pctechguide.com

Floppy Installation Connection

A floppy disk drive’s connectors are at the back of the unit.

Controller connector:

Floppy

The floppy drive connector looks similar to a 40-pin IDE connector, but is a little smaller with a pin count of 34.

Round

However, as with an IDE cable, the convention is for Pin 1 on the connector to correspond with the red wire of the floppy drive ribbon.

 

This applies with rounded floppy cables – as we’re using here – as well as the more conventional floppy ribbon cable.

Motherboard

Connect the floppy drive ribbon between the drive and the the floppy drive connector on the motherboard – next to the pair of IDE controllers – making sure to similarly align the red line up with Pin 1 on the motherboard connector. These days both connectors and cables are keyed to prevent them being inserted the wrong way round.

 

A standard 5-connector floppy ribbon cable is a far more complex looking beast.

Floppy

At one end is a 34-pin header connector for connection to the motherboard floppy disk controller. In the middle and at the opposite end of the cable are two pairs of connector, each comprising a 34-pin header type connector for use with a modern day 3.5in floppy drive and a larger card edge connector – used in bygone days by older 5.25in floppy disk drives.

 

However, it is the twist in the cable that effectively reverses the signals sent by a group of seven of the cable’s wires, immediately before the end pair of connectors, that characterises a conventional floppy drive ribbon cable.

Historically, floppy drives used a drive select (DS) jumper to configure the drive as either the A: or B: drive in the system. These days floppy drives come preconfigured as :B drives and its the floppy cable itself that determines how the system sees the drive.

A drive connected to the middle connector will be seen as it’s been configured, namely as a :B drive. However, a drive connected to the end connector will effectively have it’s drive letter designation reversed by the twist in the cable, so that it’s recognised as an :A drive.

Power connector:

The small white connector to the left of the controller connector is the drive’s power connector.

Power

Connect this to a spare small female 4-pin white connector from the power supply.

Again, the connector and receptacle are keyed to prevent insertion the wrong way round.

Filed Under: How to Install a Front Loading Drive

Latest Articles

Inkjet Color Perception

Visible light falls between 380nm (violet) and 780nm (red) on the electromagnetic spectrum, sandwiched between ultraviolet and infrared. White light comprises approximately equal proportions of all the visible wavelengths, and when this shine … [Read More...]

Wireless Networks

As with the others, the technology for wireless networks has also been around for some time, achieving a measure of success during the late 1990s in a number of vertical markets, including health-care, retail and manufacturing. Home networking … [Read More...]

Guides

Recent Posts

FBI Money Pak Virus

FBI MoneyPak is a malware client that holds your computer for ransom until you pay a fine. As stated this is malware, a computer virus that infected … [Read More...]

CD-ROM White Book

The White Book, finalised in 1993, defines the VideoCD specification and comprises: Disc format including use of tracks, … [Read More...]

LP to CD Clean Up

Audacity includes many built-in effects and also lets you use plug-in effects. In general, the way these are applied is to simply select part or … [Read More...]