Dave, changing a floppy drive is a fairly simple task, the only thing to
watch is the orientation of the red stripe on the ribbon cable, where it
connects to the floppy drive itself.

(At the motherboard end of the cable, just follow the existing orientation,
or note where the red stripes are on the CD and IDE drive ribbons.  The
floppy's red stripe will lie in the same direction)

There doesn't seem to be any coherent manufacturer's policy as to which way
around the ribbon goes on floppy drives.

On most other drives, you can count on the red striped wire (which connects
to the no.1 pin on the drive or motherboard) of the ribbon being closest to
the drive's power connector, but a floppy can be either way.

On the body of the floppy drive at the rear, have a look for a 1 or a 2
marked on the edge of it's circuit board, which should be just visible.  Or,
it may be marked somewhere near the pins themselves, ie in the pin socket.
However, you'll need a magnifying glass to read the socket numbers, they're
tiny.

The red stripe goes to this end of the connector.

However, the connector can only go one of two ways, and if you get it wrong,
all that will happen is the drive light will remain on when you boot up.
Just switch off again and reverse the ribbon.

Just a note for anyone else with a floppy that abruptly ceases to work
properly: - I've dug some odd bits of stuff out of supposedly 'sick'
floppies - sticky labels, springs and shutter covers from floppy disks, bits
of pencil lead and gum wrappers.  However, the floppy case comes apart
pretty easily, so it's often no great problem to get a 'dud' one working
again.

Generally they're very robust, but I've had several new ones that wouldn't
run out of the box.  Friday or Monday models, perhaps :--))

Ian Porter
Computer Guys Inc.
Arrowtown
New Zealand
[log in to unmask]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Schroeder"
Subject: [PCBUILD] Changing 'A' drive


I'm going to change out my A drive and have never done this before.  Does
anyone have any tips as to what 'to-do'  and what 'not to-do'?  I'm looking
forward to building my own PC in the near future and this is my first step
in building my confidence.  I've previously added a CD-RW, and have put in
and taken out sound cards, ethernet cards, etc. so I feel somewhat
comfortable tackling this.
TIA

Dave

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