Floppy drive works in Windows but not MS-DOS

Before following any of the steps below for troubleshooting a floppy drive not working in MS-DOS, make sure ensure that you are unable to read the floppy diskette booting to an MS-DOS prompt or exiting to an MS-DOS prompt. If you are unable to boot to a bootable floppy diskette run through the unable to boot to a floppy disk troubleshooting.

Make sure you can boot from a floppy diskette

Unable to boot from floppy.

Another Hardware device connected of floppy controller not compatible with MS-DOS

Another device is connected in between the floppy and the motherboard that may not work in DOS and therefore is causing the floppy not to work.

If you have any other devices such as a tape drive connected on the floppy controller, disconnect this device.

Not setup properly in CMOS

Ensure that the floppy is setup in CMOS Setup as 3.5" 1.44MB or similar. Also, while in CMOS, verify that the boot options are setup properly. For example, if available, boot options should read:

Floppy
CD-ROM
Hard Drive

LS120 or Super Disk is being used as floppy drive

If this is not a standard floppy drive and instead is a LS120 or Super Disk drive, verify that CMOS is setup properly to detect a LS120 or Super Disk drive and not a 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy diskette unless instructed otherwise by the computer manufacturer.

Autoexec.bat or Config.sys contains lines causing the floppy not to work

Verify that a line within your autoexec.bat or config.sys is causing your floppy drive not to work by temporarily renaming these files. To do this, follow the instructions below.

1. Type the below at the prompt:
2. c:
3. cd\
4. ren autoexec.bat autoexec.ch
5. ren config.sys config.ch
6. Once completed, reboot the computer and try accessing the floppy drive.

If this does resolve your issue you can leave these renamed as they are not needed by Windows 95 or above. If you have Windows 3.x, want to determine what line is causing the floppy drive not to work, or if this did not work, rename these files back to there original names by following the instructions below

1. Type the following at the prompt:
2. c:
3. cd\
4. ren autoexec.ch autoexec.bat
5. ren config.ch config.sys
6. Once completed, reboot the computer and try accessing the floppy drive.

Different drive letter

Verify that your floppy diskette drive is not being setup or placed on a different drive letter. In some circumstances, the floppy may be B: and not A:. At the prompt try accessing B: instead of A: