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Floppy Drives
Attaching a floppy drive can be done in a similar manner to an IDE drive. See the diagram
below for an example of a floppy cable. Most of the current floppy drives on the market
require that the cable be installed with the colored stripe positioned next to the power
connector. In most cases, there will be a key pin on the cable which will force proper
connection of the cable.
The first floppy drive (commonly
denoted as
A:
) is usually attached to
the end of the cable with the twist in it.
Drive B: is usually connected to the
second or third connector in the cable
(the second or third connector after
you install Drive
A:
).
Refer to your floppy drive’s installation
instructions (if available), or contact
your dealer if you are unsure about
how to attach the floppy drive(s).
Remember, you can only have 2 floppy
drives connected at any given time.
Below are some symptoms of incorrectly installed floppy drives. While they are minor and
installing them incorrectly doesn’t cause severe problems, it may cause your system to
freeze or crash when trying to read and/or write to diskettes.
Symptoms of incorrectly installed floppy drives
Drive is not automatically detected
Usually caused by faulty cables, cables
put in backwards or a bad floppy drive
or motherboard. Try another floppy
drive to verify the problem if the cable
is properly installed or try replacing the
actual cable. Also check to see if the
onboard floppy controller is enabled in
the BIOS setup.
Drive Fail message at bootup
The cable, floppy drive or motherboard
may be faulty. Try another drive or
cable to verify.
Drive does not power on
Check power cable and cabling.
Maybe a bad power supply or drive
cable problem.
Drive activity light is constantly on
Usually signifies that the cable on the
drive is on backwards, which is a
common issue. Reverse the cable at
the floppy drive end and try again.
