Adding a second floppy with Win 98 SE?

I have been told it is not possible to add a second floppy drive (3.5) as B: though I could have in 95? This sounds ridiculous.

They look at me and scratch their heads-- "Why?" I tell them I want to be able to copy A: to B: like I did on my old 386's, without using C: as a cache.

Is this possible or not?

TIA/Steven

 

10kc,

Who told you that?

I have had win98 and even XP with 3 1/2" and 5 1/4" drives simultaneously. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to add two 3 1/2" drives. All the motherboards I have ever owned have had support for two floppys.

The one before the twist in the cable will be B: the one after the twist will be A:

The only area of difficulty you may run into is if the power supply has two 3 1/2" floppy power connectors.

Otherwise I don't see why it would be a problem.

Cheers,

ICE

 

I am wanting to install a 3.5 in B: but when I've tried the bios says Floppy disk failure or both run on and on at the same time. Power is no problem. There are two IDE and one floppy connection(s) on the mobo which I don't know much about (told it was "Shuttle ") has AMD K6-2/350 processor. The twist--you mean use the connector on the back of the cable? I'll have to work on it LATER...haven't slept all night.

Steven

 

Steven,

Not sure I understand exacly what you were saying about floppy disk failure.

As for the cable - one end will plug into the motherboard. The other end (with the twist) should have two connectors. The connector past the twist at the end of the cable will be A: the connector before the twist will be B:

Did you enable the second floppy in the BIOS? Seems like most motherboards have the second floppy disabled by default.

Lastly, are they identical floppys? If not, the cable may not hook up in the same orientation on both drives. Look for a constantly on floppy light, that will let you know the connector needs to be flipped.

Ice.

 

OK I've got that part about the twist but B: is placed ABOVE A: as in the A: drive is mounted in the middle and B: is mounted on rails in an adapter box in the middle of the 3 bays above it. This is an AT form in an old Micron AT tower need at least 6 in of cable to clear both drives.

I can't even physically switch D: and E: w/o losing the HD but that's another story. Will look at the cable an hour or so from now.

Steven

 

I hooked the cable every way I could figure--this isn't easy and involves removing one or both CD-ROMs. The Bios said Floppy Disk Fail (40) no matter how I did it. Right now I have NO floppy drive at all because I'm not sure what I did. Please give a more detailed description so my techster at the ISP might be able to help. I don't think the cable is correct myself. If I were to be able to send you a couple jpegs of my cable collection of which the ones I believe might be it are featured, it would be a big help, but I'm not sure this forum will let me.

This cable does Not have connections on the flip side! They're all on the same side. It's a CB1024 and I have another like it I have another one marked FC-34P that will twist like you said. It's a floppy cable...perhaps that's it? The rest are IDE cables.

Steven

 

I am going to use that other cable and see if it works. I'm wondering about one or two bios settings, though. One is "Swap floppy disk..." enable/disable and the other one escapes me.

My ISP tech couldn't figure it out anyway but they DO perform a lot of repairs for their clients. It's a small telephone company with an ISP and cellphone division... "m" stands for Mutual. It sure is.

Stay tuned for the next disaster update...I'm stubborn.

Steven

 

Okay,

Key points:

Do we know that both floppys work? Are these new or are they cannablized from another machine? Need to confirm that they are working properly first.

Floppy cables are 34 pin. The interface where you plug the cable into the motherboard is also 34 pin

I think that FC-34P stands for "Floppy Cable 34 Pin" Sounds like that is the cable we should be using.

This cable should be flat - grayish and have a connector on each end and another one in between. These connectors are usually black or gray but may be some other color as well.

To hook up two floppy drives you need a cable with three connectors - One for the Motherboard - One for each of the drives.

Plug the end of the cable with only one connector into the motherboard (this should be the end without the twist) The red stripe on the cable should be on the same side as the 1 printed on the motherboard next to the floppy interface.

With two floppys on one cable it is their postions on the cable that determines A: and B: and not their physical place in the computer. So if you have a drive hooked to the end connector it will Be A:. It doesn't matter if that drive is above, below or to the side of the other floppy. If it is hooked to the end connector it will be the A: drive.

We should have two connectors left on the cable. The one preceding the twist will be B: the one after the twist (at the end) will be A: If you want a specfic drive as A: but the cable will not reach, you have two options: 1. Swap the PHYSICAL location of the drives in the computer 2. Get longer floppy cable.

Hook the drive you wish to be A: on the last connector (this should be the one after the twist). Hook the other connector to the second floppy drive. Make sure that the red stripe on the cable faces the floppies power connectors.

Hook up power to both floppies:

Restart the machine and go into the BIOS

Both floppy drives should be set to ENABLE
Don't use the swap floppy disk option

Save changes

Restart machine.

If you get a constant light on one/both of the floppy drives it means the floppy connector is hooked wrong. Shut down the computer and go to the drive that had the constant light. Disconnect the floppy cable from it and rehook the connector so the red stripe is AWAY from the power connector. If both drives have this problem - do it to both drives.

Please take a look at this link Floppy Drive Install. You can read the intructions if you wish but what I would like you to look at is Figure B. This shows a floppy cable.

In the image the end that connects th motherboard is not shown. The important thing to notice is the twist in the cable - your cable must look like this to be able to hook up two floppys.

Please also notice, the items marked Connector B: and Connector A: A floppy hooked to connector A: will always be A: no matter where it PHYSICALY sits in the machine.

If you wish to email me pictures you can use this link my email

We shouldn't be having this much trouble trying to hook up two floppies.

I don't know anything about your ISP, but I work for a local ISP and while we do look at customer's machines we don't touch anything that is not Inernet related. That sort of stuff is referred to one of the local computer stores.

Still let me know how things go.

ICE

 

Am printing all this and will show to the guy that is fixing both the computers (1GHz and 350MHz).

The Teac link did not work.

I thought I had ruined both after leaving cord in w/switch OFF but he brought them back (although the 350 is running 16MB EDO). Both now have two small hard drives and I still have to get him to reload Windows as the old settings still reside on the 3GB HD and I won't be able to successfully install the mobo driver unless I do. Never had to partition for a second HD. Let him do that--I'm through with it myself...He used donated parts and what I had and he's only charging me 1/2 hr time ($22.50) and I'll live to fight another day.

This is LeSabre I'm on and Invicta XB was what I last replied on (I name them for nice Buicks).

Steven