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Floppy Drives
Attaching floppy diskette drives are done in a similar manner to hard drives. See the
picture 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 a proper connection of the cable.
Attach first floppy drive
(drive A:) to the end of the
cable with the twist in it.
Drive B: is usually
connected to the next
possible connector on the
cable (the second or third
connector after you install
Drive A:).
Below are some symptoms of incorrectly installed floppy drives. Though 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.