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#11
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Phantom floppy drive
If you can't find provision for jumpering the drive then you will have to
assume that it's permanently configured as drive 1. Some drives provide the jumpers, some don't, some have them as traces that need to be soldered, and I guess there might be some with DIP switches (although I think they disappeared with 5 1/4" drives).. If you have two drives both jumpered as drive 1 then the one on the far side of the twist (the end of the cable) becomes drive 0, or the A drive as far as DOS is concerned, and the one nearest the motherboard connector (middle of the cable) becomes drive 1 (or B). Unless, of course, you have selected the BIOS setup option to reverse the floppy drive numbering, which is an option supported in some motherboards. In that case, it's exactly the other way around. -- Jeff Richards MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User) "peter_cologne" wrote in message ... Hello Jeff, Thanks for your suggestion. I have looked carefully all over both the new and the old floppy frives with a magnifying glass. I cannot see any jumber setting such as one would find on a hard drive or CD-drive. What exactly am I looking for? A "DIP" switch or bank of, or a tiny removable item? Should I be able to see it without removing the casing? Would apopreciate any further advice/suggestions. Pete |
#12
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Phantom floppy drive
Many thanks for that explanation and valuable advice!
I put the old drive back in and this did not solve the problem. I then tried another cable, which had two normal connectors (as opposed to the previous one which had a normal cable only at the end, the intermediate one being of a strange type). As the drive was connected to the end connector of the original cable, I reasoned that I should try the intermediate connector this time. The problem still existed. I then tried the end connector. Before each attempt, I had restarted in Safe Mode and deleted the floppy drives in the Device Manager as suggested by Philo. Then it worked!! Even with the old drive!! So, it wasn't faulty after all!! I don't understand any of this but I have learnt that, if you try to understand PCs or Windows, you will drive yourself mad anyway, so I don't try! Very many thanks for your help. Regards, Pete "Steven" wrote: On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 07:07:03 -0800, "peter_cologne" wrote: I guess Drive 0 is A and Drive 1 is B?? It is complicated by a sensible decision someone made a long time ago. Back in the dim dark '80s when many PCs had two floppy drives the powers that be wanted to simplify the installation of these drives. So they supplied the cable (with the twist) and decreed that all drives should be jumpered to be drive 1. Due to the twist in the cable the drive at the end of the cable reacts to drive 0 requests while the drive at the intermediate connector reacts to drive 1 requests. This avoided problems that might otherwise occur when users replaced or added drives. So, all drives should be jumpered to react to drive 1 requests. The drive at the end of the cable (after the twist) should then appear to be drive A while a drive at the intermediate connector will be drive B. As I mentioned earlier, I cannot see any jumper (even with the magnifying glass!) but I don't know what I'm looking for. My 3.5 inch drives have the jumpers near the power connector. None of these drives are new so perhaps newer ones just have a soldered link instead. If so, you can't really change it but at least it will probably be correct. Some BIOSes have a 'swap floppy drives' option so drive A appears as drive B and vice-versa. Can you check in BIOS Setup to make sure you haven't accidently enabled this option ? Yes, there is a twist in the ribbon-cable which connects the drive to the mother board. If you start counding from the red side, the twisted ones are 10 to 16. This sounds good. If you replace the new drive with the old one does the phantom B problem disappear ? This test will determine whether the new drive is the problem. What does HTH stand for? HTH = hope this helps. -- Steven |
#13
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Phantom floppy drive
Many thanks for that additional info. I now have a greater understanding of
floppy drives. As I replied to Steven, I have now solved the problem (though I do not understand how it ever arose!). Pete "Jeff Richards" wrote: If you can't find provision for jumpering the drive then you will have to assume that it's permanently configured as drive 1. Some drives provide the jumpers, some don't, some have them as traces that need to be soldered, and I guess there might be some with DIP switches (although I think they disappeared with 5 1/4" drives).. If you have two drives both jumpered as drive 1 then the one on the far side of the twist (the end of the cable) becomes drive 0, or the A drive as far as DOS is concerned, and the one nearest the motherboard connector (middle of the cable) becomes drive 1 (or B). Unless, of course, you have selected the BIOS setup option to reverse the floppy drive numbering, which is an option supported in some motherboards. In that case, it's exactly the other way around. -- Jeff Richards MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User) "peter_cologne" wrote in message ... Hello Jeff, Thanks for your suggestion. I have looked carefully all over both the new and the old floppy frives with a magnifying glass. I cannot see any jumber setting such as one would find on a hard drive or CD-drive. What exactly am I looking for? A "DIP" switch or bank of, or a tiny removable item? Should I be able to see it without removing the casing? Would apopreciate any further advice/suggestions. Pete |
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