Help, new floppy drive doesnt work

K

Kehl

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 16, 2007
Messages
119
I need to flash my bios to support my new processor and installed a new floppy drive I purchased along with it. When ever I try to read a floppy disk windows prompts with an error asking to insert a disk into drive A:. Occasionally I also get the following error: "The drive is not ready for use; its door may be open. Please check drive A: and make sure the disk is inserted and that the drive door is closed." I have tried multiple disks both new and old and reseated all the cables. Drive swapping is disabled in the bios and I have doubled checked my install with this website and all the pictures match up for a reference.
http://www.buildeasypc.com/hw/howto/instfdd2.htm

Does anyone have any suggestions? I know there are other ways besides a floppy to flash the bios, but at this point its a matter of wanting what I pay for to work. :(
 
You should be able to flash your BIOS from a CD if your motherboard supports it.
 
I think your disk is bad. Either that or the cable is messing up somewhere.
 
mnewxcv said:
usb flash drive?
Click to expand...
My bios currently does not support booting from a flash drive, the flash will fix that. lol

450 said:
I think your disk is bad. Either that or the cable is messing up somewhere.
Click to expand...
I have tried 20+ disks now; new disks, ones I made in the past, and really old games that came on 3.5" floppies. I am picking up a new cable tomorrow, maybe that will fix the issue. I was really hoping I had missed something, we'll see. I knew I did not have a floppy drive until now for a reason. lol
 
Ok, I found two floppy cables in a box and that did not fix the issue.

I'm sure that I am crazy, but I have not looked at the connector on a floppy drive in a long time, could some pins be missing? Here are two images from the back of the drive showing the connector.
Floppy1.jpg

Floppy2.jpg
 
wow I dont know. was it new? the most pins ive ever seen missing from a floppy drive is 2.
 
Kehl said:
Ok, I found two floppy cables in a box and that did not fix the issue.

I'm sure that I am crazy, but I have not looked at the connector on a floppy drive in a long time, could some pins be missing? Here are two images from the back of the drive showing the connector.
Click to expand...

Heh, I wanted to post this last night, but the boards went down.

Anyhow, the missing pins from "modern" FDDs is normal. Make sure you have the ribbon cable plugged in correctly, along with the power cable.

While facing the connector on the cable, with the key on bottom, pin-1 (red stripe) should be on the RIGHT hand side.

When facing the rear of the FDD, pin1 is usually to the LEFT. This is different from IDE drives, whose pin1 is usually to the RIGHT when facing the rear of the HDD.

The power cable for the floppy is also different. The red (+5V) cable is usually on the RIGHT when facing the rear of the FDD. This is different from IDE drives, who's red +5V cable is usually to the LEFT when facing the rear of the HDD.

If its plugged in correctly, and you've tried dozens of disks, the drive is most likely bad. FDD are just flaky like that.
 
enginurd said:
Heh, I wanted to post this last night, but the boards went down.

Anyhow, the missing pins from "modern" FDDs is normal. Make sure you have the ribbon cable plugged in correctly, along with the power cable.

While facing the connector on the cable, with the key on bottom, pin-1 (red stripe) should be on the RIGHT hand side.

When facing the rear of the FDD, pin1 is usually to the LEFT. This is different from IDE drives, whose pin1 is usually to the RIGHT when facing the rear of the HDD.

The power cable for the floppy is also different. The red (+5V) cable is usually on the RIGHT when facing the rear of the FDD. This is different from IDE drives, who's red +5V cable is usually to the LEFT when facing the rear of the HDD.

If its plugged in correctly, and you've tried dozens of disks, the drive is most likely bad. FDD are just flaky like that.
Click to expand...

I did not realize that about the pins, good to know. And thank you for confirming my conclusion about the drive being bad enginurd.
 
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