need to choose a floppy drive. In the First Boot Device line, indicate exactly the FDD USB option. Let the hard drive remain the second in turn.
One of the problems that may overtake you in this process is when the BIOS does not support booting from a flash drive. Then either use all of the above options (create an emulator, buy a floppy drive), or just try updating the BIOS version.