Floppy Drive question

[Mangix]

If I want to use a Floppy Drive, i would have to use a cable to connect it to the computer right? The cable being connected to the Hard Drive(Master) and the other slot in the cable would be for the Floppy(Slave). Is this all it takes or is there more to it? I tried doing what i just explained but it did not work. the Hard Drive worked as my comp booted fine but the Floppy Drive did not.

[gamehead200]

Floppy drives have their own independent cable. They do not connect to the same cable as HDs.

[puntoMX]

There are some floppy drives that connect to IDE, like those old SL120 drives. But for sure most people won´t have it .

[ripken204]

ya, floppy has its own cable and own port, they arnt ide, at least not for a while

[Mangix]

so should i post a picture of what my floppy drive looks like? i'm not sure what kind of cable i need.

[gamehead200]

so should i post a picture of what my floppy drive looks like? i'm not sure what kind of cable i need.

Sure, go ahead, but odds are, you need a floppy cable!

[Mangix]

ok here's a picture. the quality kinda sucks but i guess it's kinda visible.

[gamehead200]

You need something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16812103104

[Mangix]

i do have something like that. it came with my CD Drive though(i didn't use it because my comp had an extra cable for that inside .

so when i connect it, do i use the cable that goes into the Hard Drive? because on my older computer(the floppy came from there), the Floppy Drive was a Slave while the HD was the Master. so do I do that or do i just use the other cable and make the Floppy Drive the master?

[woelfman10]

The CD drive cable and floppy drive cable are similar, but the floppy cable and drive have less pins, thus are incompatible. For an example, go to:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.as...oard+%2D+Retail

You will see a blue IDE connector at the bottom center of the board, and just below it is a white floppy connector, which is a different width, so they cannot be used interchangeably between a floppy drive and a CD/HDD drive.

[LLXX]

No! Floppy disk subsystem is completely separate from ATA subsystem.

You need a 34-pin ribbon cable. There should be a matching connector on the mobo.

because on my older computer(the floppy came from there), the Floppy Drive was a Slave while the HD was the Master.

Impossible. I can even count 34 pins in your blurry picture. It's not an LS120 drive (which *does* have 40 pins and plugs into IDE ports). Edited July 24, 2006 by LLXX

[Mangix]

i see i see. i didn't realize that the connector for the CD Drive had 40. when i tried putting in the Floppy Drive as a slave, it did seem like there were more pins on the cable than on the floppy drive.

anyways, i'm gonna search my other comp to see if i can find a cable that can make the floppy drive work.

[tguy]

A floppy drive such as the one you are depicting requires a floppy ribbon cable. An IDE cable that connects to a hard drive or cd-rom probably will now work. You also need to connect the floppy ribbon cable to the floppy drive connector port on the main or motherboard.

Then once it is connected turn the system on and go into the BIOS to see if it appears correctly. It should.

If it does not, turn it off and make sure the cable is connected properly. The red stripe on the ribbon cable should be attached to the drive so it is closest to the power cable for the floppy drive. Sometimes the ribbon connectors are 'keyed' so they can only be connected one way.

Good luck.