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#16
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floppy drives and cables
On Wed, 15 Nov 2017 14:16:24 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote: In message , Paul writes: [] The twisted part, consists of four active signals. Two for each drive. The twist swaps the signals, so that one connector can have an A personality and the other a B personality. (Just like a CS Cable Select method.) [] I've always assumed it was that, and thought it was a clever solution (admittedly, requiring unusual cable construction). So presumably there is something like (_at the drive_): 01 - A 10 - B (or vice versa). Does that mean there is the _possibility_ of _four_ drives, using up the 00 and 11 options? This is an unusual way of doing things, and making cables like that must be difficult. I'd think it would have been easier to just have a jumper(s) on the drive, for either drive A or Drive B. But this is how they did it back then, and how it will always be. I am curious if 3 or 4 drives could be used. Not that I would need that many. I'm still trying to remember if those ZIP drives connected to the floppy cable, or to something else, like a serial port? I had one, and at the time it was the only way to store 100 megs on one drive, which at that time was a lot of data. I had one of them for a brief time, but I found they were unreliable. Flash drives sure are a better thing, now. |
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#17
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floppy drives and cables
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#19
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Hmmmm, Where is the floppy drive in XP?
wrote:
On Tue, 14 Nov 2017 21:23:38 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote: In message , writes: On Tue, 14 Nov 2017 13:58:54 -0600, wrote: [] I would have looked already, but I cant remember what key to hit to get into the bios. Its a homemade computer so looking that up may be tricky. I think I need to start putting labels on every computer saying what key needs to be pressed to go to the bios. On most, they tell you on screen during boot, especially desktops rather than laptops. (If a CRT monitor, sometimes before the monitor has warmed up, though, if it is turned on at the same time as the PC.) Sometimes hidden behind a splash screen, though _that_ usually has a "press xx to dismiss splash screen" on it somewhere. You are probably on to something. Go into BIOS setup and be sure the FDD adapter is enabled. [] Though the lack of any flash from the drive's LED makes me suspect it isn't getting power ... IT WORKS NOW. Turns out the bios was set to "NONE' for floppy drives. I changed that, and it works. It tried to boot from the floppy in that drive, which just contains a text tile. I had to remove the floppy so XP would load from the HDD. Thanks for all who helped. Is one of you who made me suspect the bios. I actually did not know floppies could be disabled in the bios. Now I do! I think all drives can be disabled in BIOS' CMOS. -- Quote of the Week: "I go out of my way to avoid stepping on ants." --Terry McGovern, daughter of Senator George and Eleanor McGovern, subject of the book "Terry by her father" Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly. /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site) / /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net | |o o| | \ _ / Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail privately. If credit- ( ) ing, then please kindly use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link. |
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