Enabling A: Drive

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Dominic, make sure that the red stipe on the ribbon cable is aligned with
Pin1 on the drive and motherboard. Also, make sure it's enabled in the
Bios.
"Dominic75" <Dominic75@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B2B56D52-D208-4EFE-9D4A-10FEAA2BEEFE@microsoft.com...
> Hi, I need some help.
>
> How do I get my a drive working. Just bought a new pc, it came without a
floppy drive. Installed one myself, cables, power e.t.c but windows XP
won't find it.
>
> Is this a XP problem??
> Do i need to edit my BIOS setup??
>
> Losing my hair on this one!!
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Yes the floppy disc controller would have to be enabled in the BIOS if
that was the controlling device. Once that happened you should have a
floppy disc controller show up in Device manager. Unless of course
someone disabled it in Device manager! Take a look and see.

Dominic75 wrote:

> Hi, I need some help.
>
> How do I get my a drive working. Just bought a new pc, it came without a floppy drive. Installed one myself, cables, power e.t.c but windows XP won't find it.
>
> Is this a XP problem??
> Do i need to edit my BIOS setup??
>
> Losing my hair on this one!!
>
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Hi Dominic,
It sounds like you need to enable floppy drive support
in the BIOS. If you know how to get into the BIOS setup,
scan down through the selections and you will see
something that looks like, "enable floppy". You might
also want to check the boot order, so it has your C:
drive as primary boot. This just saves a bit of time on
boot-up.

Hope this helps... Dave
>-----Original Message-----
>Hi, I need some help.
>
>How do I get my a drive working. Just bought a new pc,
it came without a floppy drive. Installed one myself,
cables, power e.t.c but windows XP won't find it.
>
>Is this a XP problem??
>Do i need to edit my BIOS setup??
>
>Losing my hair on this one!!
>
>.
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Dave wrote:
> Hi Dominic,
> It sounds like you need to enable floppy drive support
> in the BIOS. If you know how to get into the BIOS setup,
> scan down through the selections and you will see
> something that looks like, "enable floppy". You might
> also want to check the boot order, so it has your C:
> drive as primary boot. This just saves a bit of time on
> boot-up.
>
> Hope this helps... Dave
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>Hi, I need some help.
>>
>>How do I get my a drive working. Just bought a new pc,
>
> it came without a floppy drive. Installed one myself,
> cables, power e.t.c but windows XP won't find it.
>
>>Is this a XP problem??
>>Do i need to edit my BIOS setup??
>>
>>Losing my hair on this one!!
>>
>>.
>>
On most of the BIOS, the floppy drive is enabled on the first page and
it will have selections for "not installed" " 1.44meg 3.5" "1.2 meg
5.25 inch" and perhaps 720k, 360k and 2.88 meg. Set it for the one you
want. Generally the floppy should be attached to the end of the cable
with a twist in two of the leads between it and the middle connector.
The middle connector is for the second "b" floppy drive. The reason for
the twist is that floppies used to have jumpers to make them 0 or 1
(that is A or B). Actually a few had jumpers that let them be 3 or 4
also but that was rare. The twist was put in so that all floppies could
be built as if jumpered 1. The jumper, if installed could be used with
the proper cable but was usually left alone.

Make sure the pin 1 lead is right, it is usually marked with a color
thread on the lead. If you get it backwards, usually the drive light
comes on and stays on.

Often the BIOS has a place to select what will halt the post; you can
turn that on so you will get a halt and message if the floppy drive is
not found. The floppy drive needs a power lead attached. As further
test you can set the BIOS to boot from the floppy first, and then put a
floppy in. If the seek and read is correct it will come up with a
message about not a system disk and ask for one, unless of course the
floppy is bootable.

OPnce the BIOS finds it, on the next boot of XP, it should see the pass
from the BIOS and go through adding new hardware.