PCbanter - View Single Post

**J. P. Gilliver (John)[_4_]** · November 14th 17, 03:57 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

In message ,
writes:
On Tue, 14 Nov 2017 06:27:43 -0600, wrote:

I'm not used to having a floppy drive on an XP machine.
I plugged in a NEW floppy drive, which I just got in the mail. I used
that twist cable which I mentioned. (twist on drive end), and connected
the power cable. Everything is plugged in properly.

I am not seeing the A: drive in My Computer.

I am not sure where else it should show up.

I confirmed this drive works by plugging it into the existing cables
connected to the internal floppy drive and it works fine. I read, wrote
and formatted a floppy.

To clarify: your computer already had a floppy drive, and connecting the
new drive in its place, works. So how are you connecting it when it
_doesn't_ work, presumably with the (new?) cable-with-a-twist you
mention? To the same place on the motherboard as the existing one? If
the existing one has a cable with no twist, which side of the twist are
you connecting?

In XP, I went to control panel, hardware, and I can see the floppy
listed. It says it's working fine.

I went to the command line, and typed A:
It says "Invalid drive specification".

Even with a (formatted OK) floppy in?

The only thing I can think is that maybe that cable is defective???

(Possibly, though I'd have thought it wouldn't show in control panel.
Does it show a drive letter there [I presume you mean Device Manager]?
Does it show a drive letter for C: there?)

5 wire twist or 7 wire twist?
Do you have the power cable plugged it?
I did wonder that too (-:

Did you boot the machine?
Does it spin on the boot?
Good question: many BIOSes have a setting for whether it should try the
floppy on boot; turning it off saves time (and arguably wear on the
drive, though minimal). Though if there's something about that setting
that's stopping it working, I'd have expected it to stop the existing
one working, hence the question re how you're connecting the new one.

Does its light flash - on boot? When you try to access it? At any other
time?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"If just one child is saved, then we'll have created a police state for the
benefit of just one child."