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A few seconds after connecting a USB floppy disk drive to a Windows 10 computer, the whole disk is read to cache (making every file readable without additional physical reading). Is it possible to disable caching for this kind of removable media?

Sometimes floppy disk content is cached, other times it is not; I still haven't figured out the pattern. I'm quite certain it happens every time I turn on the Windows 10 computer and connect the floppy drive with a 720KiB floppy.

I have never observed floppy disk caching on Windows XP (using the same drive and floppies).

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  • Why are you sill using obsolete storage devices?
    – DavidPostill
    Aug 31, 2019 at 20:08
  • Surprisingly, real 720KiB 3.5" floppies still have the largest cross data transfer range between different platforms, from older non-networked systems (late 80s-90s) to current day computers (via USB floppy drives). GoTek floppy drive emulators only allow for one size formats per drive, meaning they don't allow PC (720KiB) to Amiga (880KiB) transfers and vice-versa, for instance. If you want to rotate old computers for regular usage, using a USB stick equivalent way for cross storage, floppies are the way to go. That is, if your use cases for data usage are low storage (text files and such). Sep 3, 2019 at 7:41
  • Curious, whats the problem with it caching the disk?
    – Tim G.
    Sep 4, 2019 at 12:40
  • The issue is excessive reads. Drive heads touch the floppies' surface, which should be minimized to avoid tear. Sep 17, 2019 at 19:27

1 Answer 1

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Open Windows 10's Indexing Options, and remove "Floppy Disk Drive (A:)" via the Modify button. Notice: you can have another drive letter for your drive rather than A:.

While the drive is being accessed without your intervention, you can find out which process is accessing the floppy drive by using, for instance, Windows Sysinternals' Process Explorer. To find the process, use "Find Handle or DLL..." in the find menu, and search for your drive letter and a colon (i.e. a:).

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