My laptop thinks my flash drive is a floppy disk!!!

DallasCHVN

I have a Compaq Mini 110c designed for Windows XP (currently running FreeDOS 1.1 with FreeGEM and Windows 3.1.) It has no internal floppy drive or CD-ROM drive, but it thinks my Staples Relay 512mb USB Flash Drive is a Floppy disk! I know it's not that big of a problem, but is there any way to change this?

BOD

Are you referring to Windows 3.1's file manager seeing it as a floppy disk?

Seeing as USB drives didn't really appear 'til into the 2000s (at least I remember reading the reviews for the 8MB ones), I'd imagine that's all 3.1 can understand it as being if it's not a HDD.

DallasCHVN

DOS and Windows say it's A: and show a floppy logo

Doqtor Kirby

Welp. Looks like you have a 512 MB floppy drive then.

BOD

DallasCHVN wrote:

DOS and Windows say it's A: and show a floppy logo

Most likely it's because DOS would have picked the first drive letter available, and may just be hard coded to assume A: is always floppy.

calvinb

Most USB disk drivers for DOS make it look like a hard drive or some kind of removable drive - this may be a quirk of FreeDOS' stack.

DallasCHVN

Doqtor Kirby wrote:

Welp. Looks like you have a 512 MB floppy drive then.

Wow! I have a huge floppy disk!

TCPMeta

You can reassign it. I think the command is

assign A:=D:

Thats if you want the jump drive to be \. Just change the letter to any free letter if you wish.

DallasCHVN

TCPMeta wrote:

You can reassign it. I think the command is

assign A:=D:

Thats if you want the jump drive to be \. Just change the letter to any free letter if you wish.

Thanks

TCPMeta

No problem, however you might have to add that command to the AUTOEXEC so it will reassign on bootup.